(Photo by NEON / courtesy Everett Collection)
If you’re looking for more movies like Parasite, you’re not alone. Ever since Parasite‘s arrival in theaters, the Best Picture nominee has ignited conversations across America over a range of topics, from fruit allergies to one-inch subtitles to, of course, social class warfare. In the darkly comedic thriller, a family from the slums swindles their way into the graces of a wealthy young family. As the line between street and elite blurs and as the scheme spirals out of control, the viewer is forced to reckon just what exactly is the parasitic entity to which the title alludes.
If you’re looking for more movies to watch after Parasite, we’ve found 20 films which share thematic and atmospheric blood. Snowpiercer is from the same director, Bong Joon-ho, and is another take on class entrenchment, albeit via hard sci-fi. The South Korean director has yet to make a bad movie, so you might as well continue on with The Host, Mother, and Memories of Murder. Meanwhile, The Handmaiden also hails from South Korea.
Mexico’s The Chambermaid and The Good Girls are parables which shine a light on economic mobility. Same with Japan’s Shoplifters, but with more uplift. The Ruling Class and The Exterminating Angel are both satires of the 1%. And if you liked the surrealism Luis Bunuel brings to Angel, you’ll love to what extremes Sorry to Bother You and Society go to make their respectively bizarre and disgusting cases.
Robert Altman’s Gosford Park takes the most good-natured jabs on the subject, while Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game is the most earnest. It’s also regarded as one of the best movies ever made. And speaking of greatest films, see Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, which also explores the tenuous circumstances and luck that separates haves and have-nots.
If you’re most attracted to Parasite‘s genre elements, it’s hard to go wrong with the wild and wacky Ready or Not, David Fincher’s efficient potboiler Panic Room, or the Coens’ violently absurd Burn After Reading. We’d recommend anything by Joel and Ethan Coen normally, but their remake of The Ladykillers (about crooks who get their comeuppance when they move into an old woman’s house intending to rob her) is a pale imitation of the Alec Guinness original.
And as for how The People Under The Stairs relates… Well, we’ll let you figure that one out.
#20
Adjusted Score: 54.956%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#19
Adjusted Score: 64.139%
Critics Consensus: Held aloft by gonzo black comedy and socially conscious subtext, The People Under The Stairs marks a unique — though wildly uneven — change of pace for director Wes Craven.
#18
Adjusted Score: 80.153%
Critics Consensus: Elevated by Fincher’s directorial talent and Foster’s performance, Panic Room is a well-crafted, above-average thriller.
#17
Adjusted Score: 87.211%
Critics Consensus: With Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers have crafted another clever comedy/thriller with an outlandish plot and memorable characters.
#16
Adjusted Score: 83.813%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#15
Adjusted Score: 91.11%
Critics Consensus: A mixture of Upstairs, Downstairs, Clue, and perceptive social commentary, Gosford Park ranks among director Altman’s best.
#14
Adjusted Score: 88.178%
Critics Consensus: The Good Girls uses its period setting and specific character canvas to explore the widely relatable struggle for perceived social status.
#13
Adjusted Score: 100.706%
Critics Consensus: Smart, subversive, and darkly funny, Ready or Not is a crowd-pleasing horror film with giddily entertaining bite.
#12
Adjusted Score: 90.34%
Critics Consensus: Memories of Murder blends the familiar crime genre with social satire and comedy, capturing the all-too human desperation of its key characters.
#11
Adjusted Score: 94.327%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#10
Adjusted Score: 97.883%
Critics Consensus: As populace pleasing as it is intellectually satisfying, The Host combines scares, laughs, and satire into a riveting, monster movie.
#9
Adjusted Score: 105.765%
Critics Consensus: Fearlessly ambitious, scathingly funny, and thoroughly original, Sorry to Bother You loudly heralds the arrival of a fresh filmmaking talent in writer-director Boots Riley.
#8
Adjusted Score: 104.439%
Critics Consensus: Snowpiercer offers an audaciously ambitious action spectacular for filmgoers numb to effects-driven blockbusters.
#7
Adjusted Score: 102.727%
Critics Consensus: The Handmaiden uses a Victorian crime novel as the loose inspiration for another visually sumptuous and absorbingly idiosyncratic outing from director Park Chan-wook.
#6
Adjusted Score: 98.837%
Critics Consensus: As fleshy as it is funny, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother straddles family drama, horror and comedy with a deft grasp of tone and plenty of eerie visuals.
#5
Adjusted Score: 104.538%
Critics Consensus: Its genius escaped many viewers at the time, but in retrospect, The Rules of the Game stands as one of Jean Renoir’s — and cinema’s — finest works.
#4
Adjusted Score: 108.128%
Critics Consensus: An Italian neorealism exemplar, Bicycle Thieves thrives on its non-flashy performances and searing emotion.
#3
Adjusted Score: 108.324%
Critics Consensus: Understated yet ultimately deeply affecting, Shoplifters adds another powerful chapter to director Hirokazu Koreeda’s richly humanistic filmography.
#2
Adjusted Score: 102.702%
Critics Consensus: The Ladykillers is a macabre slow-burn with quirky performances of even quirkier characters.
#1
Adjusted Score: 101.849%
Critics Consensus: The Chambermaid uses one woman’s experiences to take audiences inside a life — and a culture — that’s as bracingly unique as it is hauntingly relatable.
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