Movies Like
Movies Like Get Out: Social Thrillers
By Jordan A. · · 4 min read
If Get Out kept you on edge while simultaneously making you think about race, class, and complicity in America, you're looking for more films that weaponize genre conventions to explore real social anxieties. The brilliance of that film is that it uses the horror-thriller structure to make discomfort unavoidable. These are movies that understand that genre isn't just about scares or jumps - it's about exploring uncomfortable truths through the lens of suspense. Social thrillers done right make you complicit in the unease.
What made Get Out essential was that it took a genre typically used for escapism and turned it into social commentary. The horror was embedded in politeness, casual racism, and the horror of being trapped by people who smile while hurting you. Here are films with that same sharp edge.
Racial and Social Commentary
Candyman (2021) is Jordan Peele's follow-up spiritual successor. It layers race, gentrification, and Black trauma into a supernatural thriller. The scares work, but the idea underneath is what lingers.
Us (2019) is also Peele, proving he could do what he wanted post-Get Out. The doppelganger concept becomes a metaphor for class division and self-destruction. It's more ambitious and weirder than his debut.
Master (2022) is Mariama Diallo's film about power dynamics and racism at an elite college. It's slow-burn and dread-soaked, using the Gothic college setting to explore institutional racism.
Bad Hair (2020) is horror through the lens of Black women's hair politics. It sounds specific because it is - the film uses body horror to explore colorism and beauty standards.
The Inspection (2022) isn't horror, but it has the same suffocating sense of being trapped by systems designed to break you. A Black gay man joins the Marines and faces relentless scrutiny.
Slow-Burn Psychological Thrillers
The Inheritance (2020) is a family thriller about a woman invited to a strange house. The pacing is deliberate - you realize she's in danger before she fully does.
The Lodge (2019) traps people in a cabin with mounting psychological terror. Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala build dread through isolation and family dysfunction.
Saint Maud (2019) is a caregiver's obsession turning into something sinister. It's ambiguous whether the supernatural elements are real or a breakdown, which makes it more unsettling.
Midsommar (2019) does daylight horror. A woman attends a festival in Sweden that becomes increasingly unsettling. Ari Aster shoots it beautifully while building an overwhelming sense of doom.
Hereditary (2018) is Ari Aster's debut about a family haunted by generational trauma. It's horror, but it's also about how families can be the most terrifying thing.
Genre-Bending Thrillers
The Purge (2013) uses sci-fi premise to explore class violence. The poor are targeted on one night, and the film doesn't let you pretend that's not what's really happening.
Nope (2022) is Jordan Peele doing sci-fi horror about spectacle and violence. The UFO metaphor layers class, exploitation, and the entertainment industry into one disorienting film.
Don't Look Up (2021) is sci-fi satire about ignoring apocalypse. It's not horror, but the sense of helplessness and dread as people refuse to act is genuinely anxiety-inducing.
Barbarian (2023) starts as one genre and becomes something completely different. The unpredictability makes it genuinely unsettling in unexpected ways.
The Conversation (1974) is paranoid thriller from the 70s. Gene Hackman's surveillance expert gets caught in something larger. The dread builds from watching and listening.
Horror with Subtext
The Witch (2015) uses Puritan-era horror to explore religious paranoia and misogyny. Ari Aster's first feature, it's visually beautiful and deeply disturbing.
Suspiria (2018) is Luca Guadagnino remaking the giallo film. It's about fascism, control, and violence wrapped in supernatural horror. The movement and sound design are overwhelming.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) is Yorgos Lanthimos doing classical tragedy as psychological thriller. Michael Fassbender's privilege and complicity become increasingly obvious as violence escalates.
It Comes at Night (2017) is paranoia and family breakdown during plague. The horror isn't from external monsters - it's from trust eroding.
First Reformed (2017) is Paul Schrader doing eco-anxiety as spiritual crisis. Ethan Hawke's climate activist unravels, and the film doesn't look away from his breakdown.
Want to discover more thrillers that match your taste? Use our recommendation engine to find films with social bite.
Get Out proved that genre can be intelligent and entertaining without being separate. You can scare people while making them think. You can use the thriller form to explore systemic violence. These films understand that too - they're not hiding their ideas, they're embedding them into the narrative so you can't ignore them.
Topics covered: thriller, horror, social-commentary, suspense, psychological, contemporary
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and writes every guide on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu, and he still tests every pick the hard way: by watching it.