Directed by Rian Johnson, Knives Out is styled after classic whodunnit murder mysteries but with a modern and stylish fare, and fans of movies like Knives Out will be glad to know there’s a wealth of films in a similar mold. Knives Out released in theaters in 2019 and was a huge success, earning a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and making $312 million at the box office, (via Box Office Mojo). Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is a private detective from the American South, hired by a wealthy family to solve the crime of their patriarch’s demise and more importantly, dole out his large inheritance as quickly as possible.
Knives Out was something of a throwback when it arrived. The movie starred a number of actors best known for their franchise work (Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, etc.) and put them in a chamber piece. With an all-star cast, a clever script, and a lot of great humor, Knives Out sparked a renewed interest in whodunnits and led to a sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Though it feels like a unique film that plays brilliantly with genre expectations, there are many other great movies like Knives Out that capture a similar feel.
22 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
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Daniel Craig is debatably the best James Bond, but he has starred in a number of projects outside the 007 franchise. Fans who love seeing him solve crimes as Benoit Blanc and want more movies like Knives Out, might also enjoy the English-language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Like in Knives Out, Craig here plays a sort of investigator, a journalist hired by the patriarch (Craig’s Knives Out co-star Plummer) of a wealthy family to solve the murder of his niece decades earlier. This is a much darker mystery story, however, and has none of the comedic color of Knives Out.
21 Mystery Team (2009)
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Johnson clearly drew inspiration from the novels of Agatha Christie when making Knives Out. Likewise, Mystery Team is influenced by mysteries like the Hardy Boys but adds an R-rated twist to those more wholesome stories. The movie follows a group of three friends whose childhood obsession with solving neighborhood crimes has made them outcasts in their high school years. However, the young men find themselves in over their heads when they are hired to solve a murder. Mystery Team is a movie like Knives Out in that while death is at the heart of each story, the humor is never lost underneath the grim plot.
20 The Brothers Bloom (2008)
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Before Johnson got into the tentpole moviemaking business with films like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, his filmography was closer to movies like Knives Out. The Brothers Bloom is Johnson’s second feature film and stars Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody as a pair of con artist brothers who decide to take on one last daring job. The movie is another example of how Johnson can pay loving homage to a genre while also playing with the tropes. The result is awildly fun caper that is elevated by its talented cast of characters. Johnson uses the trope of fake injuries/death in this movie, and it reappears in Knives Out.
19 Murder By Death (1976)
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Though Knives Out certainly plays around with the murder mystery formula in hilarious and clever ways, it never goes into parody territory. However, for fans looking for movies like Knives Out that are also full-blown comedies, Murder by Death is a terrific option. The movie follows the classic dinner party murder mystery plot, only the guest list is filled with the world’s most famous detectives. When a mystery does indeed present itself, it is great fun watching these various sleuth archetypes battle each other to solve the case. It’s as if every character in Knives Out spent time studying under Benoit Blanc.
18 Sherlock Holmes (2009)
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With the success of Knives Out and its celebrated sequel, Benoit Blanc has entered the conversation as one of the great fictional detectives of all time. However, it is hard for any character to beat Sherlock Holmes in that category. While there are a number of detective movies like Knives Out, few star the literary icon himself, and the character was given the big-budget treatment in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. It is a stylish period movie with some compelling mystery elements thrown in. Sherlock Holmes is more action-packed than Knives Out but the way each detective systematically pieces together clues in satisfying, flash-back sequences is very similar.
17 The Nice Guys (2016)
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Movies like Knives Out benefit from a director like Johnson who can create a film that fits into the murder mystery genre and still toy with the conventions of the genre in unexpected ways. The Nice Guys from Shane Black achieves a similar trick. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as two low-life private eyes who team together to solve a missing-person case. Black’s passion for the hard-boiled detective genre allows him to play with the rules of those kinds of films. In The Nice Guys, as in Knives Out, the stakes are high, but the story has a whimsical and appropriately goofy tone.
16 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
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The best movies like Knives Out often have a dysfunctional family often at the center. The Thrombeys in Johnson’s film are a family of wealthy and intelligent people who immediately show their true, ugly colors when they don’t get what they want. Though there is no murder mystery at the center of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, the titular family feels very similar to the Thrombeys. The Tenenbaums are also a group of talented and wealthy people who are unable to function together in a healthy way. In both movies, the actions of the family patriarch directly result in the inability of their families to connect to each other.
15 Sleuth (1972)
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While there are a number of movies like Knives Out, there are some specific films that directly inspired the story. Johnson has talked about a number of these inspirations, including Sleuth. The 1972 film stars Laurence Olivier as a famous author of detective novels who invites his wife’s lover (Michael Caine) to his home where the two men engage in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. There are even some Easter eggs in Knives Out that are direct references to Sleuth.
14 Deathtrap (1982)
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Artists are always interesting characters in a murder mystery. Deathtrap is a 1982 film directed by Sidney Lumet and stars Caine as a struggling playwright who plots to murder a more talented up-and-coming writer (Christopher Reeves) and steal his work. The movie is another clever and unique take on the genre. Movies like Knives Out and Deathtrap succeed because of the darkly funny tone that makes audiences groan and burst out laughing in the same scene. Jealous feelings permeate both movies and are inevitably what ends up being the core motive behind the murder (or attempted murder).
13 Ready Or Not (2019)
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Great movies like Knives Out manage to be hugely entertaining murder mysteries while also making interesting commentary about privilege. That was a theme shared by a lot of 2019 films, including the horror-comedy Ready or Not. Horror movie star Samara Weaving broke out as a young woman marrying into a wealthy board game magnate family. However, on her wedding night, she finds herself in a deadly game of hide-and-seek. It is a wild, hilarious, and bloody romp and Weaving has a similar role to Ana de Armas as the strong-willed outsider who fights her way out of danger.
12 Brick (2005)
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Johnson had made movies like Knives Out long before he became well-known for his mastery of the mystery genre. In fact, his feature directorial debut was an underrated mystery noir called Brick. The movie stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school student investigating the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Though it is set in a modern high school setting, the movie is presented as an old-school detective film. Like all good movies of the genre, the central mystery keeps viewers guessing throughout. There are kernels of the style that would take center stage later in Knives Out peppered throughout Brick.
11 Scream (1996)
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Movies like Knives Out are similar to slasher movies in how both use the whodunnit mystery in their stories. Scream follows a group of teens who are stalked by the murderous killer Ghostface. This sounds like standard slasher fare, but the film brilliantly uses horror tropes to its advantage, as Scream is a self-aware slasher movie full of characters who know all the clichés. The movie does a great job of playing with those expectations to keep the audience guessing until the killer is finally revealed.
10 Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)
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Part of the great fun of movies like Knives Out is seeing an ensemble of A-list actors sharing the screen and playing characters with their individual secrets and quirks. Another movie with a similar setup is Bad Times at the El Royale. The movie stars Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Chris Hemsworth as strangers who converge at the titular motel. The movie slowly reveals what each of the characters is hiding and how their own journeys collide with one another. Bad Times at the El Royale and Knives Out both introduce their ensemble characters as one-dimensional, but it quickly becomes apparent there is more lurking beneath the surface.
9 Identity (2003)
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Identity, similar to other movies like Knives Out, also follows a group of strangers who find themselves together under one roof, though, in the former, it’s the roof of a motel rather than a mansion. Before long, the guests begin to get picked off one by one as the others try to determine which of them is the killer. The movie is a twisty thriller with a great cast including John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Ray Liotta. While the final twist doesn’t have the same feeling of completing a puzzle as it does in Knives Out, the movie maintains an effective dark and threatening feel that keeps viewers hooked.
8 Green For Danger (1946)
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Green for Danger is an older murder mystery film that stars Alastair Sim as a detective investigating a group of doctors after a death during surgery is ruled as a murder. Much like Craig’s Southern private eye in Knives Out, Sim plays an unusual detective who adds a lot of levity to the murder investigation. The movie slowly reveals layers to its mystery until the final, satisfying reveal that was front and center the whole time.
7 Game Night (2018)
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Though Knives Out deals with an apparent murder, it is not light on its comedy. Another fun mystery comedy in a mold of movies like Knives Out is Game Night. The film stars Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as a couple who host a game night with friends. However, when their murder mystery turns out to be real, they find themselves in a world of danger. The fantastic cast help bring a lot of energy to this clever and hilarious story. As the stakes continue to rise and things get more ridiculous, the laughs just get bigger.
6 Murder On The Orient Express (2017)
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Agatha Christie is an obvious influence on movies like Knives Out and on the film itself by Johnson’s own admission (via Variety). The legendary author has written some of the world’s most famous mystery novels, including Murder on the Orient Express. There are a few film adaptations of this story worth checking out, with Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 remake being the most recent. Branagh plays renowned and eccentric detective Hercule Poirot who investigates the murder of a passenger onboard a luxury train. The all-star cast, the stirring mystery, and Branagh’s fun performance make for an exciting adventure. His mustachioed turn as the detective is equally bold and flavorful as Craig’s Benoit.
5 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
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The hard-boiled detective stories share a lot of similarities with movies like Knives Out and the whodunnit genre. As Knives Out cleverly plays with its own genre, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang also follows a similar mystery setup while subverting the genre clichés. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer star as a mismatched pair who find themselves investigating the death of a young woman, only to discover a larger conspiracy. The hilarious script from Shane Black mixes irreverent humor with a complex and compelling postmodern noir mystery. It’s a great buddy action ride that has echoes of Benoit and Marta (de Armas).
4 Gosford Park (2001)
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A murder at a party in a posh English country home sounds very cliché, but in the hands of director Robert Altman, the movie becomes more than the sum of its parts. Actors like Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, and Clive Owen boost a familiar but engrossing story. Gosford Park is a mystery movie, but it’s also a dissection of class differences and who holds the power in a household like this. Its class themes mirror those in Knives Out. The stately manor will be beloved by those who decadent settings in movies like Knives Out.
3 Clue (1985)
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Movies based on board games are often quite poor, but Clue proved there is a way to do it well. The film follows the set-up of the classic game with characters like Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) and Mr. Green (Michael McKean) who attend a party at a mansion where the host is killed. It’s up to the guests to discover who among them is the killer. The movie is led by a fantastic performance from Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, and Clue matches other movies like Knives Out with its joke-a-minute pace that makes for a fantastic watch.
