Film

Revenge

Other titles called Revenge: the 2011 series (ABC).

A woman alone in the desert after a catastrophic betrayal becomes something feral and unstoppable. French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat's 2017 revenge thriller is visually gorgeous and viscerally brutal—pink-drenched desert landscapes, synth-heavy score, and unflinching violence that never feels gratuitous. It's for viewers who want their trauma transformed into art, not just spectacle.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like lean, colour-soaked genre films where a woman's physical endurance carries the story and the style is as bold as the violence.

Skip it if you can't stomach graphic gore, or you want a quick, tightly plotted thriller rather than one that lingers on bodies and pain.

What it asks of you: Expect a slow, sun-bleached opening stretch of flirtation and friction that gives way to something sharp and relentless, with little room to breathe once it does.

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

If you liked this

The Invisible Guest2017

Taut Spanish thriller about complicity and deception. Like Revenge, it starts with a betrayal and builds through increasingly clever reveals, with a protagonist forced to survive through intelligence rather than escape.

But The twist ending, while elegant, requires you to mentally rewatch the whole film—some find that feels manipulative rather than satisfying.

The Invisible Guest poster

A Prophet2009

Brutal French prison drama about a man who transforms himself through violence and cunning. Same register as Revenge: unflinching, unsentimental, watching someone become capable of terrible things for survival.

But Deliberately paced prison procedural. If you want constant action, you'll find long stretches of waiting and watching that can feel slow.

A Prophet poster

Raw2017

French-Belgian body horror about a woman discovering a primal appetite. Matches Revenge's willingness to show female rage and appetite in visceral, transgressive ways without apology or explanation.

But Graphic violence involving cannibalism. The symbolism is clear but won't comfort you—this is deliberately unsettling rather than cathartic.

Raw poster

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Picnic at Hanging Rock1975

Both films have women absorbed into landscapes that become almost supernatural, where survival means surrendering to forces beyond logic or morality. Both are more interested in atmosphere and visual poetry than explanations.

Peter Weir's 1975 Australian masterpiece: girls vanish into a natural landscape and nothing is ever quite explained. Like Revenge, it's visually sumptuous and treats nature as both beautiful and unknowable—a force that swallows human narrative.

But Meditative, deliberately mysterious. Modern viewers often find it too slow and too withholding. It's structured as mood and image rather than plot.

Picnic at Hanging Rock poster
More like this (8)

The Nightingale2018

Australian revenge film set during colonisation. Jen's journey parallels this heroine's—both are wronged, both pursue their tormentors through hostile landscapes, both become something harder than what they were.

But Unflinching depiction of sexual violence and racial brutality. This is serious tragedy, not entertainment. Some scenes are difficult even by revenge-thriller standards.

The Nightingale poster

You Were Never Really Here2017

Lynne Ramsay's brutal portrait of trauma expressed through violence. Fractured, poetic, with the same rejection of conventional narrative logic that makes Revenge feel disorienting and powerful.

But Formally experimental and deliberately hard to parse. If you need clarity and linear storytelling, this will frustrate you. It's more about mood than plot.

You Were Never Really Here poster

Kes1970

Ken Loach's British classic about a boy who finds freedom through a wild thing. Thematically linked to Revenge: the desert becomes Jen's hawk—something wild that can't be tamed back to domesticity.

But A social-realist drama from the 1960s. If you're after visceral, contemporary cinema, this will feel slow and dated despite its brilliance.

Kes poster

High Life2018

Claire Denis's sci-fi nightmare of violation and survival in deep space. Like Revenge, it's visually hypnotic and deeply uncomfortable—a woman enduring in a place designed to break her.

But Extremely slow, abstract, and existential. The lack of conventional plot or character arc will feel like punishment if you're not in the mood for formal experimentation.

High Life poster

The Wailing2016

South Korean mystery-horror about certainty dissolving into paranoia. Shares Revenge's gorgeous, unsettling cinematography and refusal to let you know what's really happening until the very end.

But Two and a half hours of mounting dread with no neat answers. Some viewers find the ambiguity frustrating rather than provocative.

The Wailing poster

Julia2008

Erick Zonca's raw portrait of an unstable woman in Buenos Aires seeking revenge. Like Revenge, it's uncomfortable and morally murky—you're never sure if your protagonist is justified, just that she's committed.

But Lacks conventional drama beats. It's a slow, unglamorous character study that doesn't reward plot-following, only attention to performance.

Julia poster

Climax2018

Both use visual lushness—candy-coloured landscapes, vivid production design—to contrast with human brutality. Both argue that beauty and violence are not opposites.

Gaspar Noé's hallucinogenic nightmare: beautiful dancers trapped in a building as they dissolve into violence. Technicolor saturation, synth score, bodies in extreme situations—the aesthetic of Revenge cranked to unbearable intensity.

But Deliberately, provocatively ugly by the end. It's hostile to the viewer in ways that don't feel cathartic, just punishing. Not recommended if you're seeking relief.

Climax poster

The Descent2005

Both interrogate the space between victim and predator. In each, a wronged woman discovers she's capable of becoming the thing she should fear, and the film doesn't judge that transformation.

Neil Marshall's English horror-thriller: a woman in a cave system hunted by something prehistoric. Like Revenge, it transforms a woman's body into something capable of shocking violence, and treats survival as requiring you to become monstrous.

But Claustrophobic creature-feature gore. If tight spaces freak you out, or if you hate jump-scares and CGI monsters, this will feel like standard horror rather than art.

The Descent poster

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Recommended by

Elle, American Mary, I Spit on Your Grave 2, Death Wish, A Vigilante, El turno de la aullante, The Assignment, The Last House on the Left, Violation, The Executioners