Take note when Stephen King says a movie is “one of the best” he’s ever seen. In fact, that’s exactly the case with Netflix’s ferocious 2024 revenge action thriller, Rebel Ridge.
Written, produced, directed, and edited by Jeremy Saulnier, the film follows a former Marine planning to post $36,000 bail for his cousin until the corrupt Shelby Springs police force unjustly detains him and seizes his cash.
It stars Aaron Pierre as the protagonist, Terry Richmond, and he absolutely shines in a star-making role. So if you’ve watched and enjoyed it, here are ten other films you should watch that share some properties with it.
10. Murder Party (2007)
Jeremy Saulnier’s first movie, Murder Party, was a great taster of what to expect from his career. It follows a loner who’s the sole invitee to a Halloween party, which turns out to be a bloody trap set by a perfervid group of art students. It’s dark, gritty, with plenty of humor — and far more gore than Rebel Ridge — but the fact justice is served on the movie’s antagonists by the time the credits role is something most of Saulnier’s projects, including Rebel Ridge, have in common.
9. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Sam Raimi’s revisionist Western movie The Quick and the Dead shares a core plot element with Rebel Ridge: it focuses on a righteous outsider taking on the corrupt leadership of a small town. In The Quick and the Dead’s case, Sharon Stone’s drifter “The Lady” wants revenge on the town’s ruthless outlaw-turned-mayor, John Herod, played by Gene Hackman, who lynched her father. With Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio also starring, it’s a visually stunning, action-packed, bonkers ride.
8. Death Wish (1974)
If you’re looking for a masterclass in early revenge thrillers, look no further than Michael Winner’s Death Wish. Loosely based on Brian Garfield’s 1972 novel of the same, it follows Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey, a middle-aged architect who goes on a vengeful rampage after his wife is murdered and his daughter sexually assaulted in their Manhattan apartment after being followed home by would-be muggers. While it’s undeniably exploitation fare and garnered much controversy, Death Wish is an important movie that’s brilliantly directed and performed.
7. Cop Land (1997)
Neo-noir crime thriller Cop Land is one of James Mangold’s best and most underrated films. It has the same small town setting as Rebel Ridge and features one man standing against a corrupt police force. In Cop Land’s case, Sylvester Stallone’s Freddy Heflin, the sheriff of a small New Jersey town, faces up to a group of unscrupulous New York City police officers living in the community. This suspenseful, dynamic movie’s star-studded cast also includes Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Robert Patrick, and Michael Rapaport.
6. Green Room (2015)
Green Room is another Jeremy Saulnier movie, and one of his best. The horror-thriller is dank and gritty, with bags of violence and far more gore than Rebel Ridge, but intensity and thrills that match it. It’s about a punk band who witness a murder while performing at a remote club in the Pacific Northwest, then become the targets of neo-Nazi skinheads. It stars the likes of Imogen Poots, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, the late Anton Yelchin in one of his final roles, and, bizarrely, Sir Patrick Stewart as a skinhead leader.
5. John Wick (2014)
Everyone knows John Wick. The 2014 movie, directed by Chad Stahelski and starring Keanu Reeves, is one of the best revenge films of the last decade. It started a franchise that’s now four films deep. The brilliant, stylish, and superbly choreographed movie focuses on the legendary eponymous hitman who comes out of retirement looking for revenge against the people who killed his dog, which was the last gift he received from his recently deceased wife.
4. First Blood (1982)
First Blood is arguably the movie that’s most like Rebel Ridge. Ted Kotcheff’s action classic is based on David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name. It stars Sylvester Stallone as the now-iconic John Rambo, a Vietnam veteran who inadvertently becomes the target of a police manhunt in the small town of Hope, Washington, after heading there after learning his friend died. While undoubtedly brilliantly rugged and action-packed, it’s also rather poignant and broody.
3. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
John Carpenter’s films are always worth watching, and the second one he ever made, the independent action thriller Assault on Precinct 13, is no different. The police station siege scene in Rebel Ridge is highly reminiscent of Carpenter’s thriller, which similarly drops unprepared characters in an untenable situation before raising the stakes as a relentless criminal gang attacks a defunct precinct. Starring little-known actors Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, and Laurie Zimmer, Assault on Precinct 13 is a complex, well-paced movie with bags of style.
2. Blue Ruin (2013)
Blue Ruin is Jeremy Saulnier’s best movie. Another revenge thriller, it stars Macon Blair as Dwight Evans, a vagrant forced to scavenge for food and money while living out of his car in Delaware. When he learns of the impending release of Wade Cleland, the man who murdered his parents two decades earlier, he heads to his hometown in Virginia to enact vengeance. It’s a grim but highly intelligent, suspenseful film with a tremendous lead performance.
1. Unforgiven (1992)
Without a doubt, the best film that has similarities to Rebel Ridge is Unforgiven. The Western is directed and produced by the legendary Clint Eastwood, who also stars as William Munny, a retired outlaw who embarks on one last job to take down a corrupt sheriff and his men who kill his best friend after previously becoming a farmer. This stunning movie is the finest modern Western and unsurprisingly won the Academy Award for Best Picture.