A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Basement
Eat the rich.
Sharp social thrillers and dark satires that mirror the tension of Parasite.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Housemaid
The 1960 classic that Bong Joon-ho cited as the primary inspiration for Parasite’s domestic chaos.
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.
- 02
Shoplifters
A moving portrait of a marginalized family using deception and petty crime to survive on the fringes.
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.
- 03
Burning
A haunting slow-burn that captures the simmering psychological tension of class resentment in modern Korea.
'Burning' is a conversation between two young mothers brought together by strange and cruel social realities, at a funeral ghat in Varanasi
- 04
Snowpiercer
A visceral sci-fi epic that transforms a speeding train into a literal map of class warfare.
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.
- 05
The Handmaiden
A masterful, twist-heavy thriller involving elaborate deceptions and class infiltration in a sprawling estate.
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.
- 06
High and Low
A classic masterpiece that visually maps the physical and social gap between the rich and the poor.
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 07
Get Out
A sharp social thriller that uses genre tropes to expose the sinister side of elite obsession.
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.
- 08
Triangle of Sadness
A provocative satire that strands the ultra-rich on an island to watch the social hierarchy flip.
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.
- 09
The Platform
A brutal allegory for wealth distribution set within the claustrophobic confines of a vertical prison.
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
- 10
Saltburn
A stylish tale of obsession and manipulation as an outsider infiltrates a wealthy family's 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.
- 11
The Menu
A darkly comedic thriller that serves up a deadly lesson on the divide between the elite and the service class.
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.
- 12
Mother
A tense psychological drama from the director of Parasite about the extreme lengths a mother goes to protect her son.
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.