Movies Like Netflix’s ‘Animals’ for Viewers Drawn to Kidnapping, Ransom and Moral Pressure

Ben Affleck’s ‘Animals’ follows an LA mayoral candidate and his wife as they scramble to raise the ransom after their son is kidnapped. It reached Netflix and select theaters on Friday, Oct. 9. For anyone searching for movies like Netflix’s ‘Animals’, the strongest matches share its mix of family desperation, money and secrets.

Affleck directed the film and shares a writing credit with Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray. The cast also includes Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun. The titles below include direct kidnapping stories as well as thrillers that put people under similar strain.

‘Ransom’

Mel Gibson plays a wealthy businessman whose son is taken and held for a massive payment. The film turns money into a weapon and forces its parents into harder and harder decisions. That is close to the pressure facing the couple in ‘Animals’.

Forbes recommends it to anyone who wants a good kidnapping movie after watching Affleck’s thriller.

‘Prisoners’

Denis Villeneuve’s film takes the missing child premise into darker psychological territory, with Hugh Jackman as a father who takes matters into his own hands. It shares the interest in desperate parents and moral compromise, though it cares less about politics.

The same Forbes review describes it as bleak and brilliant. It also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.

‘Gone Baby Gone’

This film marked Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, which makes it a natural companion piece. It follows two private investigators searching for a missing young girl in Boston, and they end up caught in a moral argument with no comfortable answer.

Forbes calls it excellent.

‘High and Low’

Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese kidnap drama is the story Affleck is essentially remaking, according to Deadline. MovieWeb notes that Affleck’s version shifts the focus toward the husband and wife dynamic.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, viewers who want a smart crime thriller about moral choices, marital trust and class divisions should seek this one out. Forbes adds that it is streaming on HBO Max.

‘Highest 2 Lowest’

Spike Lee made this contemporary update of the Kurosawa story, set in the New York music business and starring Denzel Washington. It is the most recent version of the same premise.

Affleck set his own project aside after learning about it, even though it was originally planned with Matt Damon and Jennifer Garner.

‘The Guilty’

Most of this story stays inside a police emergency call centre, where Jake Gyllenhaal plays a dispatcher trying to help a kidnapped woman with limited information.

It builds tension around a fast developing crisis where every decision matters. That makes it a tighter and quieter alternative to the sprawl of ‘Animals’.

‘Argo’

Affleck directs and stars as a CIA operative trying to extract Americans from Iran. The setting moves from Los Angeles politics to an international hostage crisis.

Like ‘Animals’, it combines personal stakes with political machinery and carefully managed public narratives.

‘Man on Fire’

Denzel Washington plays a former CIA operative hired to protect a young girl, and the job turns personal when she is abducted. The story is set in Mexico City.

It shares the protective instinct at the center of ‘Animals’, although its hero uses very different methods.

‘The Town’

A Forbes reviewer said the masked villains in ‘Animals’ reminded him what a better film this one was. It comes from the same director, who has long examined men whose carefully constructed lives begin collapsing under pressure.

‘Mystic River’

Clint Eastwood’s crime drama is about three childhood friends whose lives collide after the murder of one man’s daughter. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon lead the cast.

It is less immediate than ‘Animals’, but it treats family crisis and buried secrets in a similar way.

‘The Next Three Days’

Russell Crowe plays a husband whose wife is imprisoned for a murder she insists she did not commit, and he begins planning a dangerous escape.

The kidnapping plot is different, but the emotional engine matches. It asks how far a spouse will go to protect a family.

‘Panic Room’

David Fincher’s thriller follows a mother and daughter trapped inside a fortified room while burglars search their home, with Jodie Foster carrying much of the film. There is no political campaign here, but the focus on parents protecting their children is familiar.

Now that ‘Animals’ is streaming, which of these thrillers do you think puts a family under pressure better than Affleck’s version does?