A Glean movie guide
Beyond Parasite: The Best Social Thrillers
Eat the rich.
Sharp satires and tense dramas exploring class, wealth, and domestic deception.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Handmaiden
A visually stunning South Korean thriller where class deception leads to a series of shocking narrative twists.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
- 02
Burning
A haunting, slow-burn mystery that captures the simmering resentment of economic disparity in modern South Korea.
'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi
- 03
Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho’s high-concept action epic serves as a visceral allegory for class warfare on a non-stop train.
In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.
- 04
The Housemaid
The classic South Korean thriller that directly inspired Parasite with its tale of domestic power struggles.
A piano composer's family moves into a new house; when his pregnant wife collapses from working to support the family, he hires a housemaid to help with housework.
- 05
The Menu
A razor-sharp dark comedy that skewers the ultra-wealthy through a high-stakes, experimental dining experience.
A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
- 06
Triangle of Sadness
An unapologetic satire that forces a dramatic and chaotic reversal of social hierarchies on a luxury cruise.
A celebrity model couple are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged, alcoholic captain. What first appears Instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island in a struggle of hierarchy.
- 07
Saltburn
A provocative look at obsession and class envy as an outsider infiltrates a wealthy family's eccentric estate.
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
- 08
Shoplifters
A poignant and intimate drama about a family of petty thieves living on the margins of Japanese society.
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
- 09
The White Tiger
A cynical and darkly humorous journey of an ambitious driver navigating the master-servant dynamic in India.
An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and rise to the top. An epic journey based on the New York Times bestseller.
- 10
Get Out
A masterful social thriller that uses horror tropes to examine the discomfort of being an outsider in elite spaces.
Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
- 11
The Servant
A classic exploration of domestic power struggles where the relationship between master and servant slowly reverses.
Indolent aristocrat Tony employs competent Barrett as his manservant and all seems to be going well until Barrett persuades Tony to hire his sister as a live-in maid.
- 12
Mother
Another Bong Joon-ho gem that blends dark humor with a twisting mystery centered on marginalized characters.
Mother compiles clips of mother figures from classic Hollywood cinema and television dramas. The figures range from the Virgin Mary and Mother Courage, to characters from Maude (1972–78), Aliens (1986), Imitation of Life (1959), and American Gangster (2007). The characters play out scenes of care, loss, emotional manipulation, abandonment, and grief. The intense relationships between mothers and daughters are especially prominent.