With the verdict still out on Squid Game season 2’s release date, it's no surprise that avid viewers are looking for something similar to bide the time. Can we blame them? Not even in the least bit. With the psychological K-drama hitting streaming highs in a matter of days, it's clear that it’s not lacking in mass appeal.
For the most part, it's centered on a contest with a grand prize most are willing to lose their lives for. A group of 456 players step up to the plate, competing in a series of children’s games with a deadly twist. The prize — a whopping ₩45.6 billion. To sum it all up, the show offers pure relatability and a shamelessly earnest look at the human condition.
At this point, the viral memes and TikToks are probably not enough to fill that Squid Game-shaped hole in your soul. So, to make the wait more bearable, here are 15 movies that’ll give you that Squid Game vibe.
1. Escape Room
Cryptic invitations, check. Deadly games, check. A mouthwatering grand-prize, double-check. Escape Room is hands-down the perfect parallel for Squid Game fans to explore. Directed by Adam Robitel, the psychological horror movie captures the events that follow after six vastly different strangers meet up at the Minos Escape Room Facility. With the promise of $10,000 on the table, they launch into a series of mind-twisting games that test their limits and so much more. No doubt, this one is a bit on the bloody and gory side of things, but you’re sure to catch something similar to that Squid Game buzz.
2. The Belko Experiment
Talk about a day at the office gone wrong — that’s the premise the Belko Experiment is built on. Eighty employees are not just trapped in their office building, they equally have to engage in a series of deadly games to survive. As far as they’re concerned, the origin of their predicament is a mysterious voice over the intercom that gives them half an hour to kill two workers.
This unfortunate development pits friend against friend and builds unlikely alliances along the way. At the end of the day, it all comes down to survival of the fittest.
3. The Purge
In a future where all crimes are sanctioned once a year, a well-to-do family struggles to make it through the night after their seemingly safe house comes under attack. The daunting thing about The Purge is that not many people have a choice in the matter. While some embrace the sordid festivities, others are forced to be victims in a twisted game of cat and mouse. With genuine and relatable characters, this one makes for quite the eerily realistic watch.
4. Circle
The premise for Circle is as twisted as it is intriguing, starting out with 50 practical strangers waking up in a dimly lit room. First things first, they have no idea where they are or why they’re there. The only recognizable pattern is how one person dies every two minutes. Soon enough, the group realizes that they can vote out other strangers to preserve their own lives, and that’s where things get interesting. True human nature is revealed as secrets are spilled, alliances are formed and sacrifices are made.
5. Would You Rather
A weird cross between Dinner For Shmucks and The Purge, Would You Rather explores the length a sister would go to save her brother and the sick aristocrats willing to exploit that. Here, Iris (Brittany Snow) gets tangled in a twisted game of “would you rather”. In a bid to foot the cost of her brother’s pricey leukemia treatment, Iris (Brittany Snow) opts to take part in the most dangerous game of “would you rather” ever. Alongside, seven other desperate players, Iris finds out that there can only be one winner — the last one breathing.
6. The Tournament
This one features a central theme of the rich pitting the disadvantaged against each other for sport. Sounds familiar? In this case, the twisted event is called “the tournament” and it comes around every decade. Seeing as it's a life-threatening affair, only the downright unhinged and dangerous volunteer for to participate in the sordid affair. Sure, it's a lot more bearable to watch questionable characters hunt themselves down. But it’s also disturbing in the sense that it makes viewers take a closer look at how far the rich would go to catch a few thrills.
7. Alive (2020)
Alive is a different kind of survival of the fittest tale. This time, the battle lines are drawn between a lone man and survival itself. In the wake of a full-on zombie attack, Joon-woo (Yoo Ah-in) finds himself caged in his apartment building. When things are looking too bleak to carry on, he stumbles across a survivor, Kim Yoo-bin (Park Shin-hye) and they team up to make it as long as they can. Much like it is with Squid Game, the show brings out the worst in humanity — even when they aren’t quite human anymore.
8. Battle Royale
In many ways, the Hunger Games is the American version of this controversial piece so you’ll see a few parallels there. Battle Royale itself, is based on an even more controversial novel (the kind that gets banned) and explores a dystopian future where randomly picked 9th graders are pitted in a brutal battle against each other — and yes, it's to the death. Sure, there’s no pleasure in watching teenagers slaughter themselves. But, it is fascinating to watch common high school movie tropes emerge in the midst of all that physical violence.
9. The Running Man
Based on a Stephen King novel, The Running Man truly embodies the competitive spirit of Squid Games. It's set in a dystopian version of America where corruption is practically the order of the day. There, a policeman, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is framed and his only shot at freedom is to compete in the infamous Running Man show. Here’s the lowdown, it's a deadly gameshow where criminals practically flee from hired assassins whose mission is to hunt each criminal down before they have the chance to earn their pardon. At the end of the day, it's just as sick as the Squid Game.
10. As the Gods Will
Before you jump into this one, there’s something you should know: It's as gory as they come and certainly not for the weak of the heart. Now that’s out of the way, let’s dig in. As the Gods Will is yet another movie that takes run-of-the-mill games to a whole other level. At the center of it all is Shun Takahata (Sota Fukushi) a seemingly normal teenager aside his healthy appetite for violent video games. On the fateful day that everything takes a turn for the worse, Shun and his friends are engrossed in a game of Red Light, Green Light AKA Daruma-san ga koronda, and that’s where the whole notion of life and death becomes all too real. It soon turns into a global ordeal and students from all over the world are coerced to take place in microgames that determine whether they live or die.
11. Nerve
Chances are you've never seen a game of truth or dare say daring as what's portrayed in the 2016 movie, Nerve. With Emma Roberts as Vee and James Franco as Ian, the movie explores a trendy new app that forces players to engage in increasingly life-threatening dares. While out on dares, Ian and Vee meet and jointly become top players overnight. But as the plot thickens, it's evident that there's more to the game than a mere fix for thrill-seekers, it's deadly as they come.
12. The Hunger Games
The first installment in the trilogy, The Hunger Games plays around with the familiar themes of deadly games with hefty rewards for the last man standing. It's set in a dystopian future, where there are 12 districts under the rule of the power-drunk Capitol. In a bid to keep the masses in check, the annual Hunger Games feature two tributes from each district competing in a tournament to the death. Much like it is in Squid Game, the contestants are from the bowels of society and have little to no choice to bend to the will of the Capitol… or do they?
13. I Saw the Devil
I Saw the Devil is the perfect parallel in more ways than one. First, there’s Lee Byung-hun, a familiar face from Squid Game, as well as the riveting storyline. In a classic tale of the hunter becoming the hunted, Jang Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), a serial killer finds himself entangled in a twisted cat and mouse game with a secret agent whose fiance he murdered. Talk about vengeance on steroids, the secret agent tortures him slowly through an epic series of catches and releases. Heads up; this movie does not hold back with the brutality or the gory deaths.
14. Cube
In the beginning, there was Cube, and the movie pretty much set the precedent for hits like Escape Room. However, there’s no invitation in this one, it's just five strangers who wake up in a cube-shaped room. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that they have to solve a series of puzzles for their freedom. What they probably didn’t expect was for each stage to be riddled with life-threatening traps and tricks. It may be a little bit on the older side, but it didn’t gain a loyal cult following for being a subpar watch.
15. The Condemned
It may not be the most earnest in comparison to Squid Games, but The Condemned packs a mean punch of brutality wrapped in a signature sadistic game. This time, the spotlight is on Jack Conrad (Steve Austin) a death-row inmate awaiting his end in a corrupt prison. In what seems like a chance for redemption, he’s bought by an affluent TV producer, and taken to a remote island in the South Pacific where he’s meant to battle it out for his freedom — and an attractive sum — against nine condemned criminals like himself. Heads up, there’s a whole lot of melodramatic violence and unwarranted cheesiness, but it makes for quite the entertaining watch.