Some people find movies like don’t worry Darling that depicts the ideal existence too realistic; others could counter that selling a fantasy would be wrong in the first place.
Yet audiences appear to like the concept of a “happy wife, happy life,” particularly when that trope conceals a darker, more enigmatic meaning.
This is shown in many movies, giving the expression a new meaning.
Some have directly impacted Don’t Worry, Darling, while others are less well-known but wonderful to watch.
Below is a list of movies like don’t worry Darling.
1. Mulholland Drive (2001)
- Director: David Lynch
- Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates, Dan Birnbaum, Randall Wulff, and Robert Forster
- IMDb rating: 7.9/10
The movie centers on Betty (Naomi Watts), a cheerful blonde from the Midwest who travels to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.
She meets an amnesiac brunette (Laura Harring) who has wandered into the residence after surviving a car accident while staying at her aunt’s apartment.
As the landscape of underground Los Angeles changes around them, Betty and the enigmatic lady who goes by the name Rita find themselves on a quest to discover Rita’s identity.
“Mulholland Drive” may not be the right movie for you if you’re searching for suspenseful movies like don’t worry Darling, where all the mysteries are finally revealed.
Yet, if the idea that certain things just beyond explanation compel you in any way, you could be willing to make this jump.
The fact that everyone has their own opinions about what occurred in “Mulholland Drive” is, in fact, one of its most intriguing qualities, making it a great experience unlike any other.
2. Far From Heaven (2002)
- Director: Todd Haynes
- Cast: Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis, James Rebhorn, and Bette Henritze
- IMDb rating: 7.3/10
Florence Pugh’s amazing live-wire performance in “Don’t Worry Darling” is one of its best qualities.
She portrays Alice to give viewers a glimpse into the constricting ideals of womanhood and to show what happens when a woman is pushed to the breaking point by her husband’s secrecy.
It’s a multi-layered, carefully orchestrated performance that emphasizes Pugh’s composure and restraint just as much as it does her wailing howls of pain.
It’s just like Julianne Moore’s performance in “Far From Heaven,” another 1950s movie about a woman who struggles to fit into the mold that society has set for her.
Moore portrays Cathy as a housewife who is more liberal than the traditional women in her community.
Despite the gossip from the other women, she develops a flirtatious friendship with Raymond, her Black gardener (Dennis Haysbert).
She falls apart at the seams when she learns that her husband (Dennis Quaid) has been hiding a significant secret.
Like Pugh, Moore’s performance is as much about what she suppresses as what she allows herself to express, and it’s a real treat to watch that ongoing struggle play out across Moore’s face.
This is among the amazing movies like don’t worry Darling.
3. Gaslight (1944)
- Director: George Cukor
- Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty, Angela Lansbury, Barbara Everest, and Emil Rameau
- IMDb rating: 7.8/10
The character of Paula, played by Bergman, is a young lady who goes to Italy to train as an opera singer like her recently-deceased aunt.
Years later, Paula develops feelings for her handsome pianist, Gregory (Boyer).
Gregory becomes fixated on the property when they travel back to the London mansion where her aunt was killed, and weird things start occurring there.
While trying to find the truth explaining these bizarre happenings, Paula tries to save her sanity.
The movie “Gaslight” still seems relevant today, particularly in light of the term’s recent surge in popularity.
Fans of movies like Don’t Worry Darling would likely like this movie’s insightful exploration of misogynistic manipulation, even if it is more of a plain psychological thriller.
4. Suspiria (2018)
- Director: Luca Guadagnino
- Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Doris Hick, Malgorzata Bela, Dakota Johnson, Angela Winkler, and Vanda Capriolo
- IMDb rating: 6.7/10
The dance is very important in Don’t Worry Darling. The wife of the Victory Project’s founder, Shelley (Gemma Chan), teaches dancing lessons to Alice.
In the end, dancing turns out to be a technique of brainwashing everyone, and when Alice attempts to bend her body as directed, she has frightening hallucinations.
You may want to see Luca Guadagnino’s version of “Suspiria” if the dramatic, frightful dancing moments in Don’t Worry Darling caught your attention, particularly the movie’s use of mirrors.
In the movie, a young lady called Susie (Dakota Johnson) discovers that not everything is as it appears while attending a dancing school in Cold War-era Germany.
Several student disappearances and strange, complex dance moves are being taught to the dancers at the school, and there are many witchcraft allegations.
“Suspiria” is the ideal movie to see after seeing movies like Don’t Worry Darling since the dancing sequences are very unpleasant and, at times, quite difficult to watch because they’re so bizarre.
5. Indecent Proposal (1993)
- Director: Adrian Lyne
- Cast: Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Seymour Cassel, Oliver Platt, Billy Bob Thornton, and Rip Taylor
- IMDb rating: 6.0/10
Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play David and Diana Murphy in the movie, a married couple trying to make investments for the future.
The recession strikes as David, an architect, and Diana, a prominent real estate agent, are halfway through building their dream home.
They go to Las Vegas to recover their money to keep their property.
They encounter Robert Redford, a millionaire, who offers them $1 million to spend the night with Diana while they are there.
It is a ridiculous concept, but most of Lyne’s movies have rather absurd plots.
While the movie wasn’t well appreciated by critics when it came out in 1993, it was a box office success and is still being talked about today.
6. The Stepford Wives (1975)
- Director: Bryan Forbes
- Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman, Tina Louise, Carol Eve Rossen, and William Prince
- IMDb rating: 6.9/10
Similar to how movies like Don’t Worry Darling is a feminist movie in response to the “incel” movement, “The Stepford Wives” is a horror movie in opposition to what Joanna (Katharine Ross), the main character, refers to as “women’s lib.”
Men were concerned that women were becoming too sexually free, self-assured, and ready to rebel against the patriarchal system that had kept them subjugated.
Joanna starts to believe that the Stepford husbands have succeeded in establishing a pernicious men’s society that subjugates women once again.
However, making them willing and content to spend their days cooking and cleaning.
It resembles the Victory Project from the movie “Don’t Worry, Darling.” Joanna pulls back at the notion that she should be content to be a housewife, to give up her artistic endeavors and live just for her husband, like Alice in “Don’t Worry Darling.”
She is terrified by the weird, stilted social gatherings she is required to attend, and the illusion of the seemingly perfect family around her permeates the whole movie.
Seeing “The Stepford Wives” might help bring to light some of the enduring issues that Olivia Wilde’s latest movie, “Don’t Worry Darling,” toys around with.
This is undoubtedly among the amazing movies like don’t worry Darling.
7. Parents (1989)
- Director: Bob Balaban
- Cast: Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky, London Juno, Kathryn Grody, and Deborah Rush
- IMDb rating: 6.1/10
The huge slabs of meat that Michael’s father brings home at night are what worries him the most. His mother only says they are “leftovers” when he asks questions about their source.
He discusses his worries with Millie (Sandy Dennis), the school counselor, but they don’t go well.
“Parents” is a fascinating interpretation of kids’ humorous and horrifying imaginations about their parents.
The reputation of “Parents” has improved with time, as is typical in the comedy and horror genres.
‘Parents’ presents a unique horror-comedy experience that, although despised by critics upon release in 1989, can now be called a cult masterpiece, according to critic Adam Patterson in 2019.
This is undoubtedly one of the best movies like don’t worry Darling.
8. Vivarium (2020)
- Director: Lorcan Finnegan
- Cast: Imogen Poots, Danielle Ryan, Molly McCann, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris, Côme Thiry, and Senan Jennings
- IMDb rating: 5.9/10
Young couple Tom and Gemma in the movie “Vivarium” are captivated by the real estate options provided by a brand-new master-planned suburban community.
Perfect lawns surround identical homes, and the sky is always blue.
Their real estate agent leaves after they see one home. They quickly realize that they are stuck.
They may return to the same residence by taking any nearby streets. Food and a baby for them to nurture both arrive at the door.
The terrifying plot lines of “Vivarium” keep its protagonists imprisoned in a world where they are forced to submit to its harsh systems, forcing them into an obligatory nuclear family.
Like in “Don’t Worry Darling,” the sameness of these planned communities is intended to be a feature rather than a fault, but in “Vivarium,” the concept of everyone being pushed into the same way of life is horrific.
9. Lady Macbeth (2016)
- Director: William Oldroyd
- Cast: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, Christopher Fairbank, Golda Rosheuvel, and Anton Palmer
- IMDb rating: 6.8/10
You should watch “Lady Macbeth” if Florence Pugh’s performance in “Don’t Worry, Darling” left you speechless.
Pugh made her acting debut in the 2017 movie, “Don’t Worry Darling.”
In it, she portrays a character struggling to live up to society’s expectations of being a wife and a woman.
In this case, she is the wife of a nobleman who is often absent from his estate, leaving her lonely and with nothing to do except dress up elaborately, sit about, and torture her servants.
Moreover, she begins a sadomasochistic relationship with Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), a field worker.
With Pugh’s outstanding performance, everything quickly turns into an incredibly captivating nasty power play.
The character may be an alternate-universe Alice, who likewise discovers that she has married into a situation where she is just supposed to cook and clean for her husband.
However, he doesn’t believe she should worry about the specifics of his profession and who finds herself quite unhappy.
10. Mother! (2017)
- Director: Darren Aronofsky
- Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson, and Jovan Adepo
- IMDb rating: 6.6/10
The social skills expected at the parties Alice is forced to attend overwhelm her completely.
The music is simply too loud, everyone appears to be talking over one other, and nobody seems to be paying attention to her complaints.
“Mother” is the best option if you’re seeking movies like don’t worry Darling with a similar atmosphere.
In Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece, a lady (Jennifer Lawrence) finds her house overrun by party guests she can’t get rid of.
As the woman’s anxiety increases, the movie goes off the rails, turning the party into a horrifying freakshow of disregarded society’s standards, loud noise, and writhing bodies.
The best parts of “Don’t Worry Darling” and “mother!” are the close-ups of Florence Pugh’s increasingly desperate face.
“Don’t Worry Darling” and “mother!” share a cinematographer, and Matthew Libatique revealed that the close-up is one of his favorite ways to depict anxiety.
If you can handle the unrelenting noise and unsettling close-ups in the movie, “mother!” goes great with “Don’t Worry Darling.”
11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
- Director: Roman Polanski
- Cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, and Victoria Vetri
- IMDb rating: 8.0/10
Since its debut in 1968, “Rosemary’s Baby” has had its narrative recycled several times, making it one of the most influential horror movies like don’t worry Darling ever made.
It still stands up now and is as frightful as it may have been back then.
No gruesome special effects, terrifying monsters, or ghosts are there; all that can be seen is the utter fear of a lady who has been raped in the most basic manner.
It’s tough to avoid being drawn into Farrow’s terrible world because of her horrific performance in the movie.
She is horrified by the demonic nature of her pregnancy, but what’s even more terrifying is how little control she has over her body.
If you haven’t had a chance to watch “Rosemary’s Baby,” now is the time to do so since it is a modern classic that inspired several movies like Don’t Worry, Darling.
12. The Village (2004)
- Director: M. Night Shyamalan
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson, and Cherry Jones
- IMDb rating: 6.6/10
The Victory Project is revealed to be a town apart from civilization in Don’t Worry Darling; it is a safe bubble where people may live happy lives free from the constraints of everyday life.
It’s an idea that brings to mind “The Village.” This is a movie by M. Night Shyamalan about a remote hamlet in the woods where residents are kept in order by a distinct line they are not allowed to cross.
The residents of “The Village” are compelled to conform by their terror of the red-clad creatures who roam the neighborhood and strike fear into the characters’ hearts by their ruthless policing.
The main character in “The Village,” as in movies like Don’t Worry Darling, is a young lady. Ivy is her name in this case (Bryce Dallas Howard).
Ivy is first happy to comply with the society she was raised in. However, she soon doubts this is the case and wonders if maybe the rules aren’t as much in place to keep her safe as they are to keep her compliant.
Maybe it’s all about control, as Alice says in “Don’t Worry Darling.” Fans of Alice’s same search in “Don’t Worry Darling” will relate to Ivy’s desire to learn where she lives.
This is one of the best movies like don’t worry Darling.
13. The Truman Show (1998)
- Director: Peter Weir
- Cast: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, and Brian Delate
- IMDb rating: 8.2/10
Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank in “The Truman Show,” a character unknown to him, who is the largest television celebrity in the country.
Unknown to Truman, his entire life is being broadcast live on TV by secretive cameras that are always watching him.
Christof, the executive producer of “The Truman Show,” played by Ed Harris, influences Truman’s decisions and behavior, even going so far as to have the actress he loves replaced by someone else.
Truman’s mental state deteriorates as he learns the truth, and he must decide what to do with his knowledge.
It’s an intriguing movie that breaks your heart while twisting your mind.
Truman is easy to empathize with as he attempts to define his agency. It’s one of Jim Carrey’s greatest performances.
If the premise of “Don’t Worry Darling” captivated your interest, “The Truman Show” will probably do the same.
While “Don’t Worry Darling” is a rather sinister and dark movie, “The Truman Show” is surprisingly uplifting given its somewhat dystopian plot.
Thus, if you’re searching for simulation-themed movies like don’t worry Darling where there’s some light at the end of the tunnel, “The Truman Show” is a good bet.
