If you looking for movies like The Purge, one that bravely balance thrills and social commentary, you’re in the right place!
Directed by James DeMonaco, The Purge stars Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey as members of a wealthy family who find themselves endangered during the annual Purge, a night where all crimes are temporarily legal.
Arguably one of the most important horror films of the last decade, The Purge exemplifies what the genre can creatively do in a very challenging political climate. In this list, we’ve compiled movies like The Purge that offers beyond standard horror fare.
10 Intense Survival Movies Like The Purge
10. The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
It’s best to start with The Purge’s sequel, The Purge: Anarchy, a movie that expands the concept of what a Purge event can do to an individual. Frank Grillo stars as Leo Barnes, a sergeant who lost his son from a Purge.
The Purge: Anarchy was applauded for having a more improved narrative than its predecessor, with Grillo serving as a more fitting headliner for the entire series in a star-making performance.
If you’re interested in the many depths the original Purge movie can go, The Purge: Anarchy is an essential watch!
9. The Purge: Election Year (2016)
The Purge: Election Year is a direct follow-up to The Purge: Anarchy, magnifying its political narrative by having Frank Grillo’s character become a bodyguard who must safeguard a presidential candidate from possible murderers in the Purge.
The Purge: Election Year might have strayed away from the domestic horrors provided by the original, but it offered more room for Grillo to show enthralling action stunts.
The Purge: Election Year excels at is how it freely allows itself to explore themes and scares that the first two entries may lack—and being a bad-ass action film in the process!
8. The First Purge (2018)
The First Purge tells the origins of the Purge event. Here, we learned that it is originally a test project to reduce crime rates, not knowing how things can get when in the wrong hands.
Consider The First Purge as a supplemental entry to The Purge franchise for its loose ties with previous entries. Sure, it does get predictable at times, but seeing the concept of Purge unfold in ridiculously terrifying ways makes up for its shortcomings.
If you’ve enjoyed the first three The Purge movies, you will find yourself still enjoying something here.
7. Get Out (2016)
In Get Out, an African-American man encountered unexpected horrors after meeting the parents of her Caucasian girlfriend.
Directed by Jordan Peele, Get Out was lauded for its commentary on slavery and racial abuse while still being true to its horror core. The film won Peele the Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars in 2018, which made a mark by being one of the more memorable wins of the ceremony.
If you’re looking for movies like The Purge that embraces its original concept and dodges tired horror tropes, Get Out is the one for you!
6. Don’t Breathe (2016)
Fede Alvarez’s intense Don’t Breathe follows three delinquents who find themselves trapped in the house of a blind war veteran after breaking in to steal his money.
Don’t Breathe may not be for the weak of heart, but it can be a fun watch if you’re with a crowd. The film brings its suspense to unlikely places, all fueled by a terrifying Stephen Lang, who played a blind war veteran who may have horrifying secrets of his own.
Like The Purge, Don’t Breathe offers big thrills from beginning to end. It’s something you may have to prepare for before watching.
5. The Strangers (2008)
Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman stars in this criminally underseen The Strangers, a film about a couple whose peaceful day is ruined by an unexpected knock on their door.
Domestic horror often elicits the most scares because it damages the sacredness and security of one’s home, but The Strangers brought something new and uncomfortable (in a good way) on the table that you have to see for yourself.
The Strangers plays around the tropes of home invasion memorably like The Purge, with director Bryan Bertino carefully mapping out each jump scare with masterful timing!
4. A Quiet Place (2018)Â
A family struggles for survival in A Quiet Place, where humans are forced to keep silent and communicate in sign language to hide themselves from noise-sensitive creatures who can kill them.
While A Quiet Place will be mostly known for its nail-biting scenes, which in this movie’s case there’s a lot, its greatest accomplishment lies in its humane storytelling. This is a pure family movie with a lot of heart, fronting itself as a horror-thriller.
Like The Purge, A Quiet Place’s fictional world is already compelling from the get-go. True enough, director/star John Krasinski has done something truly magical here!
3. Halloween (2018)
David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot follows the same domestic horror thrills of John Carpenter’s classic slasher film, continuing the story of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her long battle with the masked murderer Michael Myers.
Halloween is a great film that has excellently reposition its franchise to a new generation of horror lovers while still capturing the energy of classic horror titles.
Movies like The Purge have took great influences to John Carpenter’s original Halloween, and this 2018 reboot remains a worthy watch because of its place in the contemporary horror cinema landscape.
2. Funny Games (2007)
A shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian film of the same name, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games tells the story of a family held hostage by two mysterious men.
It’s impossible to watch this movie without a feeling of unease. From start to finish, Funny Games played around with different types of uncomfortable tension—and definitely, it’s also not “funny” as the title implied.
While it’s unfortunate that there’s not much discussion surrounding this movie nowadays, one will find merits and memorable shocking sequences in watching Funny Games the same way The Purge did. Overall, this is one of the best movies like The Purge!
1. Us (2019)
In Us, a family is invaded by people dressed in red who look exactly like them. Along with millions of other families around the world…
Like Jordan Peele’s Get Out, it’s important to watch this film without any clues of what it is about. This is one of those movies where a blind watch is the essential way to see it.
The best thing about Us, like The Purge, is its laser-focused storytelling, leveraging on its original themes and ideas as supposed to following a familiar trope. Us may truly be one of the best horror films of the 2010s!