In 2014, Gone Girl became something of a surprise hit. Expectations were high as it was an adaptation of the critically acclaimed Gillian Flynn novel, but the execution blew audiences away in a way that people quickly started revering it as a classic. On the surface, trailers pitched this as a standard mystery regarding a husband reeling with the disappearance of his wife, but as the movie progresses, it reveals itself as so much more.
Now a classic seven years later, the Oscar-nominated spectacle has retained a cult following of dedicated fans begging for more. With such a definitive ending, those fans should not expect a sequel anytime soon, but they should be open to some recommendations that evoke the same kind of themes and spirit as their favorite movie once did.
10 Revenge Is Violent But Empowering
For many female viewers, Gone Girl is an empowering movie beneath all of the bloodshed and mystery. It's simultaneously violent and empowering in the same vein as 2017's Revenge. In Coralie Fargeat's feature-length directorial debut (which, surprisingly, remains her only movie to date), Matilda Lutz plays Jen, a woman on a romantic getaway with her married neighbor, Richard. His friends visit and one violates Jen. When Jen refuses the bribe money from the trio to forget what happened, Richard pushes Jen off a cliff. Miraculously, she survives and commits to revenge.
Unlike the average rape-revenge movie, this is more so about a woman who rises like a phoenix through tragedy to become reborn as something stronger. Something poetic and inspirational that maybe Amy Dunne can relate to.
9 The Invisible Man Is Subtle Girl Power
On the subject of female empowerment, there have been plenty of movies released of that nature in recent memory, all with varying degrees of effectiveness. One of the more subtle entries into that genre and also the most recent from Hollywood is the 2020 update of The Invisible Man.
When its girl-power message doesn't scream itself into the face of the viewer, this movie doesn't technically feel like such a movie. But when, at its core, the movie follows a traumatized young woman gaslit at every turn when nobody believes in the true terror inflicted by her husband, forced to fight on her own to reclaim her life, it's hard to say this isn't a female empowerment movie.
8 Basic Instinct Reveals More Than Fans Think
Let's talk straight about the elephant in the room: Basic Instinct gained a reputation for a scene where Sharon Stone opens her legs in front of the camera and exposes her ... um, let's call it a "basic instinct." For that alone, the movie has gained controversy and notoriety, but don't mistake that one scene for painting Stone's character as some crazed sexual object.
Without spoiling too much, Basic Instinct can be viewed with modern eyes as Gone Girl before Gone Girl, albeit with more gratuitous nudity.
7 Ms .45 Is When Revenge Goes Wrong
If Gone Girl shows what it looks like when revenge looks so sweet, then Ms .45 is all about what happens when revenge looks absolutely terrifying when it goes terribly, terribly wrong.
Directed by Abel Ferrara and crafted as a character study in the same vein as movies like Taxi Driver or Death Wish, Ms .45 follows a mute woman who has been attacked twice in the same day by two different assailants. After retaliating against her second attacker and taking his .45 pistol, she becomes a vigilante to kill awful men, but as she grows obsessed with the feeling of shedding blood, she goes from targeting abusers to just any man in her way.
6 Prisoners Is The Perfect Mystery
When the final act and reveal of Gone Girl is so delightfully satisfying as it is, it's easy to forget that the bulk of the movie centers on a mystery surrounding Amy's whereabouts. For viewers where were most compelled when the movie was a mystery, Prisoners might be worth watching.
The criminally underrated Hugh Jackman vehicle sets him up as a father dealing with the fact his two young daughters have been abducted and the police struggle to find a culprit. So he takes the law into his own hands, but don't let that synopsis that this is an action revenge thriller that suits Wolverine's strengths. Instead, it's a dark drama about how trauma beckons trauma.
5 Secret Smile Is Rooted In Toxicity
At its core, Gone Girl is about a relationship where both parties prove toxic for each other. A toxic relationship also lies at the center of the UK's twist-filled Secret Smile, although most of the toxicity is perpetuated by the male of the relationship.
Granted, Secret Smile is technically a series, but seeing as that so-called "series" only consists of two episodes that both last an hour and together make up 90 minutes, it's best viewed as a singular movie watched back-to-back. The UK drama stars Jessica Jones' David Tennant and Shaun of the Dead's Kate Ashfield as a one-off fling quickly broken off by the latter and not taken too kindly by the former. It even has its own Gone Girl-esque twist near the end.
4 I Care A Lot Is Arguably Rosamund Pike's Best Role
If fans of Gone Girl came out of the movie most in love with Rosamund Pike's performance as Amy Dunne, then the no-brainer follow-up double feature would be to watch her latest starring effort in I Care A Lot. Arguably, Pike is even better this time around as her performance garnered her the Golden Globe win for Best Actress.
Her turn in I Care A Lot is a much more overtly villainous one as she plays a local Massucchetts woman scamming the local elderly home system. Things get sticky when her schemes catch up to her and have her locking horns with gangsters.
3 The Witch Is A Tale Of Paranoia
One understated theme and quality to Gone Girl is the paranoia induced around Ben Affleck's character as the media continue to speculate about his involvement in Amy's disappearance, even though he is an innocent man. A similar paranoia lies front and center at the forefront of The Witch.
This 2015 horror movie features the breakout role of Anya Taylor-Joy as she plays a young girl within a Puritan family that has turned against her. Despite her insistence to the contrary, the innocent young woman is accused of being a witch.
2 Heathers Offers A Lighthearted Break From Gloom
For those who absolutely adored Gone Girl, but right now need a break from the gloomy atmosphere, Heathers manages to offer a lighthearted and comedic tone whilst also staying true to similar dark undertones that drove the plot of Gone Girl. The plot is also driven by a toxic relationship that a woman must break herself out of, much like Gone Girl.
This black comedy is about a popular girl and a punk boy who start dating before committing to kill fellow students and making each murder look like a suicide.
1 Se7en Helped David Fincher Make Gone Girl
Long before he helmed Gone Girl, David Fincher directed Se7en, which in 1995 starred Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two detectives tasked with catching a serial killer. While it is a very different premise from Gone Girl, Se7en still encompasses early examples of themes, visuals, and even atmosphere that would later be present in Fincher's 2014 masterpiece.
Not only that, but the movie was only Fincher's second feature, and for some, technically his first since his debut - Alien 3 - was muddled by studio meddling to the point that not even Fincher himself claims it as his own. The success of Se7en helped lead Fincher down the path he needed to be on to ever be allowed to direct Gone Girl.