Film

Sympathy for the Devil

Name: Sympathy for the Devil
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller, Crime
Released: 2023
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Nicolas Cage, Alexis Zollicoffer, Cameron Lee Price, Oliver McCallum

Other titles called Sympathy for the Devil: the 1968 film.

Thriller
Relentless

A tense, confined thriller trapping a driver and an enigmatic passenger in a car for ninety minutes. Nicolas Cage plays the passenger with baroque menace; Joel Kinnaman is the driver trying to survive the ride. It's a battle of wills and wits in motion, relying on dialogue and mounting dread rather than spectacle. For anyone who loves psychological cat-and-mouse games and isn't afraid of unhinged performances.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy a lean, pressure-cooker thriller where two strangers trade barbs inside a single car and the menace keeps tightening, with a streak of lurid, B-movie nerve.

Skip it if you want a slow build or a grounded story; this one is loud, lurid and punchy, and its gleeful excess may feel more like a stunt than a story.

What it asks of you: Ninety minutes, almost all of it in one vehicle, with the tension cranked up early and rarely released, so it asks you to stay locked in rather than settle back.

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

If you liked this

Buried2010

A man trapped in a coffin with a phone, a lighter, and mounting panic. Like Sympathy for the Devil, it weaponizes claustrophobia and forces two characters into an impossible negotiation. Brilliant use of constraint to build terror.

But Shot entirely inside a wooden box. If the premise sounds suffocating rather than thrilling, you'll spend ninety minutes wanting out.

Locke2014

Tom Hardy drives a car for ninety minutes while his life falls apart over the phone. No action, no music, just a man unraveling in real-time through conversation. It proves a single actor and a single location can be riveting.

But Genuinely slow and static. If you need movement or external conflict, this will feel like watching someone's commute with existential dread.

Duel1971

Spielberg's debut: a man is hunted across the desert by a truck driver he can't see, can't communicate with, can't escape. Pure cat-and-mouse in a vehicle. The grandfather of confined thriller cinema.

But Made for television in 1971. It's deliberately paced and shows its age, which some find meditative and others find slow.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Sympathy for the Devil

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dead of Night1974

Both trap you in a closed space with a person who is fundamentally unknowable. The passenger and the soldier share the same quality: you can never be sure what you're dealing with, and that uncertainty is the whole engine.

A decorated soldier comes home from Vietnam wrong. Bob Clark's film is a psychological horror-thriller about a man who might be possessed, might be traumatized, or might be something worse. Uncanny, slow-burn dread that makes you deeply uneasy without jump scares.

But Completely overlooked since 1974, and the film's pacing is glacial. Some will find it boring; it's genuinely bleak and offers no catharsis.

Collateral2004

Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx trapped in a taxi across Los Angeles. A hired killer and his unwilling driver, high stakes, brilliant dialogue, and Cruise playing against type with terrifying charm.

But It leaves the car, which some might see as relief but breaks the concentrated pressure that makes the premise work.

The Hateful Eight2015

Tarantino locks eight people in a cabin during a blizzard. Dialogue-driven, paranoid, funny, and vicious. Multiple perspectives on the same events, and that Cage-like unpredictability from the entire cast.

But Three hours long, and most of it is people talking. Also genuinely upsetting in places—not just tension but cruelty.

Phone Booth2003

Colin Farrell trapped in a phone booth by a sniper. Absurd premise executed with genuine tension. Tight, fun, and doesn't overstay its welcome. A forgotten gem about constraint.

But The conceit is ridiculous and the film knows it. If you need grounded realism, the contrivance will break your suspension of disbelief.

The Driver1978

Walter Hill's neon-soaked noir about a getaway driver. Minimalist dialogue, maximum style. Ryan Gosling didn't invent the archetype, but this did. The DNA of cool, dangerous car-based thrillers lives here.

But Deliberately stylish over plot. If you watch for story, you'll be frustrated. The whole point is mood and aesthetic distance.

Breakdown1997

Kurt Russell's wife vanishes from a car in the desert, and he's trapped in a nightmare of escalating horror and helplessness. Lean, brutal, and genuinely scary. A thriller that doesn't coast on name recognition.

But From the nineties; some of the technology and cinematography have aged noticeably. The ending divides people sharply.

Speed1994

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock on a bus that cannot slow below fifty miles per hour. High-concept, propulsive, and surprisingly smart. Action in service of human stakes, and Bullock is a genuine force.

But It's a blockbuster from the nineties with all that entails: dated effects, some camp, and sequences that strain credibility. If you want grit, this is polished Hollywood.

The Leather Boys1964

Two men trapped together—one unwilling, one controlling—in a space where power and intimacy become impossible to separate. The passenger-driver dynamic mirrors the coded attraction and dominance in both films.

A young working-class man and his older motorcycle-obsessed rival take a journey together across England. Beneath the surfaces—one romantic, one combative—runs a current of unspoken attraction and class friction. A love story disguised as a buddy picture, shot with documentary realism.

But A 1964 British film about queer identity, made before that could be explicit. The subtext reads clearer now, but the surface might initially feel oblique. Also, genuinely unglamorous.

The Last of the High Kings1996

Both films center on a passenger and a driver—literally and metaphorically—navigating power, deception, and the unbridgeable gap between what people say and what they mean. One is a thriller; one is almost comedic. Both are about trapped men learning they never had control.

A working-class Irish teenager in 1982 navigates class, religion, sex, and identity with humor and heart. Gabriel Byrne and Christina Ricci in a film that feels like a memory—specific, generous, alive to contradiction. An absolute sleeper about becoming yourself.

But Made in 1996 but set in 1982, filmed entirely in Dublin. Regional, local, unmarketable. Almost impossible to find, and the pacing is deliberately loose, like a book you're living through rather than watching.