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Movies like The Clearing

Key Features:
Kidnapping, Ransom, FBI investigation, Negotiation, Family drama, Betrayal, Corporate world, Secrets, Thriller, Survival, Confrontation
Tone:
serious, suspense-driven, dramatic
Target Audience:
Thriller enthusiasts, Crime drama fans, Suburban drama viewers, Suspense seekers
Emotional Arc:
Anxiety → Fear → Resolution

The Clearing

2004-07-02
The Clearing Poster - Find Similar Movies

When affluent executive Wayne Hayes is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee and held for ransom in a forest, Wayne’s wife is forced to reckon with the FBI agents as they negotiate with the kidnapper.

Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Cast
Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, Willem Dafoe, Alessandro Nivola, Matt Craven, Melissa Sagemiller, Wendy Crewson, Larry Pine, Diana Scarwid, Elizabeth Ruscio
Crew
Pieter Jan Brugge, Justin Haythe, Justin Haythe, Pieter Jan Brugge
Rating
5.8(241 votes)
The ClearingThe Clearing
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Hostage
Hostage(2005)
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When a mafia accountant is taken hostage on his beat, a police officer – wracked by guilt from a prior stint as a negotiator – must negotiate the standoff, even as his own family is held captive by the mob.



Ransom
Ransom(1996)
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When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.



Resolution
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A man imprisons his estranged junkie friend in an isolated cabin in the boonies of San Diego to force him through a week of sobriety, but the events of that week are being mysteriously manipulated.



The Negotiation
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An ace crisis negotiator attempts to figure out the real motivation of a man who has kidnapped two people and crack his calm demeanour.



The Guilty
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A demoted police officer assigned to a call dispatch desk is conflicted when he receives an emergency phone call from a kidnapped woman.



Held
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A couple's ailing marriage is put to the test when they are held hostage in an isolated vacation rental by an unseen Voice that commands their every move and threatens harm if they don’t obey.



The Happening
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When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?



Caught
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A desperate housewife discovers her husband is having an affair and kidnaps his unsuspecting mistress, but what starts as a prank quickly spirals out of control.



The Salvation
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In 1870s America, a peaceful American settler kills his family's murderer which unleashes the fury of a notorious gang leader. His cowardly fellow townspeople then betray him, forcing him to hunt down the outlaws alone.



Pursuit
Pursuit(2022)
5.113

Detective Breslin crosses paths with Calloway, a ruthless hacker desperate to find his wife, who has been kidnapped by a drug cartel. When Calloway escapes police custody, Breslin joins forces with a no-nonsense female cop to reclaim his prisoner. But is Calloway’s crime-boss father somehow involved in this explosive situation?



Black Beach
5.7

Carlos, a ruthless Spanish negotiation expert working in Brussels, is tasked with handling the kidnapping of a senior oil company executive in a troubled West African country —with which he has old and deep ties—, torn by ethnic tensions and government abuses.



Rendition
Rendition(2007)
6.4

When an Egyptian terrorism suspect "disappears" on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.



Desperate Hours
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An escaped con, on the run from the law, moves into a married couple's house and takes over their lives.



The Betrayed
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Kidnappers force a young mother to recover money stolen by her shady husband.



The Hitcher
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On a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has appeared out of nowhere, thinking that a good conversation will help him not to fall asleep. He will have enough time to deeply regret such an unmeditated decision.



Red Dot
Red Dot(2021)
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On a hiking trip to rekindle their marriage, a couple find themselves fleeing for their lives in the unforgiving wilderness from an unknown shooter.



A Hijacking
6.8

Tensions are high after a Danish freighter is captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, leading to weeks of high-stakes negotiations – and an escalating potential for explosive violence.



Rapt
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6.1

A rich industrialist is brutally kidnapped. While he physically and mentally degenerates in imprisonment, the kidnappers, police and the board of the company of which he is director negotiate about the ransom of 50 million euro.



The River Wild
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Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th birthday, only to meet up with a pair of mysterious men whose desperation grows, turning their vacation into a nightmare.



Trespass
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5.51

Kyle and Sarah Miller have it all: a huge gated house on the water, fancy cars, and the potential for romance in their relationship. He's just back from a business trip and their teen daughter Avery is sneaking out to a party, when four thugs in security uniforms and ski masks stage a home invasion. They want what's in the safe: cash and diamonds. As Kyle stalls them, trying to negotiate for Sarah's freedom, the fault lines in Kyle and Sarah's marriage and the pasts of the four robbers come into play. Is there room here for heroism?



Frantic
Frantic(1988)
6.7

The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.



Hostage
Hostage(2002)
6.5

The Driver is hired by the FBI to help defuse a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee has kidnapped a CEO and has hidden her, demanding $5,088,042. The Driver delivers the money, writing the sum on his hand as instructed by the hostage taker. After he is told that he holds the life of a person in his hand, he is ordered to burn the money. As he complies, the federal agents break in and attempt to subdue the man, who shoots himself in the head before he reveals where the woman is hidden. The Driver then tries to find the hostage before she drowns in the trunk of a sinking car. As a twist, the kidnapped woman is revealed to be the hostage taker's lover. She coldly taunts the dying man in the hospital.



The Missing
6.3

When rancher and single mother of two Maggie Gilkeson sees her teenage daughter, Lily, kidnapped by Apache rebels, she reluctantly accepts the help of her estranged father, Samuel, in tracking down the kidnappers. Along the way, the two must learn to reconcile the past and work together if they are going to have any hope of getting Lily back before she is taken over the border and forced to become a prostitute.



Fargo
Fargo(1996)
7.851

Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!



Misconduct
5.6

An ambitious lawyer finds himself caught in a power struggle between a corrupt pharmaceutical executive and his firm’s senior partner. When the case takes a deadly turn, he must race to uncover the truth before he loses everything.



The Silencing
6.426

A reformed hunter becomes involved in a deadly game of cat and mouse when he and the local sheriff set out to track a vicious killer who may have kidnapped his daughter years ago.



King's Ransom
4.821

Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.



The Vanishing
6.123

The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.



The Contract
5.72

Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer.



Irresistible
5.5

A wife and mother is consumed by the thought that her husband's co-worker is trying to win him away from her and their family.



The Conversation
7.509

A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.



Ransom
Ransom(1974)
5.5

Following a series of bomb attacks in London, a group of terrorists seize Britain's ambassador to Scandinavia. With the ambassador now a hostage in his residence, another group hijacks an airliner at the capital's airport, announcing that the passengers will not be freed until their demands are met. Colonel Nils Tahlvik, Scandinavia's resourceful and ruthless head of security, seeks to take an uncompromising stance against the terrorists yet his attempts meet resistance from unknown forces at every turn...



The Neighbor
5.7

In the town of Cutter, most people keep to themselves. But when John comes home to find his girlfriend missing, he sneaks into his neighbor's house, finding his girlfriend and several other kidnapped people tied up in the basement. When the neighbor come home, John is forced to get out of the house alive and lead the group to safety.



The Prime Minister
5.9

The Belgian PM is abducted and he finds his wife and children taken hostage. If he wants to see them again – alive – he has to kill the person he is meeting later that day. And that person is no less than... the president of the United States.



The Entitled
6.1

Without the security of the job he wants or the future he dreamed of, Paul Dynan plans the perfect crime to help his struggling family – abduct the socialite children of three wealthy men and collect a ransom of $3-million dollars. Over the course of one long night, Paul and his accomplices hold the rich kids hostage awaiting the ransom with little idea of the secrets that will surface between the fathers when they are forced to choose between their children and their money.



The Vanishing
7.4

Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.



The Hunted
6.2

In the wilderness of British Columbia, two hunters are tracked and viciously murdered by Aaron Hallam. A former Special Operations instructor is approached and asked to apprehend Hallam—his former student—who has 'gone rogue' after suffering severe battle stress from his time in Kosovo.



Cellular
Cellular(2004)
6.389

A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. She claims to have been kidnapped – and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.



The Killing
7.649

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.



Trapped
Trapped(2002)
6.2

When their daughter is abducted by experienced kidnappers, the Jennings turn the tables on their seemingly fool-proof plan.



Labor Day
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7

Two strangers are drawn together under incredible circumstances. What starts as an unforeseen encounter over a long holiday weekend soon becomes a second chance love story.



The Ledge
The Ledge(2011)
6.2

A thriller in which a battle of philosophies between a fundamentalist Christian and an atheist escalates into a lethal battle of wills.



Stone
Stone(2010)
5.3

Parole officer Jack Mabry has only a few weeks left before retirement and wishes to finish out the cases he's been assigned. One such case is that of Gerald 'Stone' Creeson, a convicted arsonist who is up for parole. Jack is initially reluctant to indulge Stone in the coarse banter he wishes to pursue and feels little sympathy for the prisoner's pleads for an early release. Seeing little hope in convincing Jack himself, Stone arranges for his wife to seduce the officer, but motives and intentions steadily blur amidst the passions and buried secrets of the corrupted players in this deadly game of deception.



The Desperate Hours
6.997

Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.



The Strangers
6.1

After a 4 a.m. knock at the door and haunting voices, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt’s remote getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as three masked strangers invade. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.



Seance on a Wet Afternoon

Working-class British housewife Myra Savage reinvents herself as a medium, holding seances in the sitting room of her home with the hidden assistance of her under-employed, asthmatic husband, Billy. In an attempt to enhance her credibility as a psychic, Myra hatches an elaborate, ill-conceived plot to kidnap a wealthy couple's young daughter so that she can then help the police "find" the missing girl.



The Monster
5.536

A mother and her 10-year old daughter are trapped in a forest. There is something in this forest. Something unlike anything they have heard before. Something that lurks in the darkness and it’s coming after them.



Derailed
Derailed(2005)
6.4

When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, they are forced to turn the tables on him to save their families.



Breaking
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6.5

Desperate for money and running out of options, Marine veteran Brian Brown-Easley holds several people hostage inside a bank, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with police.



Panic
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6.2

Alex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful part of his life. He seeks the help of a therapist and meets a woman in the waiting room that he connects with.



Extraction
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A hardened gun-for-hire's latest mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he's sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son.



Long Weekend
5.137

Peter and Carla, a couple whose marriage is faltering, decide to go on a camping weekend. When they become lost, the pair sets up camp on a remote beach that doesn't seem to be on any map. At first the trip is the romantic getaway they imagined – then slowly things begin to go wrong. After Peter disrespects the unspoiled habitat, it seems as if the surroundings are exacting revenge on the couple, as insects, animals, and then nature itself become the enemy.



The Square
6.1

Ray, a construction worker trapped in an unhappy marriage, pursues an affair with his neighbor, Carla. Carla's husband, Greg, is a mobster who keeps large sums of drug money in their home. With this in mind, Carla comes up with a plan: She and Ray will steal Greg's money, burn down her house, convince Greg the money was lost in the fire and then run away together. Carla's scheme, however, doesn't go off as planned.



G20
G20(2025)
6.458

After the G20 Summit is overtaken by terrorists, President Danielle Sutton must bring all her statecraft and military experience to defend her family and her fellow leaders.



The River
The River(1984)
6.35

Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.



The Vanished
6.046

A family vacation takes a terrifying turn when parents Paul and Wendy discover their young daughter has vanished without a trace. Stopping at nothing to find her, the search for the truth leads to a shocking revelation.



The Trip
The Trip(2021)
6.696

A dysfunctional couple head to a remote lakeside cabin under the guise of reconnecting, but each has secret designs to kill the other. Before they can carry out their respective plans, unexpected visitors arrive and the couple is faced with a greater danger than anything they could have plotted.



Dead Calm
Dead Calm(1989)
6.6

An Australian couple takes a sailing trip in the Pacific to get over the recent loss of their son. While on the open sea, they come across a sinking ship with one survivor who is not at all what he seems.



The Interpreter
6.3

After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.



10x10
10x10(2018)
5.2

Lewis is an outwardly ordinary guy, but in reality he is hiding an obsession – revenge – against Cathy. Lewis kidnaps Cathy in broad daylight and takes her to his home, where he locks her in a soundproof cell and attempts to extract a dark secret from her past.



The Target
6.992

At the same time as murder suspect Yeo-hoon is brought unconscious to the emergency room following a shooting incident, an assailant breaks into the house of Tae-jun, the emergency room's doctor in charge, and kidnaps his wife. The kidnapper calls the doctor and tells him to bring Yeo-hoon to him. To retrieve his wife, Tae-jun has no option but to save the patient and sneak him away before the police can notice.



Kidnapped
Kidnapped(2010)
6.1

Three hooded Eastern-European criminals burst into a home in a Madrid gated community, holding the family hostage in its own home, and forcing the father to empty his credit cards. But the family fights back - brutally.



Windfall
Windfall(2022)
5.477

In an opulent vacation home, a mysterious intruder is forced to kidnap the property owners -- a wealthy CEO and his wife -- when they arrive unexpectedly.



Palmetto
Palmetto(1998)
5.9

After spending two years in prison, framed for accepting a bribe, former newspaper reporter Harry Barber is released, bitter and disillusioned. Feeling like he were owed something for his loss of time, he proceeds to get himself involved in a simple kidnapping plot which turns out to be more complex than he imagined.



Prey
Prey(2007)
5.801

An American family on holiday in Africa becomes lost in a game reserve and stalked by vicious killer lions.



Hunted
Hunted(2021)
6.1

A woman flees two serial killers who are hot on her heels in a forest.



Retribution
6.564

When a mysterious caller plants a bomb under his car seat, a bank executive begins a high-speed chase across the city to complete a specific series of tasks — all with his kids trapped in the back seat.



The Crisis
6.9

Victor is a legal advisor who finds himself abandoned by his wife and fired the same day. He tries to seek comfort from different friends and family members, but everyone he meets is concerned with their own problems. His morale begins to falter when he realizes that no one cares about him.



Rupture
Rupture(2016)
4.889

A single mom tries to break free from a mysterious organization that has abducted her.



Summer's Blood
5.451

A demented handyman comes to the rescue of a young woman, then imprisons her in his basement.



Operator
Operator(2015)
5.044

When the daughter of veteran 911 call center operator Pamela, and her estranged husband Jeremy, a Senior Police Officer, is kidnapped and held hostage, they are left desperate, with no choice but to follow the kidnapper's rules: send messages through dispatch for all police and fire units to scatter to remote locations throughout the city where they are met with chaos. Not knowing who or why, they must race against the clock to make the choice of their lives: save the city — or save their daughter.



The Game
The Game(1997)
7.567

In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.



The Retreat
4.955

Renee and Valerie, a couple at a cross roads in their relationship, leave the city to spend the week at a remote cabin with friends. But when they arrive, their friends are nowhere to be found. As they stumble through their relationship woes, they discover they are being hunted by a group of militant extremists who are determined to exterminate them.



The Drowning
4.5

A psychiatrist faces his past, present and future when he finds himself involved in the treatment of a young man recently released from prison for a murder committed when the boy was just 11 years old.



The Dinner
4.542

Two brothers and their wives meet up at a haute-cuisine restaurant to discuss what to do about a horrific crime that their sons committed together. As the quartet debate their options, the conversation reopens old wounds between the siblings.



The Survivalist
6.234

In a time of starvation, a survivalist lives off a small plot of land hidden deep in forest. When two women seeking food and shelter discover his farm, he finds his existence threatened.



Taken 3
Taken 3(2014)
6.3

Ex-government operative Bryan Mills finds his life is shattered when he's falsely accused of a murder that hits close to home. As he's pursued by a savvy police inspector, Mills employs his particular set of skills to track the real killer and exact his unique brand of justice.



War
War(2002)
6.921

During the bloody war in Chechnya, a British couple and two Russian soldiers are taken hostage by Chechen rebels. Two of the hostages are then released to bring the money for the British woman who is forced to wait for the ransom.



VANish
VANish(2015)
4.589

Three thugs kidnap Emma, the daughter of a drug kingpin, and have no idea that murderous blood that runs through her veins. As time passes, the unlucky threesome finds themselves in danger from the police, gangsters and their captive.



Knowing
Knowing(2009)
6.2

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.



The Gift
The Gift(2015)
6.7

Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.



The Gift
The Gift(2000)
6.5

Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others' futures⁠—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.



A Day and a Half
6.308

In a desperate bid to reunite with his daughter, an armed man bursts into the medical center where his estranged wife works and kidnaps her.



The Hunted
7.322

After their boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea, a group of refugees are rescued by rich Europeans who offer them shelter on an idyllic island. But the miracle soon becomes a nightmare when the saviors turn into ruthless manhunters.



The Basement
4.2

A seemingly innocent man is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, who forces his victims to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder.



The Counselor
5.3

A lawyer finds himself in far over his head when he attempts to get involved in drug trafficking.



Anything for Her
6.96

Lisa and Julien are married and lead a happy uneventful life with their son Oscar. But their life radically changes one morning, when the police comes to arrest Lisa on murder charges. She's sentenced to 20 years of prison. Convinced of his wife's innocence, Julien decides to act. How far will he be willing to go for her?



Non Negotiable
6.176

Hostage negotiator Alan Bender is called to rescue the president from a kidnapping, only to find himself also mediating to save his wife and marriage.



Spy(ies)
Spy(ies)(2009)
5.5

In London, an airport baggage handler is forced by French and British intelligence agents to seduce the wife of a businessman with ties to Syrian terrorists.



Alone
Alone(2020)
6.4

A recently widowed traveler is kidnapped by a cold blooded killer, only to escape into the wilderness where she is forced to battle against the elements as her pursuer closes in on her.



Abduction
Abduction(2011)
5.85

For many years, Nathan Harper has had the uneasy feeling that life with his family isn't quite what it seems. As he draws closer to uncovering the truth, he is hunted by assassins, forcing him to flee with his neighbor, Karen, the only person he can trust.



The Victim
4.75

Annie's life is in jeopardy after she's witnessed the horrific rape and murder of her closest friend. Fleeing from two attackers she stumbles across Kyle, a recluse living in the middle of the woods. Kyle finds the stillness of the woods comforting. The ruggedly handsome loner stays far from civilization - that is - until a single knock on his door throws his solitary life into chaos.



Prophecy
Prophecy(1979)
5.4

When a dispute occurs between a logging operation and a nearby Native American tribe, Dr. Robert Verne and his wife, Maggie, are sent in to mediate. Chief John Hawks insists the loggers are poisoning the water supply, and, though company man Isley denies it, the Vernes can't ignore the strangely mutated wildlife roaming the woods. Robert captures a bear cub for testing and soon finds himself the target of an angry mutant grizzly.



The Tortured
5.3

An upper-middle-class couple's life is destroyed when their only child is kidnapped and killed. Obsessed with revenge, the couple seizes an opportunity to kidnap the killer.



The Unseen
5.7

A man, who years earlier mysteriously abandoned his family and isolated himself in a small northern town, returns for one last chance to reconnect with his troubled daughter. When she goes missing, he risks everything to find her, including exposing the fact that he is becoming invisible.



Money Monster
6.4

Financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor takes over their studio.



The Recall
4.615

When five friends vacation at a remote lake house, they expect nothing less then a good time, unaware that Earth is under attack by an alien invasion and mass-abductions.



Intruders
Intruders(2011)
5.5

Though no one can see him, Hollow Face lurks in the corners, desperately desiring love but only knowing how to spread fear and hate. He creeps into the life of John Farrow after Farrow’s beloved 13-year-old daughter Mia is assaulted in their home. The line between the real and the imaginary blurs as fissures start to open within the family unit. It seems that no security measure can keep Hollow Face out.



Quicksand
Quicksand(2023)
6.286

A married couple on the brink of divorce becomes trapped in quicksand while hiking through a Colombian rainforest. It’s a struggle for survival as they battle the elements of the jungle and must work together in order to escape.

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