Film

The Survivalist

Name: The Survivalist
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
Released: 2015
Cast: Martin McCann, Mia Goth, Olwen Fouéré, Douglas Russell, Andrew Simpson

Drama
Very dark

A bleak, dialogue-sparse Irish thriller about a man who has built a solitary life off the land until two women find him. It's slow, tense, and utterly committed to its vision of post-collapse survival—less action movie than psychological study of trust and self-preservation. For those who want dread over plot.

TMDb rating

3.1

If you liked this

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night2014

A vampire film that's actually a meditation on isolation, desire, and safety. Shot in black-and-white Iran, gorgeously strange, with real emotional stakes beneath the genre trappings.

But Deliberately paced and abstract. If you need a story that moves, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Stalker1979

Tarkovsky's masterpiece about three men crossing a mysterious zone. It shares The Survivalist's obsession with slow tension, atmosphere, and what we want versus what we actually need.

But 163 minutes of mostly silence and long shots. This is not entertainment in the conventional sense.

Coherence2014

A dinner party goes wrong in a high-concept thriller that builds dread through conversation and character. Low budget, high tension, and genuinely unsettling.

But You need to pay close attention. Look away and you'll lose the thread entirely.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter2014

Both follow a solitary figure whose entire world is disrupted when outsiders arrive; both are unflinching about the gap between fantasy and survival.

A woman obsessed with recovering buried loot from Fargo ventures into Minnesota winter. It's a meditation on isolation and obsession, but told with surreal humour and genuine warmth beneath the strangeness.

But The deadpan tone and slow-burn narrative will feel odd if you're expecting a thriller. It's closer to art cinema than genre.

Come True2020

A sleep-study thriller that's visually hypnotic and deeply paranoid. Explores vulnerability and bodily autonomy with real creeping unease.

But The pacing is glacial. Plot takes a back seat to mood and dread.

Green Room2016

Trapped in a neo-Nazi venue, a punk band fights for survival. Visceral, tightly plotted, and genuinely frightening—survival thriller with real stakes and momentum.

But Brutal and graphic. The violence is neither glamorous nor quick.

The Kill Team2019

A soldier's account of his deployment in Afghanistan turns into a moral nightmare. Intimate, specific, and profoundly uncomfortable in ways that matter.

But Darkly satirical about war, masculinity, and complicity. It won't comfort you.

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson plays an alien predator in Glasgow. Hypnotic, strange, and built entirely on mood and visual language rather than exposition or dialogue.

But Nearly plotless and deeply unsettling. Many viewers find it pretentious or just boring.

A Dark Song2016

Two people in an isolated house attempt a ritual of spiritual communion. Quietly devastating, with genuine emotional weight and an honest reckoning with grief.

But Extremely slow. Nothing happens in the conventional sense for a very long time.

The Road2009

A father and son traverse a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Based on McCarthy's novel, it captures desperation and love in the face of annihilation.

But Relentlessly bleak. There is almost no joy or relief, which some find punishing rather than moving.

Kes1970

Both show humans trying to master nature and escape their circumstances; both expose how fragile any escape really is.

A working-class Yorkshire boy trains a wild hawk as an escape from his bleak world. Ken Loach's early masterpiece is tender, furious, and devastatingly human—a boy and a bird as survival.

But Filmed in 1969 and set in industrial Yorkshire. The world is grey, the accents thick, the ending brutal.

The Invisible Man2020

Both use isolation and threat as the central mechanism; both ask what you owe to a stranger when your own survival is at stake.

A woman hunted by an abusive ex who has somehow become invisible. Leigh Whannell's thriller uses sound design and negative space to create unbearable tension and is ultimately about survival and bearing witness.

But The premise sounds like pulp, but it's actually about domestic violence. Some viewers find the allegory heavy-handed.