Film

Criminal Lovers

Name: Criminal Lovers
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Romance
Released: 1999
Cast: Natacha Régnier, Jérémie Renier, Predrag 'Miki' Manojlović, Salim Kéchiouche, Yasmine Belmadi

Horror
Crime
Very dark
Strange

A French transgressive thriller that twists Hansel and Gretel into something darker and more disturbing. Two young lovers commit murder, flee into the woods, and stumble into a nightmare that strips away their humanity layer by layer. It's visually striking but deliberately ugly—designed to unsettle rather than entertain. For viewers who want horror that challenges rather than comforts.

TMDb rating

3.2

If you liked this

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street2007

A tale of murderous obsession with operatic style and genuine darkness beneath the gothic production design. Like Criminal Lovers, it finds horror in the psychology of violence and complicity, not jump scares.

But Tim Burton's theatrical aesthetic might feel too polished if you want grit. The musical structure won't suit everyone.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street poster

A Cure for Wellness2017

Isolates its characters in an enclosed, corrupted world where reality warps and bodies become landscape. Shares Criminal Lovers' willingness to make you uncomfortable in the name of genuine unease.

But Nearly three hours and deliberately slow. The twist hinges on a concept some will find more silly than sinister.

Martyrs2008

A French-Canadian horror film that uses graphic brutality to explore guilt, suffering, and transcendence. Demands the same moral discomfort from viewers as Criminal Lovers does, with comparable visual intensity.

But Extremely violent and nihilistic. Some scenes are genuinely hard to watch; shock is part of the point, which many will reject.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Haine1995

Both are French films from the late 1990s that use genre and visual style to examine how young people become capable of violence, and what society does to accelerate that becoming.

A French social thriller about three young men in the banlieue, shot in black-and-white with ferocious energy. Criminal Lovers' formal boldness and its interest in youth at the precipice of violence has a sibling in this film's unflinching portrait of rage and constraint.

But More political treatise than plot. If you need narrative propulsion or haven't lived the alienation it describes, the repetitive structure can feel like punishment.

Let the Right One In2008

A vampire film that strips the myth to loneliness and survival. Like Criminal Lovers, it finds horror in forbidden bonds and uses genre to explore things mainstream cinema avoids.

But Deliberately paced and quiet. The emotional core matters more than scares, which can feel slow if you want propulsion.

The Skin I Live In2011

A Spanish thriller about obsession, transformation, and the body as both prison and canvas. Matches Criminal Lovers' refusal to look away from moral complexity or aesthetic darkness.

But The plot turn asks you to recontextualize everything. Some find it clever; others feel manipulated by the reveal.

Oldboy2003

A Korean revenge thriller that doesn't flinch from depicting degradation and complicity. Like Criminal Lovers, it uses genre to ask uncomfortable questions about justice and desire.

But The violence is graphic and the sexual content disturbing. The climax is deliberately sickening, not cathartic.

Raw2017

A coming-of-age film dressed as body horror. Explores appetite, identity, and transgression with the same willingness to make the viewer's stomach turn that Criminal Lovers demonstrates.

But Slow, sometimes abstract, and the premise—cannibalistic urges—might repel you before you understand what the film's actually about.

Trouble Every Day2001

Claire Denis' vampire film that prioritizes atmosphere and bodily dread over plot clarity. Shares Criminal Lovers' European sensibility and refusal to make violence pretty or comprehensible.

But Deliberately vague and fragmented. If you need clarity or conventional narrative, this will frustrate you.

The Wailing2016

A Korean mystery-thriller that builds dread through ambiguity and competing moral interpretations. Like Criminal Lovers, it trusts the viewer to sit with uncertainty and complicity.

But Two hours and forty-seven minutes of mounting paranoia with no definitive answers. Some find it profound; others exhausting.

The Night Porter1974

Both films use forbidden eroticism and historical/moral transgression as their actual subject, not as flavor. Both ask whether beauty and monstrosity can coexist.

An Italian art film about a sadomasochistic relationship between a former SS officer and a concentration camp survivor, years after the war. It's trashy, perverse, and genuinely disturbing—the predecessor to transgressive cinema that Criminal Lovers occupies.

But Explicitly sexual and morally repulsive by design. Shot in shadow and decadence; if you want clarity of character, you won't find it.

Come and See1985

Both films use young bodies and moral transformation as their actual subject. Both refuse to let you feel comfort or superiority watching them. Both trust that cinema can be a form of genuine harm that produces genuine understanding.

A Soviet war film that destroys the myth of heroism by following a boy through apocalyptic brutality. It's formally inventive, deeply pessimistic, and uses bodily trauma not for shock but as truth. A different kind of transgression, but equally uncompromising.

But One of the most difficult films ever made. The violence is contextual rather than erotic, which some find more bearable, others unbearable precisely because it feels real.