Best movies like Oedipus Rex
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Edipo (Oedipus), and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Edipo that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Morocco
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, psychedelic, spiritual, epic, neorealism, tense, atmospheric, bleak, serious
Best tv shows and movies like Oedipus Rex (1967):
Similar in 84%
Phaedra (1962)
Plot Summary:
A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, France, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 79%
Wolfy (2009)
Plot Summary:
There are two of them: a mother and a girl. They have no names. And they are in a constant run. The mother runs away from the daughter in an attempt to start new life, and the girl runs after her mother as she has no idea how to live without her. This endless run is full with repeated mistakes and resembles a barrel-organ sorrowful song or a spinning-top rotation. This small ridiculous toy "volchok" was the first toy in the girl's life, the only thing that tied her with the mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, serious, tense, disturbing, neorealism, gloomy, bleak, art house, weird
Similar in 85%
Iphigenia (1977)
Plot Summary:
The Greek army is about to set sail to a great battle, but the winds refuse to blow. Their leader, King Agamemnon, seeks to provide better food, but accidentally slays a sacred deer. His punishment from the gods, the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy, tragic
Similar in 89%
Antigone (1961)
Plot Summary:
In Thebes in ancient Greece, King Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother Jocasta, having two sons - Eteocles and Polyneices - and two daughters - Ismene and Antigone. King Oedipus dies a beggar in the exile after gouging out his own eye, and Eteocle agrees to reign in Thebes in alternating years with Polynices. However, he refuses to resign after the first year and Polynieces raises an army and attacks Thebes, and they kill each other. The ruler of Thebes Creon decrees that Eleocles should have an honorable burial while the body of the traitor Polyneices should be left on the battlefield to be eaten by the jackals and vultures. However, Antigone, who was betrothed to Creon's surviving son Haemon, defies Creon's orders and buries her brother. When Creon is reported of the attitude of Antigone, he sentences her to be placed in a tomb alive. Antigone hangs herself in the tomb and Haemon tries to kill his father first and then he kills himself with his sword.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Electra (1962)
Plot Summary:
Living in exile after the death of their father, the grown children of a murdered and usurped king converge to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: retro, spiritual, epic, rough, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Trojan Women (1971)
Plot Summary:
The women of Troy face enslavement after the fall of their city.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: epic, independent film, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 76%
Medea (1988)
Plot Summary:
It is an adaptation of the Greek tragedy Medea from Euripides, a version where the Gods willing and intervations are absent. Medea is the tragic character that after helping Jason in the Voyage of the Argonauts (myth says that she has even sacrificed her own brother for Jason's success), she gets from him only betrayal, as he arranges to marry the King's of Corinth daughter. The king decides to exile Medea, as she is a danger for his daughter happiness, but Medea asks from him just a day… before she goes outside the borders. That day Medea gets her revenge….
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: serious, spiritual, art house, mythical, visual, sincere, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Porcile (1969)
Plot Summary:
Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, experimental, erotic, art house, art film, cult classic, avant garde, atmospheric, clever
Similar in 77%
King Lear (1970)
Plot Summary:
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Medea (1969)
Plot Summary:
Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: spiritual, fairy tale, psychedelic, epic, surreal, neorealism, fantasy adventure, cult classic, serious, talky
Similar in 82%
Mamma Roma (1962)
Plot Summary:
After many years working in the streets of Roma, the middle-age whore Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) saves money to buy an upper class apartment, a fruit stand and retires from the prostitution. She brings her teenage son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo), who was raised alone in the country, to live with her, and Ettore becomes her pride and joy. However, the boy that does not want to study or work, joins to idle friends, has a crush on a bitch, and Mamma Roma uses her best but limited efforts to straight Ettore and make him an honest man. However, her past haunts her with tragic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: neorealism, serious, realistic, art house, sad, emotional, social, gloomy, independent film, road movie
Similar in 88%
King Lear (1983)
Plot Summary:
An aging King invites disaster when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters and rejects his one loving, but honest one.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 853
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 84%
The Scrounger (1961)
Plot Summary:
A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: neorealism, realistic, serious, disturbing, talky, sentimental, atmospheric, psychological, rough, erotic
Similar in 82%
The Dinner (2014)
Plot Summary:
Story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble together, how will the parents relationships change with and among each other? Will the parents protect the kids or force them to face the consequences of their actions?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, tense, talky, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
90 Minutes (2012)
Plot Summary:
Director Eva Sørhaug (Cold Lunch) reveals the rage and violence lurking beneath seemingly tranquil domesticity in her bold and uncompromising sophomore feature.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, contemplative, hot
Similar in 84%
Miss Violence (2013)
Plot Summary:
On the day of her birthday, eleven-year-old Angeliki jumps off the balcony and falls to her death with a smile on her face. While the police and Social Services try to discover the reason for this apparent suicide, Angeliki's family keep insisting that it was an accident. What is the secret that young Angeliki took with her? Why does her family persist in trying to "forget" her and to move on with its life?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, suspenseful, serious, erotic, offbeat, bleak, suspense, controversial, art house
Similar in 77%
Teorema (1968)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger (Terence Stamp) arrives, makes love to every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: surreal, allegory, erotic, disturbing, controversial, art house, mind bending, psychedelic, depressing, experimental
Similar in 84%
That Lovely Girl (2014)
Plot Summary:
Moshe and Tami are a couple, Moshe is in his fifties and Tami is in her early twenties. They live together in a cruel and violent relationship, from which Tami seems unable to set herself free. Tami and Moshe are father and daughter.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, psychological, bleak, disturbing, erotic, rough, realistic
Similar in 76%
Redland (2009)
Plot Summary:
As a family struggles to survive in rural isolation during the Great Depression, their daughter's secret affair begins a journey into the unknown.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, rough, serious, disturbing, mystic, tense, bleak, realistic, independent film, epic
Similar in 80%
Accused (2005)
Plot Summary:
On the surface Henrik and Nina Christofferson are an ordinary family living happily. But they have a problem. Their daughter, Stine, a difficult 14 year old, has a habit of telling lies in class. When Stine accuses her father of sexual abuse, and is believed by seemingly eager social workers, their family is thrust into crisis. Could Henrik have done it? And when Stine prepares to return home, the ugly side of family life is exposed.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, bleak, serious, gloomy, depressing, sexual, realistic, sexy
Similar in 77%
Ostia (1970)
Plot Summary:
Two anarchistic brothers live by petty thievery and try to recover from their Catholic upbringing. Bandiera (Laurent Terzieff) and Rabbino (Franco Citti) were children when they pushed their drunk of a father out of a window for killing their pet sheep. When a girl is raped by her father, she is brought by young "rescuers" to the home of the two brothers who then watch their friends take advantage of her sexually. The brothers take her in, and the three live happy and celibate if not uneventful lives until the brother's are sent to jail for stealing.The ending has a real life resemblance and makes you wonder, what P.P. had foreseen.. Screenplay, Davoli, Franco and Sergio Citti, aesthetics etc.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film, black comedy
Similar in 83%
Little Boy Blue (1997)
Plot Summary:
Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who look a lot like their brother. The dad harbors a secret, and he goes to murderous lengths to keep it hidden. The young man, Jimmy, who has suspicions, but little comes out until a Yankee woman comes to town.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspense, bleak, sexy, explicit, realistic, crying, independent film
Similar in 89%
Delta (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man comes home to meet his mother and sister after many years away. He finds his mother living with a new boyfriend, and his sister to be grown-up. He begins to settle down in this new place by building a new home for himself on the delta. But when his sister moves in with him and the two begin a romance, there are tragic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, erotic, bleak, stylized, gloomy, sexual, independent film
Similar in 77%
Privates Lives (2001)
Plot Summary:
Carmen Uranga is a 42 year-old woman who after 20 years jurisdiction of her native country (Argentina), she returns to solve a family problem related with the inheritance that her sick father wants to leave him. Their return trip results in the unavoidable memories of the torture that that was object during the dictatorship and a dramatic revelation.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Plot Summary:
Jesus, a humble Judean carpenter beginning to see that he is the son of God, is drawn into revolutionary action against the Roman occupiers by Judas -- despite his protestations that love, not violence, is the path to salvation. The burden of being the savior of mankind torments Jesus throughout his life, leading him to doubt. As he is put to death on the cross, Jesus is tempted by visions of an ordinary life married to Mary Magdalene.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 62000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 164 min
Plot tags: controversial, psychological, biblical, epic, melancholic, talky, atmospheric, serious, spiritual, sincere
Similar in 83%
The Centurion (1961)
Plot Summary:
Protests break out in Corinth against Roman domination, injuring Caius Vinicius, a Roman centurion. He's rescued by Hebe -- daughter of the anti-Roman governor, Critolaus -- who's being unsuccessfully wooed by the governor's second-in-command, the villainous Diaeus. Smitten, Hebe sends the handsome Roman to recuperate at the home of Callicrates, a political moderate. Artemide, wife of Callicrates, also falls for Caius Vinicus but when he spurns her, she has him arrested and imprisoned. Hebe then agrees to marry Diaeus if he will spare the Roman's life but Caius Vinicius is soon freed by Callicrates and his allies, just as a Roman army arrives to battle Corinthian forces.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 147
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Hamlet (1990)
Plot Summary:
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, compassionate, bleak, psychological, serious, disturbing, costume drama, fairy tale, stylized
Similar in 89%
Thursday Till Sunday (2012)
Plot Summary:
As she and her family embark on a short vacation, a Chilean teenager slowly comes to the realization that her parents might be splitting up.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, Netherlands
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, sentimental, touching, serious, bleak, emotional, realistic, road movie, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Savage Grace (2007)
Plot Summary:
This examination of a famous scandal from the 1970s explores the relationship between Barbara Baekeland and her only son, Antony. Barbara, a lonely social climber unhappily married to the wealthy but remote plastics heir Brooks Baekeland, dotes on Antony, who is homosexual. As Barbara tries to "cure" Antony of his sexuality -- sometimes by seducing him herself -- the groundwork is laid for a murderous tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Spain, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sexy, erotic, emotional, controversial, talky, psychological, intense, sincere, serious
Similar in 81%
Troy (2004)
Plot Summary:
In year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age, two emerging nations begin to clash. Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnom to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles, the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 561000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Malta, UK
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, heroic, realistic, period piece, rough, serious, stylized, factual, costume drama