Film

The Temp

Name: The Temp
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 1993
Cast: Timothy Hutton, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dwight Schultz, Oliver Platt, Steven Weber

Erotic thriller

A 1993 corporate thriller about a desperate executive who hires an alluring temp secretary—who turns out to be systematically eliminating his rivals. It's a sleek, paranoid office drama that trades on the anxiety of workplace vulnerability and corporate cutthroat ambition. Perfect if you want your workplace stress validated by someone actually murdering people.

TMDb rating

2.4

If you liked this

Working Girl1988

Melanie Griffith's scrappy secretary claws her way up through cunning and determination. It shares The Temp's fascination with office power dynamics and the resentment that simmers beneath corporate polish, but frames ambition as almost heroic.

But It's fundamentally optimistic where The Temp is cynical—there's no edge of real danger, just romantic comedy gloss.

Disclosure1994

Michael Douglas in another paranoid corporate nightmare, this time about sexual harassment and power reversal. Same era, same atmosphere of backstabbing and sexual manipulation as currency, same sense that anyone might destroy you for advancement.

But It's interested in making a specific political argument, which sometimes overrides the thriller momentum. Some of it plays differently now than it did in 1994.

Basic Instinct1992

Sharon Stone as a brilliant, dangerous woman who may or may not be a killer. The sexual tension, the uncertainty about who you can trust, the way intelligence and attractiveness become weapons—it's very much The Temp's DNA, just with more explicit eroticism.

But It's lurid in ways that feel dated. The Michael Douglas dynamic gets exhausting if you're not in the mood for '90s paranoia about women.

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

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Clockwatchers1997

Both are about temps as a destabilizing force in the corporate ecosystem—one sees them as victims, one as predators. Same landscape, opposite moral compass.

Four office temps bond over their shared expendability and the casual cruelty of corporate life. It's funny and angry about the same precarious workplace resentment that The Temp treats as murderous. Same world, but told from the temps' side with sympathy instead of suspicion.

But It's an indie ensemble piece from the late '90s, which means it's quieter and more observational than thrilling. If you want plot momentum, this meanders.

Swimming with Sharks1994

Kevin Spacey as a monstrous Hollywood executive who gets kidnapped and tortured by his assistant. It's a companion piece to The Temp—both about underlings weaponizing proximity and the boss's complete vulnerability to someone they rely on.

But It's much darker and meaner. There's almost no pleasure in watching it, which is exactly the point but also exhausting.

The Firm1993

Tom Cruise's lawyer discovers his prestigious firm is run by the mob. It shares The Temp's paranoia about institutions hiding rot beneath polish, and that disorienting feeling of not knowing who to trust in your own workplace.

But It's a legal thriller that sometimes prioritizes plot mechanics over character. It's also nearly three hours, and doesn't have The Temp's lean, mean efficiency.

Glengarry Glen Ross1992

Ruthless salesmen destroying each other for commission in a single brutal day. The corporate savagery is pure—no murders, just the slower knife-work of humiliation and betrayal. Same toxic workplace DNA as The Temp, but anchored in dialogue.

But It's almost entirely men talking in rooms. Beautiful but claustrophobic, and not everyone finds watching people psychologically eviscerate each other entertaining.

In Good Company2004

Dennis Quaid as a middle-aged executive suddenly working for a young boss. It's a friendlier take on workplace anxiety and generational power shifts, but carries the same awareness that your job can evaporate overnight through no fault of your own.

But It's fundamentally a rom-com, which means it resolves tensions that The Temp leaves festering. The tone is too cozy for anyone wanting real dread.

Nine to Five1980

Three secretaries fantasize about murdering their boss—and there's real rage under the comedy. It shares The Temp's interest in office power imbalance and the temp/secretary's access to vulnerability, but inverts who's hunted and who's hunter.

But It's a comedy, so the threat never feels real. The tone is so light it sometimes undercuts the legitimate grievances underneath.

The Invisible Man2020

A woman is hunted by an abusive ex who's found a way to become invisible. Like The Temp, it's about trust shattered by proximity—someone close enough to destroy you, but undetectable. Same paranoia, different machinery.

But It's primarily about domestic violence, which is a heavier register than The Temp's corporate satire. The politics can overshadow the thriller elements.

Breathless1960

Both understand that attractiveness and intelligence can be tools of predation. Both are structured around our inability to read the person right in front of us. One is a 35-minute pulse; the other is a meditation.

Godard's restless, jazzy newlyweds-on-the-run film. It shares The Temp's fascination with beautiful, amoral people playing dangerous games, sexual magnetism as power, and the question of whether charm can hide catastrophic selfishness. It's formally inventive in ways that make every scene crackle.

But It's a 1960 French New Wave film with subtitles and a fractured narrative. If you want a conventional thriller shape, this rejects it entirely.

Severance2022

Both are about workplaces as systems designed to exploit and deceive the person inside them. The Temp makes it personal; Severance makes it institutional. Same anxiety, different scale.

A dystopian workplace thriller where employees undergo surgery to sever their work memories from their personal ones—and nothing adds up. It's The Temp's paranoia scaled into architecture: the office as a place designed to destabilize you, where information is withheld and no one can be trusted, and your own mind becomes the threat.

But Only the first season exists so far. It's deliberately obscure and answers very few questions. If you need closure, this will infuriate you.