Five Netflix movies to watch if you loved ‘Apex’
Watching Apex felt like you’d just been dropped straight into the middle of it. Since it came out in April, it’s become one of the most-watched titles on Netflix, and you can see why. It’s because it gets going straight away and just keeps the tension really high, which is exactly what people seem to be into at the moment.
April has been a rather slow month for thrillers on Netflix. The platform dropped some really good ones back-to-back in February and March, but Apex has to be one of the best Netflix gave us. What really tickled pink was how it didn’t disappoint.
Loads of it was shot out in the Australian wilderness, and it shows. It’s the story of a woman, Sasha, who goes into the wild still dealing with a climbing accident that killed her partner. While she’s out there, she meets Ben, who seems alright at first but turns out to hunt people for sport. From there, it’s basically a constant chase, with her trying to stay one step ahead using whatever she can.
That’s probably why it’s worked so well. It sticks to the basics where one person tries to get away and one person chases them, with no breathing room in between. If you liked that sort of thing, you’ll probably like these five films on Netflix which walk on the same trail.
Five Netflix movies to watch if you loved Apex
Run (Aneesh Chaganty, 2020)
Run is one of those films where you start watching it and then realise that this is not going where you thought it would. It follows Chloe (Kiera Allen), a teenager who has grown up completely dependent on her mother. She is homeschooled, barely allowed out, and always being told what’s best for her. Sounds like she is pretty protected, right? But after a while, you’ll observe that little things start feeling off. Her medication starts to feel fishy to her. This girl’s not even allowed to use the internet, for crying out loud.
And that’s where it all comes to you. Chloe starts putting two and two together and realises her mum isn’t just overprotective, but she is controlling her entire life, and the reason behind it is very dark. The mother is played by Sarah Paulson, and she’s done an excellent job in portraying the psychotic, controlling mother. Also, Kiera Allen is a wheelchair user in real life, which adds a level of realism you don’t usually get in thrillers, so another point to add to your Netflix watchlist.
Gerald’s Game (Mike Flanagan, 2017)
This movie is one of the more surprising successes to come out of Netflix and a proper reminder that Stephen King adaptations don’t need monsters to leave a mark. Gerald’s Game takes a novel long considered impossible to adapt and turns it into something horrifying yet an amazing watch. It starts with Jessie and her husband’s visit to an isolated lake house to patch things up.
The twist here is that he dies mid-game, leaving her handcuffed to the bed. From there, it becomes a battle of endurance, both physical and mental. Before you watch this film, just take a moment and imagine yourself in this situation. Quite suffocating, right? So is the film. The best part about this Netflix movie is that, rather than showing jump scares, it lets Jessie delve into introspection, which just makes it far more disturbing but interesting. Carla Gugino is excellent in the film, especially because it was really hard to bring Jessie’s character to life.
Against the Ice (Peter Flinth, 2022)
Following that, Against the Ice, we have another survival thriller like Apex, but it takes the survival angle out of the woods and drops it straight into the Arctic. It’s based on a real Danish expedition from 1909, where two men go across Greenland to recover a lost map. Sounds straightforward enough until they are left completely stranded with barely any supplies and no easy route back.
From that point, it’s not an expedition; it’s a fight to survive. These two are dealing with freezing temperatures, hunger, injuries, you name it, but what’s more painful to watch is the isolation that really starts to mess with them. The film follows their journey over months, not days, which feels a lot harsher, and do not confuse this for a quick-escape situation; it’s endurance. What it shares with Apex is that same survival focus, just in a different setting. Instead of being hunted by a person, it’s the environment doing the damage here.
47 Meters Down (Johannes Roberts, 2017)
Now 47 Metres Down takes you to a holiday setting. Two sisters, Lisa and Kate, make a bit of a spontaneous decision, and they go cage diving. It’s nothing too serious, just something to try out. But just as they get in, the cable snaps. Next thing you know, they are sat at the bottom of the ocean, stuck inside a metal cage, with barely any oxygen and sharks circling above them.
And that’s it. That’s the whole problem. There is no easy way up, and no one is coming down quickly enough to help. Even if they try to swim up, they risk blacking out because of the pressure. So every move becomes a gamble: they either stay put and run out of air or try something and hope it works. The thing that this film shares with Apex is that it doesn’t mess about with extra storylines. In Apex, it’s someone chasing you through rough terrain. Here, it’s the ocean keeping you pinned down. Different setting but same pressure, and in this case, quite literally.
The Ritual (David Bruckner, 2017)
And then you’ve got The Ritual, which is the story of a group of friends who head out into the Swedish wilderness for a hiking trip. What was meant to be a way of dealing with a loss turns into a disaster when they end up taking a shortcut through a dense forest. Bad idea, very bad. From that point they find odd symbols and abandoned cabins and many strange things that indicate that they are not alone in the forest.
Compared to Apex, it’s still about survival in the wild, but with a different kind of danger. In Apex, you know who is chasing you. Here, you don’t, and that uncertainty is what keeps you going. At first, it’s just being lost, not knowing where you’re going. Then it turns into something else entirely, where the threat isn’t just the forest but whatever’s moving through it.