Best movies like Cruel Instruction
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story of 16-year-old Kayla Adams, whose mother, Karen is advised by the school’s counselor to send Kayla to get treatment at a youth residential treatment center after she gets expelled from school. Kayla arrives at the Utah facility on the same day as her roommate Amanda, a treatment program veteran who knows exactly what the girls were in for. Led by headmistress Miss Connie, the staff uses draconian methods including force-feeding medications, arbitrary punishments, solitary confinement, verbal and physical abuse to keep the students in line. After being pushed to their limits and stripped of their lifelines, including any ability to freely communicate with the outside world, the two young women must band together to survive and fight to expose the abuse before it’s too late.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 479
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Cruel Instruction (2022):
Similar in 83%
Under His Influence (2023)
Plot Summary:
A social media influencer falls for an inmate and starts a crusade to prove his innocence, but after they win his appeal, she uncovers a dark secret that changes her life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
T: Ghosts in the Machine (2017)
Plot Summary:
An interactive story, murder, mystery thriller in 3 acts revolving around the number 6 and the letter T. Two men from very different backgrounds meet and discover that they are both guided by invisible ghosts and they are in fact two machines forced to live a life haunted by an incurable condition. T is short for Tinnitus.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Catacombe (2018)
Plot Summary:
Pro soccer player Jermaine Slagter is entering his last days at his club. Outside of the field his life is falling apart.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 480
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Running Home (1999)
Plot Summary:
Thanks to a tip from teenager Matt, who survives on the streets as a graffiti artist, policeman Ray is able to arrest Sergei, a diamond smuggler. In return, Matt gets Jules Daniels's file, his biological mother.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 241
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: christian film, independent film
Similar in 84%
Our House (2006)
Plot Summary:
A lonely socialite (Roberts) opens up her mansion to homeless people after a young woman (Reyes) saves her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: powerful
Similar in 87%
Escaping My Stalker (2020)
Plot Summary:
A street kid, Taylor, has been adopted by Sandy (Alexandra Paul) & Larry. They run a shelter for people in need, and rescued Taylor from the street, and a life of crime. Unfortunately, Taylor's past may be catching up with her. She's got a stalker, and he means business. Can she figure out who's behind this, and why before her new life is snatched away?.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: enigmatic, suspense, mysterious, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2022)
Plot Summary:
This comical love story follows the story of A.J. Fikry, whose life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history and now his prized possession, a rare edition of Poe poems, has been stolen. He’s given up on people and even the books in his store offer another reminder that the world is changing too rapidly. But when a mysterious package arrives at the store, it gives Fikry the chance to make his life over and see things anew.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: romantic, romantic comedy, cute
Similar in 82%
The Price of Love (1995)
Plot Summary:
16 year old Bret lives with his indifferent father and a stepmother who abhors him. After yet another fight he leaves home. He meets two guys and a girl who are drifting around. He feels attracted to Roxanne and they decide to continue together to LA. Unfortunately Roxanne gets busted by the police, so Bret is on his own again. In LA he meets some nice guys who offer him lodging. However they are involved with (male) prostitution.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Kid-Thing (2012)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of Austin, 10-year-old Annie tears around on her BMX bike, hurls dough at cars, and smashes things up with her baseball bat. Her father, a goat-farmer-cum-demolition-derby driver, does little parenting. Annie has no friends her age, so her daily routine is filled with solitary mischief. Playing in the woods one day, she hears a woman’s plaintive call for help from an abandoned well. Though Annie feels driven to visit the well daily, she is unsure about how to deal with the woman’s plight.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 551
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: mumblecore
Similar in 79%
Torn: Dark Bullets (2020)
Plot Summary:
A raw and unapologetic look into a police shooting, racism, and the connections they share.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
El profeta Mimi (1973)
Plot Summary:
Childhood trauma and religious repression causes little boy to grow up and murder prostitutes.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 73
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Forsaken (2017)
Plot Summary:
In a rural town where football is war and the quarterback is king, comes a tense re-imagining of MACBETH with a bloody twist to prove that Lady and King Macbeth didn't kill for power - They killed for love.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 147
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 85%
My Daughter Was Stolen (2018)
Plot Summary:
A mother's worst nightmare becomes reality when her five-year-old daughter mysteriously disappears.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 85%
My Little Girl (1986)
Plot Summary:
A young girl agrees to work in a center for girls who can't stay with their parents. She gets wrapped up in the plights of several of the girls, and tries to help them, but only gets herself into trouble with her parents and supervisor.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 375
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 86%
She's No Angel (2002)
Plot Summary:
A drama and thriller story of a young woman who has suffered great abuse as a girl and who finds happiness when in a car accident, by mistake, she finds refuge in a false personality. She allows a pair of grieving parents to believe she is their late son's wife. But happiness is not so easy, since the past always comes out and Catherine will have to act to protect the family who has given so much affection.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Sitting in Limbo (1986)
Plot Summary:
The National Film Board of Canada was one of the guiding forces behind Sitting in Limbo. Fabian Gibbs plays a black Montreal college student forced to leave school when his girlfriend Pat Dillon becomes pregnant. Gibbs resents this interruption in his plans, but he becomes a very good provider. The responsibilities of parenthood, alas, irreparably damage the boy-girl relationship. Filmed in a quasidocumentary manner, Sitting in Limbo seems predestined to win film festival awards--as indeed it has.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
There Was a Little Boy (1993)
Plot Summary:
Julie and Gregg are about to become parents again, but they feel conflicted since their first child was kidnapped and never seen again. But the couple soon faces an even bigger shock. Julie's new bad-boy (really bad-boy) student may actually be her long-lost son! Based on Claire R. Jacobs's book.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Evergreen (2004)
Plot Summary:
A young girl seduced by a boy's affluent seemingly idyllic family and goes to extremes to gain acceptance.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 84%
Just for the Hell of It (1968)
Plot Summary:
A teenage gang led by the vicious Dexter; his girlfriend Mitzi; and friends Denny and Lummonx; create havoic in a small Florida town by harrassing various people, vandalizing property, well... just for the hell of it. When a former gang member, Doug, tries to prevent their ever increasing violent antics, Denny takes it upon himself and a few loyal members of the gang to target Doug's girlfriend, Jeanne, to make him back off.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 511
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, psychotronic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 83%
Mother's Milk (2013)
Plot Summary:
Claude is an easily overlooked statistics professor. After a childhood trauma left him motherless, he formed a dysfunctional craving. To satisfy the depraved hunger, he kidnaps Kim from the park and holds her captive in his basement. As the days pass and Claude’s truths are revealed, her fear slowly turns to comfort and compassion…or does it?.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 213
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, captivating, suspense
Similar in 76%
A Mother's Prayer (1995)
Plot Summary:
Rosemary Holmstrom is struggling to bring up her son following the death of her husband. When she is diagnosed with AIDS, at first she refuses to believe it, but soon turns her attentions to the problem of what will happen to her son when she dies.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 358
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Street Where We Live (2019)
Plot Summary:
"I'm just two paychecks away from being on the street." In the aftermath of the nation's financial crisis, Mary, a single mom with two kids, finds herself faced with that exact situation when the factory where she works closes their doors for good. Providing for her children and keeping the family together, while also maintaining some form of dignity in the process, proves to be the hardest job that Mary will ever have.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 157
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 85%
I Do or I Die: A Killer Arrangement (2020)
Plot Summary:
When a teenage daughter realizes her traditional Romani parents have arranged a marriage for her, she must fight for her independence — and her life.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense
Similar in 81%
Young Adult Matters (2020)
Plot Summary:
Wandering around the streets, Sejin, a pregnant teen, gets to know Juyeong and reunites with Jaepil and Sinji. The four musketeers go through a series of misfortunes, bumping into masochistic/sadistic characters and experiencing the brutality and cruelty of the world. Nevertheless, their naivety and pureness to endure through the hardships of life will stir complex emotions that will question your judgment.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 529
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Native Son (2019)
Plot Summary:
A young African-American man named Bigger Thomas takes a job working for a highly influential Chicago family, a decision that will change the course of his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: bleak, suspenseful, psychological, surprise ending, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Sugar (2013)
Plot Summary:
A 20-year-old homeless girl is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome on the streets of Hollywood and Venice beach.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
96 Minutes (2011)
Plot Summary:
The story of 4 lives slammed together in a shocking moment. Intercutting between a carjacking and the separate stories of the 4 kids, we watch as they hurtle toward a life-changing end.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, serious, psychological, realistic, independent film, tension, suspense
Similar in 85%
Hollow in the Land (2017)
Plot Summary:
With their father in prison for murder, siblings Alison and Brandon are instantly considered suspects when a string of killings plagues their town, and they must fight to clear their names.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Body Brokers (2021)
Plot Summary:
Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood, and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, spiritual, unusual plot structure
Similar in 77%
My Teacher, My Obsession (2018)
Plot Summary:
Riley is struggling to make friends after transferring to a new high school where her father, Chris, is an English teacher. When she meets Kyla, they quickly becomes close friends. However, the friendship takes a strange turn when Riley learns that Kyla is obsessed with her dad. Will Kyla successfully seduce Chris and start a twisted new life with him by removing everyone in her path, or will Riley be able to save her father from Kyla’s treacherous plot before it’s too late?.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, talky, semi serious, erotic, sexy, slasher, independent film