Best movies like The Last Wave
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
White Australian lawyer David Burton agrees with reluctance to defend a group of aborigines charged with murdering one of their own. He suspects the victim was targeted for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of water, slowly realizes danger may come from his own involvement with the aborigines and their prophecies.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: surreal, cerebral, lovecraft, psychological, atmospheric, philosophical, mind bending, disturbing, dark fantasy, psychedelic
Best tv shows and movies like The Last Wave (1977):
Similar in 78%
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 86%
Irresistible (2006)
Plot Summary:
A wife and mother is consumed by the thought that her husband's co-worker is trying to win him away from her and their family.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: scary, serious, psychological, tense, suspenseful, slasher, surprise ending, crying
Similar in 88%
Photographing Fairies (1997)
Plot Summary:
Photographer Charles Castle is numbed with grief following the death of his beautiful bride. He goes off to war, working in the trenches as a photographer. Following the war and still in grief Charles is given some photographs purporting to be of fairies. His search for the truth leads him to Burkinwell, a seemingly peaceful village seething with secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, spiritual, mystic, grindhouse, esoteric, independent film, atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 80%
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)
Plot Summary:
A collection of magical tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, anthology, philosophical, cerebral, mind bending, art film, spiritual, artsy, visually appealing
Similar in 87%
Birth (2004)
Plot Summary:
It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, controversial, sexy, enigmatic, melancholic, disturbing, artsy, art house, cerebral
Similar in 82%
Blow-Up (1966)
Plot Summary:
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he accidentally captures on film the commission of a murder. The fact that he has photographed a murder does not occur to him until he studies and then blows up his negatives, uncovering details, blowing up smaller and smaller elements, and finally putting the puzzle together.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 66000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: surreal, cerebral, independent film, art house, psychological thriller, stylized, erotic, visual, atmospheric, mind bending
Similar in 87%
The Lighthouse (2019)
Plot Summary:
The story of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 245000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspense, minimal cast, psychological, mysterious, lovecraft, gothic horror, disturbing, psychological thriller, black and white, gothic
Similar in 80%
The Nines (2007)
Plot Summary:
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, confusing, mindfuck, thought provoking, surreal, cerebral, mind bending, psychological thriller, mind blowing
Similar in 76%
Inland Empire (2006)
Plot Summary:
An actress's perception of reality becomes increasingly distorted as she finds herself falling for her co-star in a remake of an unfinished Polish production that was supposedly cursed.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Poland, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, enigmatic, atmospheric, experimental, psychedelic, serious, mindfuck, mind bending, confusing
Similar in 87%
The Trial (1962)
Plot Summary:
An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: surreal, black and white, psychological, disturbing, visually appealing, cerebral, philosophical, neo noir, psychological thriller, atmospheric
Similar in 81%
The Seventh Sign (1988)
Plot Summary:
Abby is a pregnant woman with a curious new boarder in the apartment over her garage. Turns out he's heaven-sent and is speeding along the Apocalypse by bloodying rivers, egging on plagues and following scripture word for word.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspense, biblical, scary, psychological, tense, bleak, serious, light, bad ending, apocalyptic
Similar in 77%
These Final Hours (2013)
Plot Summary:
What would you do on the last day on Earth? With the end of the world only hours away, the self-absorbed James heads to the ultimate party-to-end-all-parties. On his way there, he saves the life of a young girl named Rose who is searching desperately for her missing father. This simple act sets James on a path to redemption.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, suspense, apocalyptic, atmospheric, serious, grindhouse, emotional, philosophical, touching, offbeat
Similar in 78%
Blindness (2008)
Plot Summary:
When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Brazil, Canada, Japan, UK, Italy
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, bleak, disturbing, depressing, intense, suspenseful, allegory, serious, suspense, stylized
Similar in 86%
Don't Look Now (1973)
Plot Summary:
After Laura and John Baxter lose their only child in a horrible drowning, they are greeted by strange sightings of her throughout their everyday lives. When two old ladies approach them in Italy with news that their daughter may still be alive, it seems too good to be true. Perhaps it is.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: suspense, twist ending, disturbing, atmospheric, sexy, suspenseful, psychological, surreal, erotic, gothic
Similar in 89%
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Plot Summary:
With the disappearance of hack horror writer Sutter Cane, all Hell is breaking loose...literally! Author Cane, it seems, has a knack for description that really brings his evil creepy-crawlies to life. Insurance investigator John Trent is sent to investigate Cane's mysterious vanishing act and ends up in the sleepy little East Coast town of Hobb's End.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 78000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, surreal, atmospheric, gothic, neo noir, suspense, lovecraft, scary, suspenseful, dark
Similar in 86%
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Plot Summary:
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 103000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, dark, atmospheric, psychedelic, mind bending, avant garde, cerebral, scary, art house
Similar in 87%
The Witch (2015)
Plot Summary:
In 1630s New England, William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life with five children, homesteading on the edge of an impassable wilderness, exiled from their settlement when William defies the local church. When their newborn son vanishes and crops mysteriously fail, the family turns on one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 291000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: disturbing, atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, scary, gothic, psychological, suspense, satanic, enigmatic
Similar in 89%
Alexandra's Project (2003)
Plot Summary:
Steve is a man who has it all, a successful career, wonderful children, beautiful home and a loving wife. However, returning to his home after work on his birthday, he finds his house deserted and darkened with almost all the lightbulbs missing, all easy access outside cut off and a videotape waiting for him. Playing that tape, he watches a bizarre and grueling recording in which his wife explains her grievance with him, her reasons for disappearing with the children and her revenge for how he treated her in a way he would never forget.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, suspenseful, bleak, enigmatic, captivating, controversial, art house, twisted, tense
Similar in 77%
Hidden (2005)
Plot Summary:
A married couple is terrorized by a series of videotapes planted on their front porch.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Austria, Germany, Italy
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, psychological thriller, art house, surreal, tense, neo noir, clever, bleak, confusing
Similar in 86%
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Plot Summary:
A hotshot lawyer gets more than he bargained for when he learns his new boss is Lucifer himself.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 395000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: psychological, twist ending, suspenseful, surprise ending, atmospheric, clever, satanic, scary, serious, ambiguous ending
Similar in 86%
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Australia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: scenic, atmospheric, surreal, stylized, psychological, art house, breathtaking, melancholic, meditative, period piece
Similar in 87%
Enter the Void (2009)
Plot Summary:
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, art house, visually stunning, philosophical, atmospheric, meditative, disturbing, surreal, cerebral, mindfuck
Similar in 79%
Spider (2002)
Plot Summary:
A mentally disturbed man takes residence in a halfway house. His mind gradually slips back into the realm created by his illness, where he replays a key part of his childhood.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, surreal, disturbing, bleak, twist ending, suspenseful, offbeat, non-linear, mindfuck, mind bending
Similar in 76%
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Plot Summary:
An all-expenses-paid international search for a rare copy of the book, 'The Nine Gates of the Shadow Kingdom' brings an unscrupulous book dealer deep into a world of murder, double-dealing and satanic worship.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 195000
Genere: Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Spain, USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: gothic, dark, satanic, psychological, atmospheric, neo noir, suspenseful, sexy, twist ending, suspense
Similar in 90%
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Plot Summary:
A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a distant post-apocalyptic future. Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Based on the award winning novel by David Mitchell. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 371000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, UK, Spain
Duration: 172 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, psychological, futuristic, mind bending, surreal, spiritual, enigmatic, non-linear, atmospheric, reflective
Similar in 79%
Dark City (1998)
Plot Summary:
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 210000
Genere: Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, mind bending, atmospheric, suspense, gothic, tech noir, dark fantasy, futuristic, philosophical
Similar in 79%
Triangle (2009)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 127000
Genere: Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: twist ending, psychological, surprise ending, scary, suspenseful, suspense, mindfuck, confusing, cerebral, atmospheric
Similar in 90%
Donnie Darko (2001)
Plot Summary:
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 837000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, surreal, atmospheric, mind bending, philosophical, cult classic, clever, psychological thriller, cerebral, independent film
Similar in 75%
Enemy (2013)
Plot Summary:
A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 209000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada, Spain, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, non-linear, twist ending, mind bending, atmospheric, mindfuck, suspense, disturbing, tense
Similar in 80%
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Plot Summary:
After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 177000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, New Zealand
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: emotional, dark, psychological, suspense, surreal, serious, tense, scary, visual, visually stunning