15 Best Movies Like Blink Twice To Watch Next

“Blink Twice,” the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz, is a 2024′ psychological thriller involving a group of people invited to a remote island as the unwitting participants of something sinister. The movie plays on class division, notably with the rich and powerful preying on the less financially privileged for their own twisted amusement. “Blink Twice” also features commentary on racial and sexual power dynamics, as sharply written as it is brutally suspenseful. This movie comes from a longer tradition of intrigue and deceit, often revolving around enigmatic male figures keeping dark secrets from their romantic partners.

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Whether it’s the French fairy tale Bluebeard or contemporary thrillers, “Blink Twice” follows an enduring narrative archetype while making it its own. With that in mind, there are countless movies to check out if you’re looking for more thrillers after “Blink Twice” kept you at the edge of your seat. 

Here are the 15 best movies like “Blink Twice” to watch next for what’s sure to be a tense viewing experience.

The 1938 novel “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier was adapted by celebrated filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. Like the novel, refined widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) is haunted by his first wife Rebecca, even after he remarries his nameless second spouse (Joan Fontaine). Moving to Maxim’s seaside mansion in England, Mrs. de Winter learns that the circumstances behind Rebecca’s death are not what was initially reported. This raises tension between the marital couple, exacerbated by Maxim’s scheming housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson).

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“Rebecca” was the first sound movie that Hitchcock made in Hollywood after years of working in the British film industry. Hitchcock highlights the Gothic romance elements present in du Maurier’s novel while making observations about class division. The story is essentially a mystery, as Mrs. de Winter learns troubling secrets about the estate that she’s just married into on a whim, with its own dark discovery. Atmospherically staged and led by a terrific cast, “Rebecca” remains one of Hitchcock’s best films.

The obsession to attain fame at any cost is the central theme to the 1995 satire “To Die For.” Adapting Joyce Maynard’s novel of the same name, protagonist Suzanne Stone-Maretto (Nicole Kidman) dreams of making it big as a world-famous television journalist. Frustrated at her inability to escape from her small New England town, Suzanne collaborates with high schooler Jimmy Emmett (Joaquin Phoenix) to murder her husband. This explodes into a lurid scandal as Suzanne embraces her 15 minutes of fame while trying to avoid suspicion.

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“To Die For” dissects the pathological hunger for fame saliently, before the advent of online influencers. The movie launched Phoenix’s acting career and helped cement Kidman’s place in the Hollywood mainstream, with both actors absolutely riveting in their performances. Supporting them is a stacked ensemble cast, delivering Buck Henry’s incisively written script to perfection. Pitch-black in its sense of satirical humor led by a gleefully irredeemable protagonist, “To Die For” holds up especially well decades after its premiere.

After decades of playing iconic action heroes, Harrison Ford consciously played against type for the 2000 thriller “What Lies Beneath.” Ford plays university professor Norman Spencer, whose marriage to his wife Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) is strained after their children move out of their lakeside Vermont home. As Claire recovers from a harrowing car accident, she notices paranormal occurrences around the house, suggesting Norman is concealing a secret linked to a haunting. As Claire moves closer to unearthing the truth, her husband’s murderous nature and history comes to light.

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“What Lies Beneath” isn’t particularly surprising with its plot twists, but Ford and Pfeiffer work well with the material that they’re given. Director Robert Zemeckis channels legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock to build the movie’s sense of suspense and dread to great effect as its mystery deepens. The ghostly scares are present, but the film works best when it takes the time to patiently embrace its small-town New England atmosphere. A rare villainous turn for Ford, “What Lies Beneath” skewers marital domesticity with a moody ghost story.

The 2013 science fiction thriller “Coherence” was a particularly ambitious project, given its reality-bending premise and indie budget, but it more than makes do with what it had. Eight friends assemble for a party on the night when a comet passes by, triggering a neighborhood blackout. As the friends regroup, they realize the comet has opened up an alternate dimension, complete with doppelgangers of themselves. The group comes into conflict with their doubles as they try to return to their reality before the comet breaks up and collapses this alternate dimension for good.

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Most of the fun in “Coherence” comes from how brain-breakingly complex the story gets as it progresses. What sells every twist and turn –- and this movie has plenty of them –- is its tight ensemble cast, led by Emily Baldoni. Underneath the sci-fi setup is a steady mounting dread and unease from the disturbing ways each of the characters react to their reality-altering discovery. Criminally overlooked, “Coherence” is a solid watch for viewers looking for a high-concept, intimate thriller.

After years of writing and starring in comedy projects, Jordan Peele proved himself to be one of the best horror filmmakers in Hollywood with 2017’s “Get Out.” The movie has Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) traveling with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her parents for the first time. Arriving at her remote upstate New York hometown, Chris finds a strange and increasingly disturbing community, particularly with how they treat black residents. Chris uncovers a long-standing conspiracy among the town’s white residents, having been lured in as their next intended target.

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Though the suburban community Chris encounters doesn’t seem openly racist or poorly educated, they prove to be no less dangerous or deceitful. This offers a more biting contrast to audience expectations of the type of hostility they may expect Chris to confront, heightening the mystery. Peele’s smartly written material is only surpassed by his own masterful staging as the movie’s director, knowing when to punctuate the tension with a well-timed joke or scare. Peele went on to helm similarly acclaimed horror movies, but none with the same urgency or level of acclaim to date as “Get Out.”

Years before she wrote and directed “The Substance,” French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat helmed the 2017 action thriller “Revenge.” The movie follows Jen (Matilda Lutz) as she accompanies her married boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens) and his friends on a getaway at Richard’s remote luxury home in the desert. This scenic stop suddenly turns violent, with Jen assaulted and left for dead as the three men resume their hunting trip. Surviving, Jen turns the hunters into the hunted as she tracks them down one-by-one, becoming just as merciless as they were.

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“Revenge” feels like a modern retread of vengeance-fueled flicks like “Duel” or “I Spit on Your Grave,” though Fargeat claimed to have not seen the latter when making her movie. Fargeat certainly puts her own stamp on the genre, offering a stripped-down, sadistic tale that takes its title seriously. So much of the movie falls on Lutz’s capable shoulders and she knocks it out of the park, organically metamorphosing from victim to vengeful vigilante. Unflinching and stylishly stark, “Revenge” was Fargeat’s feature directorial debut and a clear sign of impressive things to come.

Australian actor Samara Weaving was propelled into the Hollywood spotlight with her role in the 2019 thriller “Ready or Not.” The movie centers on the wealthy Le Domas family, which has a long-standing ritual of new members going into their family having to draw a card to join their clan. If the participant draws a hide-and-seek card, they are forced to survive till dawn as the family mercilessly hunts them throughout the property. Grace (Weaving), a young woman intending to marry into the family, draws the fateful card, leading to a deadly new hunt by her would-be in-laws.

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Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet, collectively known as Radio Silence, bring a sharp edge to this thriller, which makes full use of its premise. Though the stakes are immediately life-and-death, “Ready or Not” is a fun movie, especially as Grace fights back against the murderous Le Domas. There is a bloody satisfaction in seeing the rich and conniving family get their comeuppance as the check comes due for their deal with the devil. Radio Silence went on to completely reinvigorate the “Scream” franchise, and, given their penchant for blending intense horror and dark humor here, it’s easy to see why.

English filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s Academy Award-winning feature directorial debut was 2020’s “Promising Young Woman,” which she also wrote and co-produced. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie Thomas, a thirtysomething barista who dropped out of medical school after her best friend committed suicide following a traumatic assault. After learning the man behind the assault is getting married, Cassie plans out a calculated revenge on those linked to her friend’s death. This coincides with Cassie reconnecting with her old med school classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), leading to them dating.

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Brutal retribution and just how far someone will go to achieve vengeance is at the heart of “Promising Young Woman.” Mulligan is revelatory in her performance as Cassie, single-minded in her fury and meticulously plotted vendetta. Fennell had explored a similar class-oriented rampage in her 2023 movie “Saltburn,” but her messaging seems more focused and sharply written here. As vicious as it is necessary, “Promising Young Woman” is as uncompromising as its protagonist.

Before “Wolf Man,” Australian filmmaker Leigh Whannell first reinvented Universal’s Invisible Man for modern audiences. 2020’s “The Invisible Man” features a more concertedly science fiction-oriented premise while bringing the stakes to a terrifyingly intimate level. Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) escapes from her abusive ex-boyfriend Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a genius optical engineer. As Cecilia attempts to move on with her life, she realizes Adrian is stalking her using an experimental cloaking suit, tormenting every aspect of her life.

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Whannell easily makes the Invisible Man the scariest he’s ever been, relentlessly sadistic in his attacks on Cecilia. In reimagining a horror icon, Whannell keeps his tale relatively grounded and serious, avoiding the camp for more visceral scares rooted in genuine emotion. Moss delivers on the unique aspects of the required performance, transitioning Cecilia from hysterically ostracized to self-empowered and determined for payback. Whannell’s best horror movie to date, “The Invisible Man” is a prime example of better not always equating to a narrative being bigger.

Gaslighting and disregard for the safety of women is at the heart of the 2022 thriller “Watcher,” written and directed by Chloe Okuno. After moving to Bucharest with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman), Julia (Maika Monroe) notices a strange man (Burn Gorman) observing her from his apartment. Increasingly unnerved by this constant intrusion of her privacy, Julia is unsettled further when she learns a serial killer is on the loose in the city. Despite having her concerns dismissed and ridiculed, Julia launches her own investigation on her unwanted watcher.

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What makes “Watcher” unique is that, like Julia and the audience, we have a steady suspicion of who is actually stalking her for most of the movie. The tension isn’t in the identity of the culprit, so much as seeing what the price of Julia constantly being ignored by her husband and the authorities will be. “Watcher” is a thriller light on thrills but fueled instead by its growing sense of unease as the truth inevitably comes out. Monroe plays Julia’s mounting paranoia and desperation beautifully and, along with Okuno’s confident direction, elevates “Watcher” to tautly staged cinema.

In the 2022 thriller “Fresh,” Sebastian Stan plays against his Marvel superhero image as an enigmatic charmer named Steve. After Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a woman disillusioned with the dating scene, meets Steve, he sweeps her off her feet and takes her to his remote luxury home. Imprisoning her, Steve reveals to Noa that he is actually a cannibal who preys on young women, both for himself to eat and to sell their harvested human meat to wealthy clients. Noa frantically searches for a way to escape and avoid becoming Steve’s next main course.

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Stan does chillingly well in his unusual role as a cannibalistic villain, contrasting his easygoing charisma with bloodthirsty menace. Even playing Steve’s next intended victim, Edgar-Jones has palpable chemistry with Stan, making her willing to walk into his trap all the more believable. The movie’s satirical humor is there, though overshadowed by the gruesome premise as Steve carves through his victims with the disaffection of a veteran butcher. Obviously not for the squeamish, “Fresh” keeps from veering into being completely unsavory thanks to Stan and Edgar-Jones’ strong performances.

The 2022 Danish thriller “Speak No Evil” revolves around the ultimate family vacation from hell, inspiring an American remake that was released a scant two years later. The broad narrative strokes between the two versions are relatively identical, with a family befriending another after meeting on vacation in Italy. This seemingly pleasant second family invites the main family to visit them at their remote home in the country. However, as the two families reunite, it becomes clear that this other family is more disturbing than they initially appeared as their true nature emerges.

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The American “Speak No Evil” is one of those rare remakes that does the original film justice while putting its own stamp on the story. The original Danish version is much bleaker than its American counterpart, though both are powered by a mounting sense of dread. What puts the “Speak No Evil” remake on par with its predecessor is James McAvoy’s wild performance, unpredictably turning on a dime whenever the scene calls for it. Both engrossing and expertly told, the Danish and American versions of “Speak No Evil” could make for an excellent double feature –- if you can handle the tension.

2022 was an excellent year for horror movies and thrillers, and one of the highlights was “Barbarian,” written and directed by Zach Cregger. The movie follows Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell), who books an Airbnb in a rundown neighborhood in Detroit. After discovering that the reservation was apparently double-booked, Tess stumbles upon a secret area in the house’s basement. This uncovers the dark history behind the house, including a monstrous occupant ready to attack anyone who crosses her path.

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A meditation on misogyny and female trauma, “Barbarian” draws audiences into its central mystery before cutting loose in spurts. Cregger keeps his narrative focus tight on the movie’s main cast, with the full scope of the story unraveling effectively as Tess follows its loose threads. And yet, for all its commentary, “Barbarian” remains a fun monster movie, knowing when to ramp up the thrills and when to let its main characters riff. A descent into darkness, both literally and figuratively, “Barbarian” is one of the most masterfully executed scary movies in recent years.

Whenever Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes gets to play in projects outside of character-driven dramas and period pieces, he does so with visible glee. The 2022 satirical horror movie “The Menu” showcases Fiennes at his most murderously unhinged, playing esteemed Chef Julian Slowik. Slowik invites a number of affluent guests to his exclusive restaurant on a private island for a multi-course dinner. Revealing each of their exploitative roles in the food industry, Slowik torments and kills them over the course of dinner as they try to escape.

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Like “Blink Twice,” “The Menu” is a morality tale, to be sure, but handled with much more overtly dark humor to balance its gory violence. Fiennes is visibly having the time of his life playing Slowik, while Anya Taylor-Joy and Hong Chau bring their own A-game to the ensemble cast. Unlike the guests avoiding their comeuppance, viewers will eagerly await each course to see what the film has cooked up for its guilty victims next. A rare horror comedy that balances both tones masterfully, “The Menu” serves up its scares and gags effectively.

One of the more unhinged horror movies to come from Neon in recent memory is 2024’s “Cuckoo.” Written and directed by Tilman Singer, the movie has teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) move in with her father Luis (Marton Csokas) and his family in the German Alps. As Gretchen helps Luis build a new hotel, she is unnerved by Luis’ boss Herr König (Dan Stevens) and strange incidents around the premises. This leads Gretchen to team up with local detective Henry (Jan Bluthardt) to investigate what König is really up to, along with the bizarre secret in her own family.

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“Cuckoo” is absolutely wild and delightfully over-the-top with its twists, in no small part to Stevens playing a literal mad scientist, complete with a German accent. Balancing this out effectively is Schafer’s performance, who approaches her role of Gretchen with steely-eyed determination. What results is a quixotic cinematic experience that’s both silly in its self-awareness and gruesome in its scares. At once a repulsive body horror flick that also knowingly winks at its audience, “Cuckoo” has to be seen to be believed.