Best movies like Charisma
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Charisma? Contribute your knowledge to guide others toward tv series and movies you've viewed before that may also consume them. Help enlarge the circle of people referring videos between each other. We welcome your engagement!
Plot Summary:
A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychological, suspenseful, detective, surreal, action thriller, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like Charisma (1999):
Similar in 81%
Real (2013)
Plot Summary:
Koichi and Atsumi are lovers who have known each other all their lives. A year ago, however, a suicide attempt by Atsumi left her in a coma. Through 'sensing', a type of neurosurgical procedure allowing contact with the intentional aspect of a comatose patient's mind, Koishi tries to find out why Atsumi tried to kill herself, and to bring her back to consciousness. He enters her subconscious, and is told to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew when she was a child. It turns out that a childhood incident buried in their past will bring their minds together.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, surreal, mind bending, emotional, suspenseful, disturbing, romantic, gloomy, manga
Similar in 89%
The Mystery of Rampo (1994)
Plot Summary:
Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 608
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: inspirational, expressionism, erotic, psychological, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
Between (2005)
Plot Summary:
Nadine, a beautiful lawyer from Chicago, travels alone to Tijuana, Mexico in search of her missing sister. Her investigation presents unsettling encounters leading her on a mind-bender as she attempts to unravel the compelling truth.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 371
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, scary, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 89%
Exit Plan (2019)
Plot Summary:
Insurance broker Max's life is about one thing - keeping his walnut brain tumour in check. He eats properly, exercises and lives properly, but all of this self-consciousness makes him more and more depressed. When he realises that his beloved wife plans to leave him, he decides to take his own life.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, Sweden
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, dark, psychological, disturbing, suspense, surreal, weird
Similar in 83%
Mysteries (1978)
Plot Summary:
In the winter of 1891 a stranger arrives in a small coastal town on the Isle of Man. His presence soon disturbs the lives of the local inhabitants, especially the beautiful daughter of the parson.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, surprise ending, enigmatic, suspense, psychological, captivating, sexy, mind bending, realistic, sexual
Similar in 75%
Track 29 (1988)
Plot Summary:
Years after a desperate teenage Linda gives up her baby for adoption, she finds herself face-to-face with Martin, a young man claiming to be her long-lost son. Linda embraces Martin and in him finds a welcome reprieve from her unhappy marriage to the neglectful Henry. But soon Martin grows violent and becomes obsessed with Henry -- a philandering man whose only offspring is an expansive model train set that devours his waking hours.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: erotic, grindhouse, psychological, atmospheric, mind bending, serious, realistic, surreal, disturbing, non-linear
Similar in 77%
Ten Days Wonder (1971)
Plot Summary:
Anthony Perkins, a young sculptor with a weird penchant for waking up in strange hotels with his memory wiped clean and bloodied hands, invites a former professor (Michel Piccoli) to the Gatsby-like provincial manor presided over by his powerful tycoon father (Orson Welles). Welcomed by Welles' young wife (Marlene Jobert), Piccoli soon finds a nest of rats beneath the bourgeoisie voluptuousness -- a clan bound in a circle of illicit romance, blackmail, faked burglaries and, of course, murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 969
Genere: Mystery, Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, mind bending, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Siddhartha (1972)
Plot Summary:
Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin and his search for a meaningful way of life. His journey takes him through periods of harsh asceticism, sensual pleasures, material wealth, self-revulsion and eventually to the oneness and harmony that he had been seeking. The story is based on the best-selling novel by German Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: India, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: spiritual, philosophical, road movie, dramatic, surreal, existential, independent film, psychological, atmospheric, serious
Similar in 86%
Eureka (2000)
Plot Summary:
In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, a school girl, and her older brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 217 min
Plot tags: bleak, psychological, enigmatic, lyrical, sincere, road movie, depressing, captivating, slow cinema, existential
Similar in 76%
At the Gate of the Ghost (2011)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from Japanese film called Rashomon, U Mong Pa Meung (The Outrage) takes place in a wood during Thai’s Lanna period where a mysterious murder happens. The story is told through three witnesses: a young monk, woodcutter and undertaker.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 406
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Thailand
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspenseful, atmospheric, mind bending, serious, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 83%
Missing Pieces (2012)
Plot Summary:
A heartbroken man kidnaps two strangers in hopes they will fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, surreal, suspense, psychological, touching, captivating, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 90%
Interstate 84 (2000)
Plot Summary:
When a body is found floating in an upstate New York river, hard-drinking cop Joe Weldon is left with few clues. After uncovering the man's identity - an enigmatic simpleton named Hap - Weldon is led to the crooked hustler who took advantage of Hap and the disturbed, young punk who tormented him. A tale of personal demons, shattered lives, and ultimate redemption.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, tense, touching, suspenseful, contemplative, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 89%
Moss (2010)
Plot Summary:
Hae Gook (Park Hae Il) travels to a reclusive village to attend his father's funeral. He wants to find out the reason behind his father's strange death, but the villagers, in particular village chief Cheon (Jung Jae Young), seem to be watching his every move and eager to see him leave. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Hae Gook enlists the help of prosecutor Park (Yoo Jun Sang) to slowly unravel the village's sinister secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, captivating, suspenseful, mind twisting, psychological, mind bending, action thriller, rough, serious
Similar in 77%
The Rapture (1991)
Plot Summary:
A lonely telephone operator leading an empty, amoral life finds God — only to have her faith continually tested in ways beyond what she could have imagined.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, psychological, biblical, philosophical, stylized, talky, thought provoking, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
The Clearing (2004)
Plot Summary:
When affluent executive, Wayne Hayes is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee and held for ransom in a forest, Wayne’s wife is forced to reckon with the FBI agents as they negotiate with the kidnapper.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, intense, serious, contemplative, psychological, psychotronic, detective, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 87%
Into the White Night (2010)
Plot Summary:
A pawn shop owner in Osaka is murdered, but due to a lack of conclusive evidence the police lists the man's death as a suicide. Detective Sasagaki, who investigated the case, can't forget the dark eyes of the main suspect's daughter Yukiho and the pawn shop owner's son Ryouji. As time goes by, more mysterious deaths surround Yukiho & Ryouji. Detective Sasagaki still unable to let go of the pawn shop owner case discovers startling details about Yukiho and Ryouji.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 490
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 149 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, serious, psychological, captivating, twisted, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
The Dead Will Tell (2004)
Plot Summary:
Emily Parker is haunted by visions of a woman from the past soon after receiving an antique engagement ring from her fiancé.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 739
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspenseful, tense, mind bending
Similar in 82%
The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha (2005)
Plot Summary:
A group of young girls are brought up in a college within dark forests and gloomy lakes. Young Hidalla and her friends Irene, Vera, Blanka, Melusine and Rain are brought up in an isolated world: the girls don't know anything about live outside the college's high walls. At the age of 16, some of them start asking questions about their origins, their parents and the true purposes of the Headmistresses strict rules. When two of them disappear mysteriously, the initial fairytale atmosphere grows more and more eerie.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy, UK, Czech Republic
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, suspenseful, erotic, sexy, fairy tale, serious, independent film, suspense
Similar in 85%
Distance (2001)
Plot Summary:
On the eighth anniversary of a cult's failed chemical attack on Tokyo and their subsequent mass suicide, family members of those affected gather at the cult's former base on the shores of a lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, serious, atmospheric, mind bending, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
L'Immortelle (1963)
Plot Summary:
A sad man meets a beautiful, secretive woman who may or may not be involved in some conspiracy ring dealing in kidnapped women used as prostitutes. After several days of their sadly passionate relationship she disappears. The sad man is unable to locate her as all the local Turkish people pretend not to remember any such woman. He suddenly finds her again (she finds him?) and before she can explain her disappearance she is killed in a car crash while he is in the passenger seat. He replays the accident over and over in his mind trying to remember how she died if he caused the accident himself by grabbing the wheel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France, Italy, Turkey
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, experimental, avant garde, psychological, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic
Similar in 87%
The Castle (1997)
Plot Summary:
Michael Haneke's adaptation of Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Das Schloss. K arrives in a remote village a stranger. In attempting to establish himself there, he enters the nightmarish world of the castle bureaucracy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Austria, Germany, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: mind twisting, mind bending, allegory, cerebral, psychological, atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, surreal
Similar in 83%
The Moustache (2005)
Plot Summary:
One day, on a whim, Marc decides to shave off the moustache he's worn all of his adult life. He waits patiently for his wife's reaction, but neither she nor his friends seem to notice. Stranger still, when he finally tells them, they all insist he never had a moustache. Is Marc going mad? Is he the victim of some elaborate conspiracy? Or has something in the world's order gone terribly awry?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, mindfuck, cerebral, mind bending, meditative, serious, disturbing, art house, mind twisting
Similar in 90%
Seance (2000)
Plot Summary:
A psychic housewife and her husband become burdened with a kidnapped girl who escaped her assailant. Junko will not let her husband call the hospital or the police for purely selfish reasons. The girl dies while still in their house and her ghost begins to haunt the couple.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, scary, psychological, serious, suspenseful, gothic, thrilling
Similar in 87%
Retribution (2006)
Plot Summary:
A detective investigates a series of murders. A possible serial killer might be on a rampage, since they all are in the same vicinity and by the same method, but as the evidence points toward the detective as the prime suspect, a ghost in red follows him, and he begins to question his identity. His realization of what seems to have really happened results in something much more sinister and larger in scope, and it leaves his psyche scarred.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: scary, psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, suspense, slasher, disturbing, detective, crime drama, cult classic
Similar in 90%
Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994)
Plot Summary:
Two thousand miles from home, Jim and Jennifer Stolpa (with baby Clayton) lose their way and are stranded in an endless wilderness of deep snow, battling for survival against the elements. Using only meager supplies and resourcefulness, the young couple struggles to keep themselves and their infant son alive in a frozen shelter while awaiting rescue. Realizing they won't be found, Jim ultimately strikes out on a courageous 50-mile mission, determined to reach help and return to save his loved ones in this exciting and moving true story. Written by Anonymous.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
The Eel (1997)
Plot Summary:
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, captivating, psychological, touching, independent film, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Pulse (2001)
Plot Summary:
After one of their friends commits suicide, strange things begin happening to a group of young Tokyo residents. One of them sees visions of his dead friend in the shadows on the wall, while another's computer keeps showing strange, ghostly images. Is their friend trying to contact them from beyond the grave, or is there something much more sinister going on?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: scary, psychological, suspenseful, dark, disturbing, atmospheric, frightening, philosophical, suspense, cerebral
Similar in 80%
Wrecked (2010)
Plot Summary:
A man awakens in a car wreck at the bottom of a steep cliff. He can't remember who he is or how he got there, but a report over the radio fills in some of the blanks, as it describes a violent bank robbery and names a perpetrator who happens to be sitting dead in the back seat.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, clever, captivating, minimal cast, psychological thriller, twisted, atmospheric, mind bending, sad
Similar in 77%
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Plot Summary:
This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost. It is bitterly cold weather — without snow. Even in this bewildered cold hundreds of people are standing around the circus tent, which is put up in the main square, to see — as the outcome of their wait — the chief attraction, the stuffed carcass of a real whale. The people are coming from everywhere. From the neighboring settlings, even from quite far away parts of the country. They are following this clumsy monster as a dumb, faceless, rag-wearing crowd. This strange state of affairs — the appearance of the foreigners, the extreme frost — disturbs the order of the small town. Ambitious personages of the story feel they can take advantage of this situation. The tension growing to the unbearable is brought to explosion by the figure of the Prince, who is pretending facelessness. Even his mere appearance is enough to break loose destructive emotions.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Hungary, Italy, Germany, France
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: bleak, contemplative, serious, allegory, psychological, slow cinema, tense, atmospheric, suspenseful, futuristic
Similar in 86%
The Cure (1997)
Plot Summary:
A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, scary, tense, enigmatic, suspenseful, disturbing, neo noir, surreal, detective