15 Best Movies Like ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, Ranked by IMDb Score
Stanley Kubrick is considered one of the greatest film directors in history for a reason. His last movie, ‘Eyes Wide Shut,’ might not be his absolute best work, but it is certainly the most mysterious, twisted, and intertwined with a strong social commentary and secretive, elusive storytelling that feels as if it’s just on the brink of telling you something you’re not supposed to know.
Now, if you watched the film and read some ‘conspiracy theories’ behind it, like what was deleted and what Kubrick’s intentions allegedly were, you’ll probably know that it’s quite a unique film, making it very hard to find others similar to it. Well, I’ve managed to do just that, at least to a certain extent.
Brace yourselves because here come the fifteen best mysterious and twisted movies like Eyes Wide Shut that will leave you spinning, ranked solely by their IMDb score. Enjoy!
15. ‘The Village’ (2004)
IMDb score: 6.6/10
What it’s about: In a desolate Pennsylvania village, a community lives under strict rules and guidelines. They must all obey the rules in order to stay alive due to imminent danger – the monsters living in the woods surrounding the village. However, things go south when a blind girl is forced to cross the designated borders in order to save a wounded friend.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: While The Village doesn’t have the same high-society, psychedelic vibe as Eyes Wide Shut – nor is it nearly as erotic – both movies talk about secret societies and a mystery surrounding them and their lives. I found the twist in The Village to be one of M. Night Shyamalan’s coolest, which means it’s quite worth a watch.
14. ‘Basic Instinct’ (1992)
IMDb score: 7.0/10
What it’s about: Johnny Boz, a former rockstar, gets brutally murdered during sex, and an SFPD detective Nick Curran is tasked with solving the crime. The mystery takes him deep as he meets a novelist, Catherine Tramell, who seems to know more about Boz than she lets on. However, her seductive, manipulative behavior might just be the key to the solution…
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: If there’s any movie on this list that is close to Eyes Wide Shut in terms of being as erotic and sexually charged, it’s this one. While Basic Instinct doesn’t hold a secret society within, it does hold a deep mystery, just like Eyes Wide Shut, that the main character doesn’t know whether to solve or indulge in its twisted pleasures.
13. ‘The Wolf House’ (2018)
IMDb score: 7.5/10
What it’s about: An award-winning stop-animation film, originally titled La Casa Lobo, about a 20th-century secret community/colony in Chile that quickly turned into a torture cult no one could escape. The story follows Maria, a young captive Colonia Dignidad girl who was punished for releasing two pigs and tried running away with them.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: The story is loosely based in reality and a real colony tyrannically ruled by a former Nazi, Paul Schaefer. Like Eyes Wide Shut, the mood is somber, at moments terrifying, filled with torture and punishment, and revolving around a secret society that brutally punishes those who break the rules.
Both movies have very strong underlying social commentary, and The Wolf House is certainly one of my favorites from this list.
12. ‘Blue Velvet’ (1986)
IMDb score: 7.7/10
What it’s about: A guy returns to his hometown to look after his father’s shop while the father is hospitalized. Nearby, he finds a severed human ear, and the investigation leads him to a singer who lives across town. What the guy finds takes him deep into a mystery he could not have comprehended, as he realizes there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: It’s hard even to write down a synopsis for Blue Velvet without any major spoilers. I am going to say, though, that the atmosphere is highly suspenseful at moments and almost dream-like in its mystery. Like Eyes Wide Shut, the movie gets you little bits of information while letting you figure out where they fit alone.
Like Kubrick, the director of Blue Velvet, David Lynch, is well-known for his mysteries and the sort of ‘paranoia-inducing’ quality of his work. No wonder both are among the greatest directors ever to do it.
11. ‘F For Fake’ (1973)
IMDb score: 7.7/10
What it’s about: Orson Welles created this epic documentary about the media, fake news, and all the little tricks the media uses to manipulate and, essentially, lie to the audience. While doing so, as the documentary’s main’ character’, Welles plays a few tricks on the viewer, showing exactly what he was talking about in practice.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: This is the only documentary on this list, and obviously, it’s nothing like Eyes Wide Shut in terms of the sexually explicit content or the mystery.
However, F for Fake is a documentary that debunks the mystery of media, showing us how members of the high society who own the media can use it to manipulate and trick the public so easily, yet so effortlessly. In my not-so-humble, documentary-loving opinion, I believe that this was the best work Orson Welles had ever done.
10. ‘The Machinist’ (2004)
IMDb score: 7.7/10
What it’s about: A factory worker suffers from brutal insomnia, causing his life to slowly fall apart, starting with his body that now borderlines anorexia. His fatigue and lack of focus at work cause a major accident, but nothing seems to help. He has to find the root – the cause of his insomnia in order to finally rest…
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: As much as Stanley Kubrick is a directing genius, Christian Bale is every bit of an acting genius. The Machinist and Eyes Wide Shut speak about totally opposite layers of society and yet manage to create a similar, mysterious, eerie, dream-like atmosphere in which it gets hard to distinguish what’s real and what’s not.
9. ‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)
IMDb score: 7.9/10
What it’s about: A woman is driving on Mulholland Drive when a car crash renders her completely amnesiac. She uses the help of a Hollywood wannabe actress, but their efforts lead them into a mystery far, far deeper than a simple dream or reality.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: As David Lynch once said – he hates when you try putting his movies into words because you can never see the movie the same way again after somebody has already contextualized it for you. I’m not going to do that for you today.
I’m just going to say that Mulholland Drive is among his best projects ever and that it’s likely the only movie on this list that potentially tops Eyes Wide Shut in terms of the nearly psychedelic breaking of the barrier between fact and fiction. It’s an absolute must-watch for all thriller and mystery fans.
8. ‘Donnie Darko’ (2001)
IMDb score: 8.0/10
What it’s about: Donnie Darko is a teenager who barely escaped a bizarre accident in his home. However, after the ordeal, he starts seeing this exceptionally creepy guy in a rabbit costume, who slowly starts manipulating Donnie into doing crime – escalating from small stuff to all-out violence.
The mystery goes down a deep rabbit hole that doesn’t allow the viewer to take a break and realize what’s actually going on and what’s just in Donnie’s head.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: There’s no way you can decipher what is real and what’s not while watching Donnie Darko for the first time. Who in the world is the guy behind the mask? The mystery, just like in Eyes Wide Shut, goes deeper than you could ever anticipate, all followed by an eerie atmosphere that deletes the boundaries of reality – and even time.
7. ‘Black Swan’ (2010)
IMDb score: 8.0/10
What it’s about: Nina (Natalie Portman) is a young, talented ballerina who pushes herself to extreme limits in order to pursue her dreams and become a superstar. Her rivals push her more, and her director even further, to the point where Nina’s psyche starts to crumble even worse than her body.
Every moment feels like a nightmare, and the line between what’s real and what’s not gets completely erased. Will Nina succeed at being the Black Swan? And, if so, at what cost?
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: There’s a hint of mystery in the Black Swan that’s shrouded in allegory and metaphor. However, above all, both movies are a strong social commentary on the twisted, brutal layers of high society and everything people are willing to do to fit in and succeed – regardless of the price.
Black Swan is among Darren Aronofsky’s best works, barring, maybe, Requiem for a Dream.
6. ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968)
IMDb score: 8.0/10
What it’s about: A young couple struggles to get pregnant for a while before moving into an old building in New York brimmed with obscure stories, ghastly occurrences, and rumors. Soon, their neighbors greet them, and miraculously, Rosemary gets pregnant.
However, she starts suffering awful dreams, and after being systematically cut off from her loved ones, she starts suspecting that something very, very sinister is going on. As Rosemary seemingly loses her mind, it’s impossible to distinguish what’s real, and what isn’t.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: It’s hard to imagine that a movie without much explicit violence, gore, jump scares, or anything in between can be so utterly terrifying. Again, it comes from a great directing mind – Roman Polanski, in this case – but Rosemary’s Baby is such a strongly atmospheric movie that it’ll give you chills from start to finish.
That’s actually what makes it so similar to Eyes Wide Shut. You won’t know what’s real, or whose side you’re on, or if the things you’re seeing are nothing but a figment of someone’s imagination. Yet, when the reveals finally come, it’ll become even more terrifying than it was before…
5. ‘Barry Lyndon’ (1975)
IMDb score: 8.1/10
What it’s about: Barry is a young Irish man who escapes to Dublin after a pistol duel with a British Captain, only to get robbed and forced to join the British Army. He deserts and is then forced to join the Prussian Army, where he becomes a spy for an Irish gambler.
Next, he meets a rich British widow and takes her dead husband’s aristocratic position due to his obsession with nobility, only to destroy the woman’s wealth and make a dangerous enemy out of her.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: Barry Lyndon is also Stanley Kubrick’s movie that actually won a staggering 4 Academy Awards. There is nothing psychedelic or too mysterious in this film, set in the 1800s. However, it does show what people are capable of and what a man was willing to do just to get to that high society title and recognition.
Again, Kubrick is a master at hiding a powerful social commentary behind an even more powerful storyline.
4. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971)
IMDb score: 8.3/10
What it’s about: Set in the near future, Alex Delarge and his sadistic gang rape and torture women for fun – calling it their dose of ‘ultra-violence.’ When he gets arrested, the government makes him a test subject of an experimental treatment that programs felons to detest violence and throw up at sight – or even though of it.
However, once completing the treatment and coming out of jail, his woes had only begun. Is he really a changed man, or did society fail Alex in the first place?
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: This is by far the best movie Stanley Kubrick had ever made. It’s quite straightforward compared to Eyes Wide Shut but hides an even deeper social comment. Is society to blame for failing to deal with violence properly? Does society actually condone – even embrace violence? When is violence condemned, and when is it ‘allowed’?
Do people really change? Is there morality in society? Kubrick tries to pose the questions but leaves the answers ambiguous, just like in Eyes Wide Shut.
3. ‘The Shining’ (1980)
IMDb score: 8.4/10
What it’s about: A writer and his family travel to a desolate hotel in the mountains as groundkeepers so that the father can work on his writing in peace. However, weird, paranormal – even sinister – things start happening almost immediately, causing the dad to slowly lose his mind…
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: The Shining was based on a phenomenal book by the legendary Stephen King, but Kubrick put his own twist to the story and created a mystery horror masterpiece. Nothing and everything seems real, and there is simply no boundary between sanity and insanity, fact and fiction, or life and death.
While Eyes Wide Shut doesn’t include a sinister supernatural force driving people insane, the films have a very similar vibe regarding the mysterious, ominous atmosphere, even when nothing scary or violent is happening on screen.
2. ‘Inception’ (2010)
IMDb score: 8.8/10
What it’s about: A group of thieves uses amazing dream-sharing technology to steal information from the minds of successful figures. This time, however, they’re tasked with implanting an idea into a C.E.O.’s mind – something they haven’t done before. Also, the tragic past of one of their members might destroy the whole project – and all of their real lives.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: If you want to watch a good mystery movie, this is the way to go. While Eyes Wide Shut is made to feel like a dream, Inception actually dives into dreams and bends reality. And then it dives into another dream within that dream. And then goes beyond and back. Christopher Nolan shows why he is the master of non-linear storytelling.
Your mind will twist, but as the story unfolds, you’ll be left speechless. While the secret society in Eyes Wide Shut is the perverse, cult-like group of orgy-loving sadists, Inception shows us the lives of a secret group of thieves that use incredible yet mysterious dream-sharing technology. Utterly brilliant.
1. ‘Fight Club’ (1999)
IMDb score: 8.8/10
What it’s about: A guy suffering from brutal insomnia tries everything to alleviate his symptoms and finds some help by attending all kinds of support groups to subdue his own state. However, after he meets a mysterious soap maker named Tyler, his life is turned upside down as they create an underground Fight Club.
The two men spiral out of control into a horrific scheme against society, supremacy, and their eventual rivalry almost leads to the death of both of them.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut: Again, it’s extremely hard to write a synopsis of Fight Club without spoilers, but let’s just say that it’s not just the best film on the list – it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.
It’s not just the mystery, the fighting, the unfathomably spectacular acting by Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham-Carter, the terrific directing by David Fincher, or the mind-blowing ending – it’s all of the above.
Why it’s like Eyes Wide Shut? The mystery doesn’t reveal itself until the very end, and it obliterates societal pressures and boundaries while trying to convey how the ‘small man’ can instigate a change against those in power.
At least, that’s how I interpret the story. I guess that portraying the lower end of society is the opposite of Eyes Wide Shut’s perverse high secret society, and the atmosphere in the films is quite different – but both are absolute masterpieces that you absolutely have to watch.