Film

The Strange Ones

Name: The Strange Ones
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, James Freedson-Jackson, Marin Ireland, Cindy Cheung, Melanie Nicholls-King

Other titles called The Strange Ones: the 1950 film.

Mystery

Two brothers drive through remote America in this haunting slow-burn thriller that trusts you to piece together what's happening. Sparse, atmospheric, and genuinely unsettling, it builds dread through what isn't said and what you're not quite allowed to see. For people who love films that demand attention and reward it.

TMDb rating

2.7

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It Comes at Night2017

Another confined-space thriller about family secrets and mounting paranoia. It uses isolation and silence to create unbearable tension, and like The Strange Ones, it refuses to explain everything.

But Deliberately paced and bleak. If you need catharsis or answers, this will frustrate you.

A Dark Song2016

Two people trapped in a house, their relationship deepening and fracturing at once. Weird, intimate, and heavy with unspoken history—it shares The Strange Ones' ability to make ordinary moments feel sinister.

But Slow and strange in ways that demand patience. The supernatural elements are abstract and won't satisfy anyone looking for conventional scares.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Yorgos Lanthimos at his most controlled—a family unravels as hidden guilt surfaces. The dialogue is stilted in unsettling ways, and the atmosphere is suffocating. Morally complex without ever winking at the audience.

But Deliberately artificial and cold. Some will find it pretentious; others will find it cruel for cruelty's sake.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Strange Ones

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Funny Games2008

Both films make you complicit in what you're watching by withholding information and judgment. They're not interested in entertaining you; they're interested in what entertainment means when applied to darkness.

Two young men terrorize a family in their vacation home. Like The Strange Ones, it's fundamentally about the violence in ordinary relationships and what we're willing to watch. Haneke refuses to let you feel comfortable as a viewer, which is the whole point.

But It's confrontational and self-conscious about being a film—some will see that as brilliant and some as unbearable. Also relentlessly bleak without irony to soften it.

Lonesome Dove

A masterwork about two aging men, loyalty, and the weight of history. It has The Strange Ones' interest in what men don't say to each other, built across eight hours of television that don't waste a frame.

But It's long and set in the Old West. If sprawling narratives feel indulgent to you, this won't change your mind.

Green Room2016

A band trapped backstage with a violent gang, every choice potentially fatal. Jeremy Saulnier builds relentless dread from a simple setup, much like The Strange Ones, but with unsparing brutality.

But Viscerally violent. It doesn't cut away, and people die badly. Not for the squeamish or the philosophically opposed to gore.

The Killing2011

Sarah Lund investigating a murder while the truth fragments around her. It's bleak, methodical, and structured so that every detail might matter. Rewards close watching the way The Strange Ones does.

But It's 20 episodes and Scandinavian noir bleak. The pacing is architectural, not dramatic; if you need plot momentum, you'll lose patience.

Mulholland Drive2001

Two women in Los Angeles; nothing is quite as it seems. Lynch layers reality in ways that feel dreamlike and deeply wrong. It shares The Strange Ones' refusal to hold your hand through narrative.

But Deliberately fractured and cryptic. Some interpret it as a masterpiece; others see it as narcissistic filmmaking masquerading as mystery.

The Road2009

A father and son moving through an apocalyptic wasteland, their love tested by horror and hunger. It's existentially crushing and profoundly quiet—morally serious in ways that echo The Strange Ones.

But Relentlessly grim and emotionally exhausting. If you're looking for uplift or meaning, you won't find much here.

A Tale of Two Sisters2003

Two sisters in a house with their stepmother; the walls seem to breathe. South Korean fairy tale horror that favors mood and symbolism over explanation, building its power through repetition and color.

But The horror is abstract and the ending refuses clarity. It's more visual poem than puzzle, which frustrates anyone looking for logic.

Come and See1985

Both films use place—landscape, houses, the American road—as a character that reveals corruption in people. The space itself becomes unbearable as we learn what's happened there.

A Soviet film about a boy who becomes a soldier in World War II. Visually devastating and structurally unconventional, it demands you experience trauma rather than understand it. The camera work is as disorienting as the boy's descent.

But It's a 1985 Soviet war film shot in grainy, saturated color. Difficult to find, difficult to watch, and historical distance won't soften what it's saying.

Shutter Island2010

Both films are really about unreliable perspective and how we rationalize what we've witnessed. The plot isn't the point; the slow realization that you've been misled is.

Two detectives investigate a disappearance on an island where nothing adds up. It's structured like The Strange Ones—a mystery that's really about what men hide from themselves. Scorsese in genre-thriller mode, committed and unflinching.

But It's a Shyamalan-style twist ending. If you guess it early, the reveal will feel deflating rather than earned.