Best movies like Syndrome
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A man is diagnosed terminally ill and having only a limited time to live he decides to inflict pain and suffering on an ex-girlfriend in an attempt to teach her the value of life.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, suspense, suspenseful, captivating, disturbing, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Syndrome (2004):
Similar in 89%
The Man Who Surprised Everyone (2018)
Plot Summary:
Egor Korshunov (40) is a Siberian forest guard who works in a local environmental company, fighting fearlessly against poachers in taiga. Egor is a great family man, respected by his fellow villagers. He and his wife Natalia are expecting a second child. Unexpectedly, Egor finds out that he has terminal cancer and has only two months left to live. No traditional medicine or shamanic magic can save Egor. Finally, left with no other options, he decides to take the last desperate step. He attempts to completely change his identity in order to fool the oncoming death, just like Zhamba the drake, the hero of a legendary ancient Siberian epos, did.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 950
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia, France, Estonia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sad, lyrical, melancholic, rough, psychological, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Art History (2011)
Plot Summary:
Tension mounts between a director and his lead actress on the set of a sexually explicit low-budget film. As the actress and her co-star develop real feelings for each other, the director's jealousy erupts and he begins sabotaging his own production.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 413
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, psychological, captivating, disturbing, sensual, independent film
Similar in 79%
Who Never Lived (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young, charismatic priest John, his time missionary in Africa, every day helping Warsaw young people addicted to drugs. Unconventional methods, which are used in pastoral work, raise many doubts about his superiors. Surprisingly, however, his life undergoes a sudden transformation when routine testing finds out that he is HIV positive.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Day and Night (2010)
Plot Summary:
An unreservedly matter-of-fact look at two young women who consider prostitution an adventure until reality catches up with them.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 495
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, hot
Similar in 83%
Lazaro's Girlfriend (2002)
Plot Summary:
Lazarus is a Cuban appeal that makes a living in Madrid. When his girlfriend Dolores travels from Cuba to Spain to live with him, he is in prison for kidnapping and attempted rape. Dolores tries to survive with a broken heart, but his sympathy and sensuality will make adjusting to life in Madrid and try to exceed the Lazarus drug addiction.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 85
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, erotic
Similar in 87%
Blood (2004)
Plot Summary:
After not having seen each other in five years, Chris Terry goes to visit his younger sister Noelle Terry in Montréal. Their lives, both together and apart, have been turbulent ones with something toxic having affected the way they interact with each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 439
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, disturbing, erotic, sexy
Similar in 83%
Fighting Fish (2010)
Plot Summary:
When David's sister returns home after a long absence, their complicated past comes back to haunt them.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Ana's Desire (2019)
Plot Summary:
Ana and her son Mateo live in a middle class apartment in Mexico City. The family routine takes a turn when Juan arrives to visit them after several years of absence. The reunion unleashes memories and secrets of their past that Ana will have to confront in order to find, at last, the peace of mind that has been lacking for so long.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Communication & Lies (2015)
Plot Summary:
A film about a man and one woman who do absurdly crazy things. But although their shocking behaviors are outrageous, but it remains not just as some spectacles. When the communication between two comes to fail, it suddenly arouses subtle sorrows.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, crying
Similar in 78%
Shanghai Belle (2011)
Plot Summary:
The destinies of five young women from all over the world intertwine in Paris as they embark on a roller-coaster ride of extremes in their search for love, sex and money. Based upon true stories, Shanghai Belle tells the destiny of five young women who all go through 'hell' to finally receive an unexpected redemption. Each of them states her intimate confessions through daily diaries. They experiment a journey on the 'edge'. The result of which is the loss of their innocence.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 84
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Perfect Education 6 (2004)
Plot Summary:
Fumiya owes 5 million yen to a female load shark for a gambling debt, while having affair an with Mrs. Hosoi who offers him 5 million to murder her husband. Fumiya has no choice but to kill Mr. Hosoi. Unfortunately he's see by a neighbor. In the escape, he meets a girl named Akiko. He hides in her house. Later on, Fumiya and Akiko fall in love and have sex. After that, he finds that the house owner Shin kidnapped Akiko whem she was a little girl and has kept her in the house for over a decade. Fumiya is determined to take her away from Shin's brutal confinement. A battle of wills between jailer, prisoner and accidental savior begins….
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Artist's Wife (2019)
Plot Summary:
Claire Smythson, wife of the renowned abstract artist Richard Smythson, is plunged into a late-life crisis when her husband is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and is in danger of not completing the paintings for his final show.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 324
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
The Animal's Wife (2016)
Plot Summary:
Colombian director Víctor Gaviria melds stark realism with nail-biting thrills in this story about a teenage girl who is kidnapped and forced into marriage with a ferocious shantytown thug.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
The Belly of the Sea (2021)
Plot Summary:
June, 1816. A French navy frigate ran aground on a sandbar off the coast of Senegal. Attempts to free the board were futile - the crew had no choice but to abandon ship. Since the available boats were not enough to accommodate the entire crew, the team built a raft. It accommodated 147 people: soldiers, sailors, several passengers and officers. The plan was for the boats to tow the raft. But the cable broke and the raft drifted into the open sea. For those who were on the raft, a harsh and cruel struggle for life began.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 275
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Two (2021)
Plot Summary:
Two people, a man and a woman, wake up naked and with their abdomens attached to each other.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, surreal
Similar in 79%
Daniel and Ana (2009)
Plot Summary:
Being kidnapped shatters a brother and sister's harmony, forcing them to confront their desires.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, sincere, erotic, offbeat, controversial, sexual, eros, disturbing, tense
Similar in 78%
Love Actually... Sucks! (2011)
Plot Summary:
Love Actually... Sucks! was inspired by real-life events, and opens with a dramatic wedding feast. It tells a variety of stories about love that has gone wrong: a brother and sister in an illicit relationship, a married painter who falls in love with his young male life model, a dance school teacher who is besotted with his senior student, and a lesbian couple, one of whom has role-play paranoia, and is caught in a complex love triangle. The film celebrates the belief that life is love.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 516
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: suspense, erotic, psychological, rough, disturbing, sexy
Similar in 80%
Gisela (2005)
Plot Summary:
Gisela is a young wife and mother, living in a working class German Housing Scheme. She is a supermarket cashier, her husband a delivery driver. The marriage is stale but together they are working their way up into the middle class. George and Gisela evidently knew each other as teenagers. They live on the same scheme and George introduces her to his friend Paul. There is instant mutual attraction. Gisela spontaneously goes to a party that they invite her to that evening, where she and Paul begin a sexual relationship.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Otilia Rauda (2001)
Plot Summary:
Otilia is both blessed with a body that is the epitome of feminine perfection and cursed by an ugly mole that mars her beautiful face. The juxtaposition between fabulous beauty and disfigurement proves unsettling for the villagers and she grows up friendless, save the family's hired hand Melquíades. Though most figured she would end up as a prostitute, she is married off to Isidro, the local police chief. Cruel and petty, this ogre of a man brutalizes her and eventually infects her with venereal disease, rendering her sterile. With the help of Melquíades, Otilia takes a series of lovers to spite her husband. One day, the wounded Ruben -- a wanted outlaw -- staggers onto her doorstep and immediately she is in love. Much to Melquíades' chagrin, she harbors and tends to the criminal as her husband is out hunting for him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Children of the Salt (2018)
Plot Summary:
An old man, in the agony of death, asks his children to cremate his body and scatter the ashes in the sea. Willing to fulfill the last wish of the elderly, as a rite of passage the youngsters unknowingly transgress the traditions of their father. From that moment on the boys will have to assume roles that are not theirs, faced with everyday life.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 76
Genere: Drama
Country: Venezuela
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
How to Draw a Perfect Circle (2009)
Plot Summary:
Guilherme and Sofia, brother and sister, grow up sharing experiences and slowly discovering their sexuality. The thing that Sofia doesn't know is how far Guilherme will go to keep her inside his own perverse, dark and perfect circle.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 882
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychological, captivating, thought provoking, offbeat, sexual, eros, emotional, sexy, hot
Similar in 82%
Against the Wind (1990)
Plot Summary:
Juan flees Madrid and an incestuous relationship with his sister, Ana, working at a mine on the Andalucian coast. When his friendship with Rosario, a local shop girl, becomes romance, Ana shows up wanting to rekindle their affair. He resists at first, but she stays, asserting that Juan is the only man she can ever love. Juan distances himself from Rosario. The mine has problems: high cancer rates in the area caused by poorly stored radioactive waste. A foreign safety engineer, Petersen, tries to connect with Ana, is rebuffed, but lets her stay in his sea-front bungalow. Juan seeks her out to demand she leave, only to argue with Petersen. Death, desire, and longing play out.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: manga
Similar in 83%
Adrift (2001)
Plot Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Sammy has recently become aware of desires she awakens in men but one man to whom she is herself attracted is her older brother Jacob. With an institutionalized father and a mother neither sibling has seen for years, Jacob provides for the household through his trade in meat declared unfit for human consumption. This situation has sufficed for years but the dedication with which Jacob watches over his little sister leaves her no room to mature as a woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 345
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense
Similar in 90%
Illegitimate (2016)
Plot Summary:
At the dinner table one night, a close-knit Romanian family is upset by a startling revelation.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, Poland, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, touching, psychological, melancholic, contemplative, visually appealing
Similar in 76%
Rieke's Love (2001)
Plot Summary:
A young figure-skater becomes jealous when her brother, also a young figure-skater, falls for another young female figure-skater. She thought she was all that he needs.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, bleak, captivating, erotic
Similar in 89%
Shameless (2012)
Plot Summary:
In an incendiary story of love, desire, and betrayal between siblings, the rebellious young Tadek returns to sister Anka’s home in search of solace and affection. Bound together by a painful shared family history, brother and sister must find a way to break free in order to survive. This formidable debut fearlessly yet tenderly explores one of society’s last taboos.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, captivating, erotic, sexy, suspense
Similar in 75%
Torn Apart (2006)
Plot Summary:
The story of a love relationship between a brother and sister and an eventual breakup that will forever change their lives.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 246
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, touching, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Kissing My Sister (2000)
Plot Summary:
Teen brother and sister who rarely get to see each other fall in love with one another one summer.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 277
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychological, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, captivating, eros
Similar in 75%
Grand Jeté (2022)
Plot Summary:
Dance teacher and mother Nadja left her son Mario with her own mother when he was little. Now she has reappeared on his doorstep, seeking a closeness that knows fewer and fewer boundaries. An uncompromising film about family relationships.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 670
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, erotic
Similar in 84%
Chain Reaction (2017)
Plot Summary:
Marta's surprise birthday party sets in motion a spiral of tragic events.
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing