Film

Ingrid Goes West

A pitch-black comedy about a lonely, unstable woman who mistakes Instagram intimacy for real friendship and moves cross-country to insert herself into her idol's life. Aubrey Plaza is queasily brilliant, funny and frightening in the same breath, and the film keeps escalating past the point of comfort. It's for anyone who's ever refreshed someone's feed a few too many times and felt a little sick about it.

TMDb rating6.4

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Search Party2016

The closest thing in tone: millennial obsession, moral rot dressed as friendship, and a plot that keeps twisting the knife on how far self-delusion can carry someone. Sharper and funnier than it has any right to be.

But It shifts genres wildly season to season, which some find thrilling and others find whiplash-inducing.

Search Party poster

You2018

A stalker's inner monologue turned into slick, addictive television — it takes the same idea of curated online lives inviting real-world danger and stretches it across a whole relationship.

But It romanticises its stalker more than Ingrid ever does, which some viewers find genuinely uncomfortable rather than fun.

You poster

Can You Ever Forgive Me?2018no page yet

Melissa McCarthy, devastating and hilarious in equal measure, plays a lonely woman who fakes an identity to feel connected to a world that's shut her out — same ache, different decade.

But It's quieter and sadder than Ingrid, with less momentum and no thriller mechanics to keep things moving.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

All About Eve1950

Same structural engine as Ingrid: an outsider studying and copying an idol to steal her life, decades before Instagram gave the impulse a name.

Before influencers, there was Eve Harrington — an obsessive young admirer who insinuates herself into an aging star's life, mimics her, and slowly begins replacing her. Whip-smart, vicious, and shockingly modern.

But It's stagey, wordy, black-and-white 1950s Hollywood — a very different rhythm from Ingrid's jittery social-media pacing.

All About Eve poster
More like this (8)

Promising Young Woman2020

Another woman weaponising charm and performance, another film that turns from comedy to something much darker without warning — Carey Mulligan is magnetic and terrifying.

But Its candy-coloured tone paired with genuinely upsetting subject matter isn't for everyone, and the ending is divisive.

Promising Young Woman poster

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal's ghoulish LA hustler is a cousin to Ingrid — someone who's figured out the rules of a broken attention economy and will do anything to win at it.

But It's colder and more clinical than Ingrid, with almost no warmth to soften the nastiness.

Nightcrawler poster

Single White Female1992

The genre ancestor: an unstable woman inserts herself into another's life and identity until the seams start showing. Glossy, tense, and a direct influence on this whole subgenre.

But It's a straighter, pulpier thriller with none of Ingrid's satirical bite or dark comedy.

Single White Female poster

Spree2020no page yet

A rideshare driver livestreams his own escalating breakdown for followers — a nastier, more explicitly satirical take on the same hunger for online validation.

But It's found-footage and deliberately abrasive, which makes it a rougher, less polished watch than Ingrid.

Eighth Grade2018

The gentler cousin — a thirteen-year-old's excruciating relationship with her phone and her curated self, made with real tenderness instead of menace.

But It's far softer and sadder than dangerous; if you want Ingrid's edge, this will feel like a different animal.

Eighth Grade poster

The Cable Guy1996

Jim Carrey's needy, boundary-erasing stalker-friend is Ingrid's spiritual older brother — a studio comedy that's much darker under the slapstick than people remember.

But It's dated, broader, and less interested in psychology than in gags — a comfort watch more than a gut-punch.

The Cable Guy poster

The Imposter2012

Where Ingrid fakes intimacy for belonging, this true story shows an actual person doing the same thing with terrifying, real consequences — the fantasy made literal.

A jaw-dropping true-crime documentary about a man who convinces a grieving family he's their long-missing son. It's a real-life study in how desperately people will believe a constructed identity.

But It's a documentary with real victims and real grief — heavier and more disturbing than anything played for laughs.

The Imposter poster

May2003no page yet

Same core tragedy as Ingrid — profound loneliness curdling into obsession — but pushed into full horror instead of comedy, showing how thin that line really is.

A cult indie horror about a friendless, socially awkward woman who becomes fixated on the idea of connection — and when it doesn't come naturally, starts trying to manufacture it herself, with grisly results.

But It's genuinely unsettling low-budget horror, gorier and stranger than Ingrid, with none of the social-media satire to soften it.

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