Film

Ares

Name: Ares
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Thriller
Released: 2016
Cast: Ola Rapace, Micha Lescot, Ruth Vega Fernandez, Thierry Hancisse, Hélène Fillières

Dystopian sci-fi
Very dark

A bleak French sci-fi thriller set in a economically collapsed future where the unemployed masses are pacified by state-sanctioned ultra-violence: televised fights between chemically enhanced combatants. Arès follows a young fighter trying to survive and escape the system. It's nihilistic, visceral, and uncomfortable—a sharp critique dressed in genre clothing.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a lean, grimy near-future thriller where the bleakness comes from society's mechanics rather than spectacle, and you like politics hiding inside a sports arena.

Skip it if the fight scenes are the point, so graphic violence wears thin fast if you need warmth or room to breathe in a story.

What it asks of you: Expect a short, lean run that keeps its eyes on the arena and the crowd, with little relief and your full attention on the bruises and the bitter politics.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Snowpiercer2013

A dystopian class-warfare action film with the same dark intelligence and willingness to let its premise wound you. Both pit the desperate against systems designed to crush them.

But It's longer, louder, and more operatic than Arès—less interested in quiet despair and more in spectacular rebellion.

Hunger2008

A brutal, unflinching portrait of a man pushed to the absolute edge by institutional power. Both films refuse to look away from human suffering as political statement.

But No action, almost no plot. It's a 96-minute endurance test that some find punishing rather than illuminating.

The Platform2019

Spanish sci-fi that traps people in a vertical structure and watches them dehumanize each other for scraps. The same mordant logic about what collapse actually does to people.

But Heavily metaphorical in ways that can feel didactic. The twist-heavy ending divides viewers sharply.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ares

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Suspiria1977

Both use spectacle and performance—fighting or dancing—as frameworks for exploring systems that consume young people. Both are visual statements first, narrative second.

Dario Argento's masterpiece of pure aesthetic dread—a nightmare about a dance academy that traps its students. Both films weaponize their settings and their visuals to make watching them feel dangerous.

But Giallo horror from the 1970s; operatic to the point of abstraction. The plot matters less than the texture of menace and the shocking gore.

Battle Royale2000

Japanese cult classic about forced combat between children as state entertainment. Savage, darkly funny, and genuinely transgressive in ways most films don't attempt.

But The pacing is messy and the tonal whiplash between horror and comedy won't work for everyone.

Dredd2012

A low-budget, brutalist action film about law and order in a decay-stricken future. It's lean, punishing, and makes violence feel like consequence rather than spectacle.

But Minimal plot, minimal dialogue. If you need character development or narrative momentum, this will feel thin.

Raw2017

A visceral French horror about a young woman discovering something feral inside herself. Same year, same region, same willingness to make the audience genuinely uncomfortable.

But Body horror and sexual violence. It's explicitly designed to disturb, and some scenes linger in ways that feel exploitative even when they're not.

The Road2009

Post-collapse American apocalypse that focuses on desperation and the moral calculus of survival. Bleak without being gratuitous, and deeply humanistic despite everything.

But Relentlessly grey and depressing. There is almost no light in this film, and that weight accumulates.

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson in a film about predation and the alien gaze. Hypnotic, unsettling, about systems consuming people without fanfare or narrative.

But Long stretches of observation rather than action. The pacing is glacial and the story is deliberately opaque.

Come True2020

A low-budget sci-fi thriller about sleep studies and a young homeless woman volunteering for an experiment. Shares Arès's cold eye on desperate people being instrumentalized.

But Obscure even among genre fans. The ambiguous ending and slow-burn approach will feel inconclusive to some.

Martyrs2008

Both French films from the late 2000s/2010s that interrogate violence as media spectacle and ask whether witnessing suffering is complicity or testimony.

A French New Extremity masterwork about violence, suffering, and belief. Unflinching, philosophically serious, and impossible to shake.

But This is graphic trauma designed to make you question your own viewing pleasure. Some scenes are difficult in ways that feel genuinely transgressive.

Gomorra: La Serie2014

Both are genre works—one sci-fi, one crime drama—weaponized to critique economic collapse and the way the powerful use the desperate as disposable.

An Italian mafia series that treats organized crime not as glamorous but as a grinding system of exploitation and economic desperation. It has Arès's sociological eye and its refusal to sentimentalize its characters.

But The pacing is deliberate, the dialogue often untranslated Neapolitan, and it's more interested in systems than heroes. Takes patience and commitment.