If you liked Alex Garland's sci-fi chiller Ex Machina then make sure you check out these 10 similar movies for more thought-provoking horror. Each of these sci-fi greats demonstrates a comparable level of creativity with the genre as well as a captivating flair sleek designs and weird scenarios.
With movies that tackle different moods and styles, from romantic dramas to psychological thrillers, there's something for all fans of Ex Machina on this list.
10 Beyond the Black Rainbow
Panos Cosmatos' sci-fi horror movie is hugely stylistic and brimming with an eerie atmosphere. The psychedelic flair of the writer/director can be felt in the movie's look and sound but it's as equally inspired by the cold tone of classic science-fiction as a movie like Ex Machina is.
The minimalistic plot follows a young woman attempting to escape from the clutches of a kind of New Age cult that's imprisoned her within their secluded demonic laboratory and it affords lots of opportunities for some bizarrely horrific sequences.
9 Marjorie Prime
A much more dramatic kind of sci-fi movie, but still with its own chilling undertones, Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Jordan Harrison's play of the same name is an intensely small-scaled story, much like Ex Machina and Beyond the Black Rainbow, but deals predominantly with the relationship between technology and memory.
The plot concerns a small family coping with their elderly matriarch's onset of Alzheimer's disease and their decision to employ the use of a holographic AI system, named Prime, to keep her company and help her remember certain things. Like Ex Machina, the movie is a fascinating but often haunting portrait of inherent human flaws.
8 Moon
Sam Rockwell takes the lead role in this isolated sci-fi hit about a lonely lunar worker who discovers a devastating twist about his employment that he was never meant to know.
Directed by Duncan Jones, the movie received somewhat of a semi-sequel almost a decade later with Jones' movie Mute, which takes place in the same stylishly dark and futuristic universe.
7 Morgan
A very similar movie to Ex Machina in terms of plot, Morgan takes place at a remote facility that houses the titular synthetic humanoid lifeform, who has the appearance of a normal teenage girl but possesses lethal abilities and a dangerous will to survive the risk assessment being carried out by the company that made her.
Chilling and packed with plenty of sharp turns in the story as well as a very impressive cast, the movie is the directorial debut of Ridley Scott's son Luke and he shows a lot of promise in the family tradition of creepy sci-fi horror.
6 The One I Love
Elizabeth Moss and Mark Duplass star in this quirky sci-fi indie movie as a couple attempting to save their fraying marriage by taking a trip to a secluded estate. But, once there, they discover a much more serious problem with trust and honesty as they each encounter their doppelgängers.
Funny, scary, and deeply thought-provoking, The One I Love has a lot of staying power even if it isn't quite the visceral gut-punch of a movie like Ex Machina.
5 Splice
Science runs amok once again in this story of scientists who create their own humanoid lifeform by splicing together various types of DNA; their Frankensteinian hubris, of course, coming back to bite them in the end.
Helmed by the director of cult sci-fi horror favorite Cube, Vincenzo Natali, and executive produced by monster movie maestro Guillermo del Toro, Splice explores eroticism and arrogance in an unrelenting fashion that Ex Machina fans will likely appreciate.
4 Her
Showcasing a much more upbeat and sweet examination of artificial intelligence than is usually seen in sci-fi movies, Spike Jonze's romantic dramedy follows the whirlwind relationship between Joaquin Phoenix's relatable loner from the not-too-distant future and the program that lives on his devices, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
Though the futuristic spaces depicted in Her a much wider and warmer than Ex Machina, or the conventions of the sci-fi genre in general, the movie is still overflowing with pertinent insights into the progression of modern life.
3 Upgrade
The second movie from famed horror screenwriter, and sometimes actor, Leigh Whannell with him in the director's chair, Upgrade is a darkly fun throwback to the heyday of Verhoeven-esque cynicism and body horror in sci-fi action movies.
Following a man who is paralyzed in an attack that leaves his wife dead, needing to rely on an advanced AI system to control his body for him, the revenge plot takes a lot from Whannell's collaborations with his creative partner James Wan, particularly the gory detective elements of their Saw franchise.
2 Colossus: The Forbin Project
Hugely memorable and insightful interpretations of artificial intelligence have existed in classic sci-fi movies for quite some time and there are many iconic examples to choose from. (It would be a crime to not mention the unforgettable HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.) But there are few that tackle the subject quite as intensely as Joseph Sargent's 1970 cult thriller Colossus.
Filled with all of that incomparable dread that only the height of Cold War paranoia could bring, the engaging story pits the best minds of humanity against the archetypal rogue defense system that has control over the world's nuclear weapons, and therefore the world itself. Both hugely influential and still underrated, the movie leaves the audience with a lot to think about.
1 Arrival
Denis Villeneuve's first contact alien movie is sometimes lost in people's memories due to the director's high rate of turnover and his relatively newfound penchant for the science-fiction genre despite it being nominated for a substantial number of Oscars back in the day.
Though it may not involve artificial intelligence, this thriller's plot is all about communication and reasoning, which will resonate a lot with an Ex Machina fan to say nothing of the effectiveness of Arrival's simultaneously tense and subdued atmosphere.
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August 28, 2020 at 05:30AM
