What do you want to watch tonight?
Each title says who it's good for, and who it isn't. Tap what you want tonight, or say no to one and why.
Closest to The Silence of the Lambs first
Hannibal 2013
Series
Both a gift and a curse, Graham has the extraordinary ability to think like his prey—he sees what they see, feels what they feel. But while Graham is pursuing an especially troubling, cannibalistic murderer, Special Agent Jack Crawford teams him with a highly respected psychiatrist – a man with a taste for the criminal minded – Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
The sides of Hannibal
- An FBI profiler who thinks like killers
- A psychiatrist who cooks his victims
- Murder scenes staged like works of art
Good for you if
- you like crime scenes composed like paintings and dinners shot like still lifes.
- you can't take your eyes off Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter.
- you like watching Will Graham get closer to the man sitting across from him.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand corpses turned into displays.
- you want a crime show that plays like real police work.
About: manipulation · obsession · friendship · madness
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011
Film
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
The sides of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- A journalist and a hacker
- A girl missing for forty years
- A cold Swedish island
Good for you if
- you like a dark, intricate investigation.
- you like dread in cold, clean images.
- you like an unforgettable, fierce heroine.
Bad for you if
- rape and torture scenes are too much for you.
- you'd rather not watch frank sex scenes, or not with company.
- over two and a half hours is too long for you.
About: violence against women · truth · revenge
Split 2017
Film
Though Kevin has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher, there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him — as well as everyone around him — as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
The sides of Split
- Three girls kidnapped
- A man with many personalities
- Something else waiting to come out
Good for you if
- you like one actor playing many people, each one different.
- you like a captivity thriller where escape keeps slipping away.
- you like an ending that changes what kind of film you were watching.
Bad for you if
- child abuse in flashbacks is too hard for you.
- you can't stand blood. The attacks in the last act are brutal.
About: trauma · identity · survival
Perfect Blue 1998
Anime
Rising pop star Mima Kirigoe quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
The sides of Perfect Blue
- A pop singer who becomes an actress
- A fan website that knows her daily life
- Murders around her film set
Good for you if
- you like a stalker thriller where you can't trust what you see.
- you like a story where dream, filming and reality blur.
- you like being scared by your own reflection.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather not see a staged rape scene and a nude photo shoot.
- you can't stand stabbings shown up close.
- you don't watch anime.
About: fame · identity · obsession
MINDHUNTER 2017
Series
In the late 1970s, two FBI agents start interviewing imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think, and use what they learn on open cases.
The sides of MINDHUNTER
- Interviews with real killers
- The birth of criminal profiling
- What the work does to the people doing it
Good for you if
- you like tension that comes from people talking across a table.
- you like stories built on real cases and real killers.
- you like a slow, quiet build more than action.
Bad for you if
- you can't stand a story left unfinished, and the series stopped after two seasons with the BTK thread still open.
- you don't want to hear crimes against women and children described in detail.
About: evil · method · the 1970s · obsession
Criminal Minds 2005
Series
An elite team of FBI profilers analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. The Behavioral Analysis Unit's most experienced agent is David Rossi, a founding member of the BAU who returns to help the team solve new cases.
The sides of Criminal Minds
- An FBI team of profilers
- Serial killers tracked by how they think
- A jet that takes them to each case
Good for you if
- you like working out who the killer is from how he thinks.
- you like racing with the team to stop the next victim.
- you like the BAU as a family, from Reid to Garcia.
Bad for you if
- you can't take on nineteen seasons.
- you can't stand serial killers and what they do to their victims.
About: evil · profiling · teamwork
Gone Girl 2014
Film
On their fifth wedding anniversary, a man's wife disappears, and as the police and the press dig in, he becomes the main suspect.
The sides of Gone Girl
- A marriage seen from both sides
- A trial on television
- A story that changes shape halfway
- Cold, precise, and darkly funny
Good for you if
- you love it when the floor drops out from under you halfway.
- you like a lead performance you can't look away from. Rosamund Pike holds every scene Amy is in.
- you like people who are hard to like.
Bad for you if
- you'd rather skip sex scenes, or you're watching with family.
- one sudden, very violent scene would ruin the evening for you.
About: marriage · lies · the media · image
Se7en 1995
Film
Two detectives, one a week from retirement and one just transferred in, track a serial killer who builds each murder around one of the seven deadly sins.
The sides of Se7en
- Hunting a killer
- An old cop and a young one
- Darkness with no mercy
Good for you if
- you like dread that builds in the rain and never lets up.
- you can take an ending that stays with you for days.
- you like following detectives through every step of a case.
Bad for you if
- you can't look at the aftermath of violence. The film shows what was done, in detail.
- you watch films to feel better afterwards. This one won't let you.
About: sin · indifference · the city · partnership
Prisoners 2013
Film
When his young daughter and her friend disappear on Thanksgiving, a father takes the law into his own hands while a detective works the case.
The sides of Prisoners
- A detective who won't let go
- How far a father will go
- A case built like a maze
- Rain, cold, and grey light
Good for you if
- you like being tense for two and a half hours straight.
- you like collecting clues and trying to get ahead of the detective.
- you like watching an actor go somewhere raw. Hugh Jackman does.
Bad for you if
- a child in danger is too much for you.
- two and a half hours is too long for your evening.
About: faith · revenge · guilt · fatherhood
Oldboy 2003
Film
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
The sides of Oldboy
- A man locked up for fifteen years with no reason
- A corridor fight with a hammer
- A live octopus
Good for you if
- you like an ending that floors you.
- you like a one-take hallway fight.
- you like revenge with no clean way out.
Bad for you if
- brutal violence ruins it for you.
- you won't read subtitles. It's in Korean (a dub exists).
- you can't take despair on screen. A man locked up for fifteen years comes out close to breaking.
About: revenge · guilt · imprisonment
Shutter Island 2010
Film
In 1954, a U.S. Marshal and his new partner go to a psychiatric hospital on an island to find a patient who escaped from a locked room.
The sides of Shutter Island
- A mystery that turns on you
- Gothic dread on an island
- A man haunted by loss
Good for you if
- you love a story that makes you question everything you just saw.
- you like a film you want to restart as soon as it ends.
- you like a mood that gets under your skin: storms, cells, a lighthouse.
Bad for you if
- grief and mental illness hit too close for you.
- you want to be sure what happened when the credits roll.
About: grief · guilt · madness · the truth
Black Swan 2010
Film
A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."
The sides of Black Swan
- A dancer chasing perfection
- A rival who might not be real
- Swan Lake from the inside
Good for you if
- you like a lead performance that cracks in front of you.
- you like paranoia that keeps tightening.
- you like not knowing what's real and what's in her head.
Bad for you if
- sex scenes aren't for you, or you're watching with others.
- self-harm and mental breakdown are too hard for you.
About: perfection · obsession · identity
You 2018
Series
A dangerously charming, obsessive man goes to extreme measures to insert himself into the lives of women who fascinate him.
The sides of You
- A bookstore manager who stalks women
- A voice-over from inside his head
- A glass cage in the basement
Good for you if
- you like hearing Joe justify himself in voice-over and almost agreeing.
- you like watching each of his lies come close to falling apart.
- you like laughing at Joe's inner voice judging everyone around him.
Bad for you if
- you can't watch murders up close.
- you'd rather skip sex scenes. Joe's relationships play out in bed too.
About: obsession · love · control
The Shining 1980
Film
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.
The sides of The Shining
- An empty hotel in winter
- A father going mad
- A boy riding his tricycle down the halls
Good for you if
- you like dread that builds slowly in empty corridors.
- you like long gliding shots behind a boy on his tricycle.
- you like a performance that becomes truly frightening.
Bad for you if
- you scare easily. Some images stay for years.
- you can't watch a family threatened by the father. Jack's drinking and rage turn on his wife and son.
About: isolation · madness · family
Mystic River 2003
Film
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
The sides of Mystic River
- Three childhood friends in Boston
- A murdered daughter
- A past that never healed
Good for you if
- you like raw, powerful acting.
- you like a tragedy with no clean ending.
- you like a murder investigation in a tight neighbourhood.
Bad for you if
- child abuse and a parent's grief are too heavy for you.
- you need momentum. Eastwood lets the grief and the silences run long.
About: trauma · guilt · loyalty
Saw 2004
Film
Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.
The sides of Saw
- Two men chained in a bathroom
- A killer who plays games
- A tape recorder
Good for you if
- you like an ending that rewrites everything.
- you like a ticking clock and impossible choices.
- you like piecing together who Jigsaw is from tapes and flashbacks.
Bad for you if
- torture and gore ruin a film for you.
- you need some hope. Jigsaw's games leave almost nobody whole.
About: survival · guilt · choice
American Psycho 2000
Film
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
The sides of American Psycho
- A banker obsessed with business cards
- Morning routines and murder
- 1980s Wall Street
Good for you if
- you like satire so dark you're not sure you should laugh.
- you like an empty, perfect man who's terrifying.
- you like not knowing what's real by the end.
Bad for you if
- graphic murders ruin it for you.
- explicit sex scenes aren't for you.
About: vanity · emptiness · violence
Nocturnal Animals 2016
Film
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
The sides of Nocturnal Animals
- A gallery owner reading her ex-husband's novel
- A story inside the story
- A night on a Texas highway
Good for you if
- you like cold, elegant images.
- you like a roadside scene that's hard to breathe through.
- you like a story within a story, where the novel Susan reads keeps echoing her own past.
Bad for you if
- brutal scenes in the novel Susan reads are too much for you.
- cruelty told without comfort is too heavy for you.
About: revenge · regret · art
Bates Motel 2013
Series
A "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film Psycho, depicting the life of Norman Bates and his mother Norma prior to the events portrayed in Hitchcock's film, albeit in a different fictional town and in a modern setting. The series begins after the death of Norma's husband, when she purchases a motel located in a coastal Oregon town so she and Norman can start a new life.
The sides of Bates Motel
- A young Norman Bates and his mother
- A motel bought for a fresh start
- A small Oregon town full of secrets
Good for you if
- you like Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore as a mother and son too close.
- you like knowing where Norman ends up and dreading every step.
- you like a quiet Oregon town that lives off a hidden drug trade.
Bad for you if
- you can't take abuse and mental illness on screen.
- you can't watch murders on screen.
About: mothers and sons · madness · secrets
Big Little Lies 2017
Series
The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.
The sides of Big Little Lies
- Three mothers in a rich seaside town
- A death at a school fundraiser
- A marriage hiding violence
Good for you if
- you like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern at full force.
- you like knowing someone died at trivia night but not who.
- you like friendships and rivalries between mothers at the school gate.
Bad for you if
- you can't take domestic abuse and rape on screen.
- you'd rather not see sex scenes, or you watch with others.
About: domestic violence · friendship · motherhood · secrets