(Photo by NEON / courtesy Everett Collection)
20 Movies To Watch If You Loved Parasite
If you’re looking for more movies like Parasite, you’re not alone. Ever since Parasite‘s arrival in theaters, the Best Picture winner 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. First recommendation is one of director Bong Joon-ho‘s primary influences: 1963’s twisted, table-turning The Servant. If you’re just starting out with Joon-ho’s filmography, you can start with Snowpiercer, 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. And 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. —Alex Vo
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