Here are six series and films you can stream that share the Netflix hit’s dystopian themes and social commentary.
The Korean TV series “Squid Game” has been a sensation since it debuted on Netflix in September. The twisty thriller — about an assortment of desperate debtors who risk their lives in a series of supercharged children’s games, in hopes of winning a big cash prize — has hooked audiences with its fantastical sets and costumes, its cliffhanger-heavy plotting and its pointed commentaries on human nature and class struggle. There are only nine “Squid Game” episodes (for now, anyway); so it’s easy to binge the whole series in just a few days. But then what? Where can viewers turn for more exciting, imaginative scenes of people degrading themselves for money and survival? There are some hit movies with obvious parallels to this show, including “Saw,” “The Hunger Games” and (from Japan) “Battle Royale.” But the six films and TV series below — all available to stream — are somewhat deeper cuts, and in most cases are a few shades more extreme than “Squid Game.” They all share some of the thornier themes that have made the series such a hot topic of conversation. Stream it on Arrow, Tubi or Vudu (free with ads); rent or buy it on Alamo On Demand or Vudu. In the early 2000s, a new generation of Korean filmmakers became favorites at festivals and art houses around the world with their imaginative and sometimes shocking genre movies, acclaimed for their dynamic visual style and bold storytelling. Park Chan-wook was part of that wave, securing his reputation with his violent and provocative “vengeance trilogy.” The first film in the cycle is also the grittiest: the tale of an unemployed man who kidnaps his ex-boss’s daughter to raise money for his sister’s kidney transplant, only to set off a cycle of tragedy that gets sadder and bloodier with each move and countermove.
