Best movies like The White Ribbon
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The White Ribbon? Share your familiarity to help others discover films and tv shows you've already seen that might suit them too. Boost the cohort of people recommending videos to one another. We value your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 77000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Canada
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, black and white, art house, bleak, atmospheric, breathtaking, visual, thought provoking, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like The White Ribbon (2009):
Similar in 76%
The Serpent's Egg (1977)
Plot Summary:
The Serpent's Egg follows a week in the life of Abel Rosenberg, an out-of-work American circus acrobat living in poverty-stricken Berlin following Germany's defeat in World War I.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: philosophical, mind bending, psychedelic, political, suspense, political thriller, surreal, art house, psychological, atmospheric
Similar in 81%
Affliction (1997)
Plot Summary:
A small town policeman must investigate a suspicious hunting accident. The investigation and other events result in his slowly disintegrating mentally.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, rough, independent film, neo noir, psychological thriller, depressing, disturbing, atmospheric, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Funny Games (1997)
Plot Summary:
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Austria
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, suspense, psychological, scary, psychological thriller, tense, atmospheric, suspenseful, bloody
Similar in 89%
Mother (2009)
Plot Summary:
A mother lives quietly with her twenty-eight-year-old son, Do-joon, providing herbs and acupuncture to neighbors. One day, a girl is brutally murdered, and Do-joon is charged with the killing. Now, it's his mother's call whether to prove him innocent or to leave him imprisoned.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 70000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: suspense, atmospheric, tense, psychological, neo noir, disturbing, mind bending, serious, cerebral, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Plot Summary:
Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 222000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, atmospheric, suspenseful, psychological thriller, detective, sexy, psychological, captivating, rough
Similar in 77%
Amour (2012)
Plot Summary:
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 105000
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, France, Germany
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: philosophical, reflective, sad, sincere, art house, emotional, depressing, compassionate, breathtaking, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Dogville (2003)
Plot Summary:
A barren soundstage is stylishly utilized to create a minimalist small-town setting in which a mysterious woman named Grace hides from the criminals who pursue her. The town is two-faced and offers to harbor Grace as long as she can make it worth their effort, so Grace works hard under the employ of various townspeople to win their favor. Tensions flare, however, and Grace's status as a helpless outsider provokes vicious contempt and abuse from the citizens of Dogville.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 156000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, UK, France, Finland, Norway, Italy
Duration: 178 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, philosophical, cerebral, depressing, thought provoking, controversial, atmospheric, psychological thriller
Similar in 83%
Time of the Wolf (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home, they find it occupied by strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Austria, Germany
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, bleak, atmospheric, intense, apocalyptic, suspenseful, road movie, dark, stylized
Similar in 76%
Funny Games (2007)
Plot Summary:
When Ann, husband George and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 102000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, France, UK, Austria, Germany, Italy
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, scary, disturbing, brutal, rough, bad ending, controversial, suspense, suspenseful, bleak
Similar in 87%
Irreversible (2002)
Plot Summary:
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass. Her boyfriend and ex-lover take matters into their own hands by hiring two criminals to help them find the rapist so that they can exact revenge. A simultaneously beautiful and terrible examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect, and how time destroys everything.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 145000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: art house, bleak, disturbing, psychological thriller, surreal, non-linear, stylized, sexy, offbeat, harsh
Similar in 84%
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 76%
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 85%
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 87%
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 85%
Dogtooth (2009)
Plot Summary:
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 105000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Greece
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, art house, psychological, black comedy, atmospheric, surreal, thought provoking, controversial, sexy, bleak
Similar in 87%
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 90%
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 83%
Stoker (2013)
Plot Summary:
After India's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 113000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, bleak, gothic, tense, suspense, disturbing, erotic, surreal, visual
Similar in 85%
The Experiment (2001)
Plot Summary:
Das Experiment is a shocking psycho thriller about the potential for brutality that humans hide. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s based on an actual occurrence—a 1971 psychological experiment at Stanford University that was aborted prematurely when the experimenters lost control.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, thought provoking, tense, disturbing, rough, bleak, suspenseful, psychological thriller, cerebral
Similar in 87%
The Lives of Others (2006)
Plot Summary:
A tragic love story set in East Berlin with the backdrop of an undercover Stasi controlled culture. Stasi captain Wieler is ordered to follow author Dreyman and plunges deeper and deeper into his life until he reaches the threshold of doubting the system.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 405000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: political thriller, gloomy, tense, political, atmospheric, sincere, suspense, breathtaking, harsh, bleak
Similar in 84%
Chinatown (1974)
Plot Summary:
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 343000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: neo noir, detective, twist ending, suspense, atmospheric, bleak, suspenseful, enigmatic, noir, psychological
Similar in 85%
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Plot Summary:
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 377000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, art house, neo noir, atmospheric, mind bending, disturbing, cerebral, surprise ending, enigmatic
Similar in 78%
Oldboy (2003)
Plot Summary:
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate businessman seeks revenge on his captors.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 619000
Genere: Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: twist ending, bleak, intense, psychological, neo noir, clever, mindfuck, brutal, atmospheric, surprise ending
Similar in 86%
Mystic River (2003)
Plot Summary:
A story about friendship and loyalty, guilt and vengeance, and the fateful affect the past has on the present.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 477000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Australia
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, emotional, twist ending, neo noir, depressing, tense, bleak, psychological thriller, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Prisoners (2013)
Plot Summary:
When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 784000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: psychological, twist ending, suspenseful, bleak, atmospheric, neo noir, detective, surprise ending, psychological thriller, tense
Similar in 83%
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Plot Summary:
A psychological thriller about an eight year old boy named Cole Sear who believes he can see into the world of the dead. A child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe comes to Cole to help him deal with his problem, learning that he really can see ghosts of dead people.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 10000000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, surprise ending, twist ending, suspense, suspenseful, atmospheric, psychological thriller, mind bending, touching, tense
Similar in 77%
Gone Girl (2014)
Plot Summary:
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 10000000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 149 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, surprise ending, clever, twist ending, suspenseful, neo noir, tense, dramatic, psychological thriller
Similar in 75%
Insomnia (2002)
Plot Summary:
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 313000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, atmospheric, detective, psychological thriller, suspense, dark, suspenseful, tense, bad ending
Similar in 80%
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
Plot Summary:
After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 165000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Spain
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, bleak, depressing, suspense, surreal, gloomy, independent film, thought provoking, tense
Similar in 89%
Se7en (1995)
Plot Summary:
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 18000000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, detective, suspenseful, disturbing, neo noir, suspense, scary, tense, bad ending, atmospheric