Directed by Rian Johnson, Knives Out has the style of classic crime fiction, but with elegant Moderna fare, and fans of films like Knives Out will be pleased to know that there are a plethora of films in a similar form. Knives Out was released in theaters in 2019 and was a huge success, earning 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $ 312 million at the box office. Benoit Blanc is a private detective from the southern United States, hired by a wealthy family to solve the crime of the death of his patriarch and, most importantly, to distribute his great inheritance as soon as possible.
Knives Out was kind of a throwback when it came. The film starred several actors who are best known for their franchise work (Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, etc.).) and put them in a chamber. With an all-star cast, a clever script and a lot of good humor, Knives Out aroused renewed interest in crime fiction and led to a sequel, Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery. While it looks like a unique movie that plays brilliantly with the genre expectations, there are many other great movies like Knives out that capture a similar feeling.
In For A Murder (2021)
“In for a Murder” is a Polish crime mystery film with the original title “W jak morderstwo”, based on a book of the same name by Katarzyna Gacek. The film is directed by Piotr Mularuk and tells the story of a housewife Magda (Anna Smo9owik), who liked to read Agatha Christie novels and did not move away from the mysterious disappearance of her best childhood friend, Weronika. After all these years she comes across a female corpse in the park. What is strange and shocking is that the woman has a W-shaped pendant around her neck, which is very similar to the one that Magda Weronika once gave. What follows is Magda’s partnership with Commissioner Jacek Sikora (Pawel Domagala), her school friend and former lover, to solve the mystery. With a gripping plot that has its own humor, ‘In for a Murder’ can easily be described as a love letter to ‘Knives out’.’
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Daniel Craig is probably the best James Bond, but he has participated in several projects outside the 007 franchise. Fans who love watching him solve crimes like Benoit Blanc and want more movies like Knives Out might also like the English remake of The Girl with the Dragon tattoo. As in Knives Out, Craig plays a kind of investigator here, a journalist who was hired by the patriarch (Craig’s Knives Out co-star Plummer) of a wealthy family to solve the murder of his niece decades ago. However, this is a much darker mystery story, which lacks the comic color of knives.
Mystery Team (2009)
Johnson was clearly inspired by Agatha Christie’s novels when making knives. Similarly, Mystery Team is influenced by mysteries like the Hardy Boys, but adds an R-rated twist to these healthier stories. The film follows a group of three friends whose childhood obsession with solving neighborhood crimes made them outcasts in their high school years. However, young people get over their heads when they are hired to solve a murder. Mystery Team is a film like Knives Out, in which, although death is at the center of every story, the humor is never lost under the dark plot.
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
‘Knives Out’ makes us wonder what’s going on and ask how the murder happened. If you are wondering what is happening and why this is happening, what is happening, ‘in the shadow of the moon’ is a detective thriller that will arouse in you the same curiosity. Directed by Jim Mickle, the film tells the story of a policeman who, every 9 years after the death of a serial killer in 1988, realizes that the killer is back and is on his way to killing more. But how is this possible? We do not want to spoil it for you and suggest that you watch it. The film stars Cleopatra Coleman as young Rya, who is the serial killer, and Boyd Holbrook as Officer Locke. Locke, like Benoit, is obsessed with finding out the truth. To learn more, you need to enter the “Shadow of the moon”.”
The Brothers Bloom (2008)
Before Johnson entered the film business with such films as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, his filmography was closer to such films as Knives out. The Brothers Bloom is Johnson’s second feature film and stars Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody as two cheating brothers who decide to take one last daring job. The film is another example of how Johnson can lovingly pay homage to a genre and at the same time play with tropes. The result is an incredibly entertaining caprice, which is enhanced by her talented cast of characters. Johnson uses the wrong injury/death trope in this movie and reappears in Knives Out.
Murder Mystery (2019)
Directed by Kyle Newacheck, ‘Murder Mystery’ takes Nick Spitz (Adam Sandler), a New York police officer, and his wife Audrey (Jennifer Aniston) on a journey through Europe. The trip will serve as a promise for the 15th anniversary of the wedding and as a means to rekindle the spark in your marriage. A chance encounter with Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans), a British gentleman, leads the couple to a yacht cruising on the French Riviera. During his stay, the mysterious murder of Cavendish’s uncle Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp), who has invited his family to exclude them from his will, which will now go to his new wife Suzi (Shioli Kutsuna), makes his journey to an investigation. Similar to ‘Knives Out’, there is an underlying humor in this movie that is more pronounced. However, in none of them humor leads us away from the stories in question. What also makes the two films similar is the way they take place on the personal level of the victim, i.e. someone who is very close. In this way, the two films seem to underline Shakespeare’s words from Macbeth: the closer in blood, the closer bloody.’
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
With the success of Knives Out and its acclaimed sequel, Benoit Blanc has entered the conversation as one of the great fictional detectives of all time. However, it is difficult for any character to beat Sherlock Holmes in this category. While there are several detective films like Knives Out, few play the literary icon himself, and the character was treated to a big budget in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. It is an elegant historical film with some convincing mystery elements. Sherlock Holmes is more action-packed than Knives out, but the way each detective systematically assembles clues into satisfying sequences and flashbacks is very similar.
The Nice Guys (2016)
Movies like Knives Out benefit from a director like Johnson who can create a movie that fits the crime genre and yet plays with the conventions of the genre in an unexpected way. Shane Black’s nice guys are doing a similar trick. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as two low-level private detectives who team up to solve a missing persons case. Black’s passion for the detective genre allows him to play by the rules of this kind of film. There’s a lot at stake with the nice guys, like Knives Out, but the story has a quirky and appropriately silly tone.
Raat Akeli Hai (2020)
‘Raat Akeli Hai’ is a Hindi-language crime film directed by Honey Trehan. Think of this as a small-town counterpart to ‘Knives Out’ that has all its ingredients in more or less large quantities, be it as a mystery, thriller, romance, humor or social commentary. The story is about the mysterious death of Raghuveer Singh (Khalid Tyabji), an old aristocrat who lived in his mansion with a rather large family. These include his much younger newlywed wife Radha (Radhika Apte), the housekeeper, Singh’s son and daughter and her husband, as well as Singh’s sister-in-law and their two children. Police Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) enters the crime scene to investigate the murder and realizes that the family and their relationships with the dead Yadav have more to offer than can be seen at first glance. If you want to understand what is going on, you need to keep your eyes and ears open, especially after the sun has set.
Sleuth (1972)
While there are several films like Knives Out, there are some specific films that directly inspired the story. Johnson talked about a number of these inspirations, including Sleuth. In the 1972 film, Laurence Olivier plays a famous author of detective novels who invites his wife’s lover (Michael Caine) to his home, where the two men are engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse. There are even some Easter eggs in Knives out that are directly related to Sleuth.
Deathtrap (1982)
Artists are always interesting characters in a crime thriller. Death Trap is a 1982 film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Caine as a struggling playwright who plans to murder a more talented writer (Christopher Reeves) and steal his work. The film is another clever and unique interpretation of the genre. Movies like Knives Out and Deathtrap are successful because of the dark and funny sound that makes the audience moan and laugh in the same scene. Feelings of jealousy permeate both films and are inevitably the main motive for the murder (or attempted murder).
Ready Or Not (2019)
Great films like Knives Out manage to be extremely entertaining detective stories and at the same time make interesting comments about privileges. This was a topic shared by many films from 2019, including the horror comedy Ready or Not. Horror movie star Samara Weaving broke out when a young woman got married into a wealthy board game tycoon family. However, on her wedding night, she finds herself in a deadly game of hide and seek. It’s a wild, funny and bloody romp and Weave has a similar role to Ana de Armas as a headstrong outsider who struggles to get out of the way.
Brick (2005)
Johnson made films like Knives Out long before he became known for his mastery of the mystery genre. In fact, his feature film debut was an underrated mystery noir called Brick. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school student investigating the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Although it is set in a Moderna’s high school setting, the film is presented as an old-school detective film. As with all good films of the genre, the central riddle consistently makes viewers guess. There are grains of the style that would later take center stage in knives splashed all over the brick.
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