If Netflix’s ‘Apex’ Left You Breathless, Here Are the Best Survival Thrillers to Watch Next
Netflix’s latest adrenaline machine, ‘Apex’, has been dominating the streamer’s top ten since the moment it dropped. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, it is a lean, merciless survival thriller that pits a grieving mountaineer against a crossbow-wielding psychopath across the unforgiving Australian Outback, and it barely gives you a moment to breathe for its entire 95-minute runtime.
Theron, who also serves as a producer on the film, described the appeal of the project to Netflix simply, saying it is “about a woman who finds herself in the woods with a serial killer, and she has to win.” Egerton, in his full villain era, is just as chilling on the other side of the equation. Speaking to Netflix Tudum, he called the character “just about the most fucked-up” he has ever played, and said there was “something delicious and irresistible about it.”
If you have already burned through ‘Apex’ and are left hungry for more, here are the best films to queue up next.
The Netflix Originals That Hit the Same Notes
The most obvious starting point is ‘Don’t Move’, another Netflix original that shares almost everything with ‘Apex’ down to its DNA. The film follows a grieving mother named Iris, played by Kelsey Asbille, who retreats to a remote forest where she crosses paths with a stranger named Richard, played by Finn Wittrock. He reveals himself to be a killer and injects her with a paralytic substance, giving her just 20 minutes before her entire nervous system shuts down. The paralysis twist pushes the tension to near-unbearable levels, making it a worthy companion piece to ‘Apex’.
Also streaming on Netflix is ‘Fall’, a 2022 thriller that opens in almost identical fashion to ‘Apex’. Becky, played by Grace Caroline Currey, watches her boyfriend tumble to his death at the start of the film. Coerced out of her grief by her best friend, she ends up climbing a derelict 2,000-foot broadcasting tower, and things go horribly wrong from there. It is the only film on this list without a human killer in the mix, but its vertigo-inducing sequences will leave your palms just as sweaty.
When Nature Is the Villain Too
Director Baltasar Kormákur is no stranger to survival cinema, and his 2022 film ‘Beast’ is essentially required viewing after ‘Apex’. The film finds Idris Elba, known for playing Luther, as an American doctor whose trip to Africa with his two daughters turns catastrophic when they find themselves hunted by a rogue lion. Kormákur brings the same kinetic, immersive visual language he uses throughout ‘Apex’, and the film moves at a relentless pace.
For something rawer and even more desolate, ‘The Grey’ delivers a survival story that strips everything back to its bare bones. Liam Neeson plays John Ottway, an oilman whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. As he tries to lead the surviving group to civilization, a vicious pack of wolves begins hunting them through the frozen landscape. It is a film that treats survival as something deeply philosophical, asking what keeps a person moving when all hope has gone.
The Human Hunters That Will Haunt You
Craig Zobel’s ‘The Hunt’ takes a more satirical approach to the genre but never sacrifices the tension that makes for a quality survival film. It uses dark humor to highlight how absurd the situation is and flips the cat-and-mouse dynamic as the captors soon realize they have trapped the wrong person. Betty Gilpin is a revelation in it, and the film has enough wit and genuine menace to stand alongside anything in this space.
If you want something that doubles down on the Australian setting that makes ‘Apex’ so effective and unsettling, ‘Dead Calm’ is a classic that hits many of the same nerves. Phillip Noyce’s 1989 thriller follows a couple, played by Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill, who invite a stranger played by Billy Zane onto their yacht while drifting through the Pacific Ocean, and things go very, very wrong. It is streaming for free on Tubi and Kanopy.
Also worth seeking out is ‘Dangerous Animals’, directed by Sean Byrne, which pairs a serial killer with a deeply unsettling weapon of choice. Jai Courtney plays Tucker, a man who abducts women and feeds them to sharks off the Australian coast, while Hassie Harrison plays the surfer determined not to be his next victim. The film plays things with a straight face, which makes it all the more enjoyable. It is currently streaming on Hulu and Shudder.
The Heavy Hitters for When You Want Something More
Few villains in cinema create the same sense of dread as Anton Chigurh in ‘No Country for Old Men’. Javier Bardem plays the character more like a monster than a man, impossible to reason with or slow down. The cat-and-mouse dynamic stands out because it feels so one-sided and inevitable. It is a film that operates on a completely different level of filmmaking craft, but the sustained dread it generates is entirely in the same emotional register as ‘Apex’.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ‘The Revenant’ remains the gold standard for fans of survival cinema. Leonardo DiCaprio channels primal desperation and grit in a performance that leans into themes of revenge, isolation, and the lengths one will go to survive in the face of overwhelming odds. If ‘Apex’ scratched the surface of what survival cinema can do, ‘The Revenant’ tears it wide open.
All of these films share the same beating heart as ‘Apex’. They understand that the scariest thing about survival is not the predator chasing you. It is the question of what you are willing to become to stay alive.
Tell us in the comments which of these survival thrillers is your favourite, and whether anything comes close to matching the tension of ‘Apex’.
