If you’re a fan of The Purge movie franchise, you know there’s nothing quite like the thrill and terror of a night where all crime is legal. The Purge films explore a dystopian near-future America where once a year, for 12 hours, citizens can commit any crime they want without punishment. It’s a fascinating premise that has spawned 5 movies and a TV series so far.
But if you’ve binged the whole Purge series and are craving more movies with similar vibes, you’re in luck. There are plenty of other great horror and thriller films out there that share key themes with The Purge – like deadly survival games, home invasions, masked killers, and biting social commentary. Here’s our list of the top 18 movies to watch next if you love The Purge:
1. The Belko Experiment (2016)
Imagine if your workplace became a brutal battlefield and your co-workers turned into vicious killers. That’s the chilling scenario of The Belko Experiment. In this 2016 horror-thriller, a group of 80 American employees are locked in their corporate office building in Bogotá, Colombia. A mysterious voice comes over the intercom and orders them to participate in a deadly game – kill 30 of your fellow employees, or 60 will be killed at random.
Panic and paranoia quickly set in as the workers grapple with the horrific task. Some try to find a peaceful solution, while others embrace the violence. Alliances form and tensions boil over into a gory fight for survival. With its claustrophobic setting and provocative premise that pits employees against each other, The Belko Experiment is a gripping, grisly watch for any Purge fan. You’ll never look at your annoying co-workers the same way again.
2. The Strangers (2008)
Before The Purge came along, The Strangers set a new standard for terrifying home invasion thrillers. The film follows a couple, Kristen and James, who are staying at a remote vacation home. Late one night, three masked strangers – Dollface, Pin-Up Girl, and the Man in the Mask – show up at the house. The intruders proceed to terrorize and stalk the couple in a nerve-shredding game of cat-and-mouse.
The Strangers succeeds by tapping into the primal fear of having dangerous trespassers violate the safety of your home. The movie milks unbearable tension out of long silences and the ominous threat lurking just off-screen. When the violence does erupt, it’s swift and brutal. With its iconic masked villains and pulse-pounding suspense, The Strangers laid the groundwork for the Purge series. It remains a must-see for any fan of the “one night of terror” subgenre.
3. You’re Next (2011)
You’re Next is another standout home invasion horror flick with a clever twist. The story centers on the wealthy Davison family, who come together at their secluded mansion for a wedding anniversary getaway. The family reunion takes a bloody turn when a gang of animal-masked killers lays siege to the house and starts gruesomely picking off the Davisons one by one.
But the intruders soon discover that one of the guests, a young woman named Erin, has a surprising hidden talent – she’s a total badass with amazing survival skills. As the night unfolds, Erin turns the tables on the attackers in a series of gory, crowd-pleasing kills. You’re Next breathes new life into the home invasion formula with its feisty “final girl” and fun, subversive tone. It’s a smart, self-aware slasher with plenty of wicked humor and satisfying payback for Purge aficionados.
4. The First Purge (2018)
If you’ve ever wondered how the Purge tradition began, The First Purge has the chilling answers. This prequel goes back to the origins of the very first experimental Purge night. To push the crime rate below 1% for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) decide to test a radical sociological theory. For 12 hours, all crime will be legal on Staten Island, including murder.
The NFFA offers $5,000 to any low-income residents willing to stay on the island during the Purge. But as the night goes on and the body count rises, it becomes clear that the government has a sinister hidden agenda. The First Purge provides intriguing backstory for the franchise while also delivering a searing commentary on issues of race, class, and systemic oppression in America. It shows how the Purge was created as a tool to eliminate marginalized groups that the NFFA deemed undesirable.
5. The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
The second film in the Purge series, The Purge: Anarchy expands the scale of the night’s mayhem. While the first Purge focused on one family in a home invasion scenario, Anarchy widens the scope to show what happens out on the chaotic city streets during the Purge. The movie follows several different characters from separate walks of life who end up banding together to survive the night.
There’s a working class waitress and her teenage daughter, a bickering married couple, and a mysterious vigilante named Sergeant who is out to get vengeance on the man who killed his son. The group must navigate the dangerous urban war zone while being hunted by vicious gangs, murder-hungry one-percenters, and even a well-armed team of government soldiers. Anarchy ups the action and social allegory, shining a harsh light on the class warfare that underpins the Purge.
6. The Purge: Election Year (2016)
In The Purge: Election Year, the annual Purge tradition faces a political challenge. Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate, is running on an anti-Purge platform, vowing to eliminate the bloody holiday. As a Purge survivor herself, Roan sees the event for what it really is – a way for the NFFA to dispose of the poor and boost the weapons economy.
On the night of what could be the final Purge, Senator Roan finds herself outside of her secure bunker and vulnerable on the streets of D.C. She and her head of security, Leo Barnes, must fend off deadly assailants with NFFA ties who are determined to thwart her campaign. Election Year brings a boots-on-the-ground perspective to the Purge, showing the vicious fights for survival that play out in the city’s back alleys and subways. It’s a timely political horror-thriller that takes aim at corrupt leaders who sell out the people for power and profit.
7. The Forever Purge (2021)
What happens when a sizeable group of people decide they don’t want the Purge to end after just 12 hours? That’s the terrifying scenario of The Forever Purge, which sees many Purgers choosing to keep on killing illegally after the Purge concludes. Suddenly, the rules that once contained the night’s violence have been thrown out the window.
The film follows a Mexican couple, Adela and Juan, who are striving for a better life in Texas. Juan works as a ranch hand for the wealthy Tucker family. But on the morning after the Purge, a masked gang of Forever Purgers attacks the Tucker ranch. Juan, Adela, and the Tuckers must band together to escape from the anarchic violence that is spreading rapidly across the state. The Forever Purge imagines a grim future where the savagery of Purge night becomes an unstoppable epidemic infecting America year-round.
8. The Raid (2011)
This Indonesian action thriller directed by Gareth Evans isn’t about a Purge night, but it shares the same relentless intensity and gritty, close-quarters combat. The Raid follows an elite squad of 20 police officers who stage a raid on a 15-story apartment block in Jakarta. The building is a safe house for a ruthless drug lord and his army of dangerous thugs and killers.
When a spotter blows the team’s cover, the police find themselves stranded on the seventh floor, surrounded by a horde of armed criminals who want them dead. Trapped in the claustrophobic confines of the high-rise, the squad must fight their way up to the drug lord’s lair on the 15th floor. The Raid is a heart-pounding, brutally visceral martial arts film with some of the most jaw-dropping action sequences ever committed to screen. It’s an adrenaline-soaked gauntlet of violence that Purge fans need to experience.
9. Mayhem (2017)
Mayhem is another office-set thriller in the same vein as The Belko Experiment. In this horror-comedy, a dangerous virus that lowers inhibitions and inspires violence infects a corporate law firm. Suddenly, the white-collar workplace erupts into a savage free-for-all of bloodshed and depravity.
Amid the chaos, an attorney named Derek Cho sees an opportunity. He was unfairly fired right before the outbreak hit. Now, he decides to fight his way to the executive floor and settle the score with the corrupt higher-ups who wronged him. Teaming up with an irate client, Derek hacks and slashes a path through his crazed colleagues in a quest for redemption. With its mix of gleeful gore, black humor, and satirical jabs at soulless corporate culture, Mayhem is a blood-soaked blast tailor-made for Purge devotees.
10. Escape Room (2019)
For a PG-13 spin on the Purge formula, try Escape Room. This psychological thriller follows six strangers who receive mysterious invitations to compete in a new, immersive escape room experience with a $10,000 prize. But as soon as the game begins, the players quickly realize that the stakes are life or death.
The group must work together to solve elaborate, deadly puzzles in order to survive and escape each room. The traps grow increasingly dangerous, from a giant oven to an upside-down billiards bar to a frigid, ice-covered lake. As the players are eliminated one by one, the remaining survivors uncover a sinister secret that connects them all. Escape Room delivers inventive, suspenseful set pieces that will keep you squirming, plus a fun mystery to unravel at the center.
11. The Hunt (2020)
The Hunt puts a darkly satirical spin on the humans-hunting-humans premise. Inspired by the classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” the film follows 12 strangers who wake up in a clearing with no idea how they got there. They soon discover that they are the prey in a twisted game devised by a group of wealthy, liberal elites who have kidnapped them to hunt for sport.
But one of the hunted, a tough-as-nails woman named Crystal, proves to be a formidable foe. She turns the tables on the hunters, determined to gun down the mysterious mastermind behind the game. The Hunt provoked controversy with its politically charged setup, which takes aim at both smug, out-of-touch liberals and so-called “deplorables” on the right. It’s a bloody, tongue-in-cheek thriller that’s sure to get Purge fans’ pulses pounding.
12. Green Room (2015)
Green Room is a brutally intense siege thriller that traps its characters in a life-or-death struggle against a gang of murderous white supremacists. The story follows a punk rock band called The Ain’t Rights, who are wrapping up a disappointing tour. Desperate for cash, they take a gig at a remote skinhead bar in the Oregon woods.
After their set, the band stumbles upon a dead body in the green room. They soon find themselves under attack by the club’s neo-Nazi owner and his ruthless henchmen, who can’t let the murder witnesses escape alive. Barricaded in the green room, the band must fight back against the armed skinheads with whatever weapons they can find. With its sustained sense of dread, visceral violence, and nuanced exploration of a hate group subculture, Green Room is an unforgettably harrowing thriller.
13. The Killing Room (2009)
In The Killing Room, four individuals sign up for what they believe is a quick and easy psychological study. But when they arrive at the research facility, they discover that they are actually the subjects of a classified government program to test average citizens’ responses to extreme duress. The unwitting participants are sealed in an underground bunker and subjected to a series of increasingly sadistic psychological tortures.
As the situation spirals out of control, hidden agendas come to light and unlikely alliances form. The test subjects must decide how far they are willing to go to survive the experiment. The Killing Room is a chilling, claustrophobic thriller that turns an antiseptic scientific environment into a deadly crucible that pushes its characters to their breaking points, similar to the twisted trials of the Purge.
14. Funny Games (2007)
Funny Games is a shot-for-shot American remake of the controversial 1997 Austrian film of the same name, both written and directed by Michael Haneke. This disturbing psychological thriller centers on an upper-class family – George, Ann, and their son Georgie – who are taking a vacation at their lake house. Their idyllic getaway is shattered by the arrival of two young men, Peter and Paul, clad in white gloves and preppy attire.
The two men take the family hostage and force them to participate in a series of cruel, manipulative “games” that grow more depraved as the night goes on. Funny Games is a challenging, polarizing film that subverts the home invasion genre in order to implicate the viewer. By breaking the fourth wall and drawing attention to the audience’s complicity in on-screen violence, the movie delivers a thought-provoking and profoundly unsettling experience.
15. The Invitation (2015)
The Invitation is a slow-burn psychological thriller that expertly builds tension over the course of one increasingly unnerving dinner party. Will and his girlfriend Kira drive out to the Hollywood Hills home of his ex-wife Eden and her new husband David. Will and Eden are reuniting for the first time in two years, along with a group of old friends, since the tragic death of their young son Ty.
As the get-together progresses, Will can’t shake the feeling that something is off about Eden and David. The pair are acting strangely upbeat, and their other dinner guests also seem not quite right. Will begins to suspect that his hosts have a sinister hidden agenda. The Invitation keeps you guessing until its explosive final act, artfully blurring the line between paranoia and terrifying reality.
16. Exam (2009)
Exam is a British psychological thriller that follows eight candidates as they reach the final stage of a prestigious job interview. The applicants are led into a room and given 80 minutes to answer one question in order to win a coveted position at a powerful corporation. But when they turn over their exam papers, they find them completely blank.
The baffled candidates soon realize that they are being tested on their ability to stay in the room and follow the company’s strict set of rules. As the clock ticks down, the group dynamic grows increasingly strained and cutthroat. Tempers flare, revealing secrets come to light, and the applicants turn on each other as they struggle to figure out the question. Exam is a taut, twisty chamber piece that keeps the audience guessing until the final reveal.
17. Circle (2015)
Circle is another single-room thriller that places its characters in a deadly game governed by a mysterious set of rules. Fifty strangers wake up in a darkened room, arranged in two concentric circles around a strange, glowing orb. Every two minutes, the orb zaps one of them dead.
The terrified captives quickly realize that they can control who dies next by voting for someone when the orb’s light lands on them. Alliances form and fray as the group argues over how to decide who deserves to live or die. Will they choose to save the young or the old? The strong or the weak? The minorities or the privileged? Circle is a provocative morality play that confronts thorny ethical dilemmas as it whittles down its cast with each suspenseful elimination round.
18. Judgement Night (1993)
Judgment Night is an action-thriller that follows a group of friends who get lost in a bad part of town and witness a murder committed by a ruthless drug lord. The friends are spotted at the scene and become the gang’s prey as they flee through the dangerous city streets over the course of one deadly night.
The cast includes Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff as the yuppies in peril, with Denis Leary as the vicious gang leader in pursuit. Judgment Night combines the “wrong turn” setup of a film like The Warriors with the relentless one-night survivalist thrills of The Purge. It’s a tense, gritty ’90s time capsule with an adrenaline-pumping soundtrack featuring collaborations between rock and hip-hop artists.
So there you have it – 18 suspenseful, blood-soaked movies to keep you up at night after your next Purge binge. Whether you’re in the mood for a claustrophobic kill-or-be-killed thriller, a gory home invasion nightmare, or a satirical survival game, there’s a film on this list to satisfy your craving.
Whether you’re already a die-hard Purge fan or you’re just discovering this thrilling horror subgenre, you really can’t go wrong with any of the movies on this list. Each one delivers nail-biting suspense, visceral action, and provocative social commentary in the spirit of the Purge series. So lock your doors, draw your curtains, and queue up one of these 18 pulse-pounding thrillers for your next movie night.
