Essential Revenge Movies Best Served Cold

I Saw the Devil also stars Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik, but this time around he plays a straightforward, villainous serial killer named Jang Kyung-chul. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler, as it’s an important part of the movie’s set up in the first act. Choi stars opposite Lee Byung-hun as Kim Soo-hyun, a National Intelligence Service agent (basically Korea’s CIA) who starts down a dark path for revenge after his fiancée is murdered by, you guessed it, Kyung-chul. While Soo-hyun quickly finds out that Kyung-chul is responsible and as an NIS agent has the ability to arrest him, he decides instead to turn the tables on the killer, dipping into the never-ending well of Kyung-chul’s depravity and giving him a taste of his own medicine. The two men then play a twisted game of cat and mouse, as Soo-hyun’s drive for vengeance leaves him on the precipice of becoming as evil as the man he’s after. Like the previously mentioned film Oldboy, I Saw the Devil is also a very dark, very violent movie, but it’s also a compelling depiction of Soo-hyun’s desperate rage and grief in an appropriately visceral experience.

The First Wives Club

the-first-wives-club-castImage via Paramount Pictures

Another comedy on the list, The First Wives Club is a movie in which three mistreated women team up to bring revenge upon the ex-husbands who so deeply deserve it. The movie stars Diane Keaton as Annie, Goldie Hawn as Elise, and Bette Midler as Brenda, three childhood best friends brought back together by a mutual friend’s death. Reuniting, the three women discover that they are all feeling lost for the same reason, dealing with ex-husbands who left them for younger women. They agree to team up as “The First Wives Club” and get payback, or as they call it, “justice,” using the husbands’ mistakes to their advantage. The First Wives Club is an intelligent comedy that features an amazing combination of lead actresses with Keaton, Hawn, and Midler at the center, while even more stars play supporting roles, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Dan Hedaya, and Maggie Smith, to name a few. After release, the movie became an instant classic with a cult following, and The First Wives Club still stands as one of the best comedies of the ‘90s.

The Nightingale

the-nightingaleImage via IFC FIlms

The Nightingale is the second film to be written and directed by Jennifer Kent, the mind behind The Babadook. Set in 1825, The Nightingale tells the story of an Irish woman named Clare Carroll, played by Aisling Franciosi, living in what is now Tasmania as an indentured servant for a cruel British man named Hawkins (Sam Claflin). Clare’s relatively happy life with a husband and baby is ripped from her grasp one horrible night. Fair warning, the moment that leads Clare to want revenge is not easy to watch, that’s for sure, but you’ll know the scene when you get to it. In fact, a lot of the film is hard to watch, but Kent provides a realistic portrayal of the true horrors that British forces subjected Tasmania to, and the Aboriginals in particular, while the territory was a colony. A true survivor, Clare meets and hires Billy, played by Aboriginal Australian actor Baykali Ganambarr, a skilled Aboriginal tracker who guides Clare through the wild Tasmanian bush to find and kill the men who took everything she loves away from her. Brutal, honest, and extremely emotional, The Nightingale is an astounding followup to The Babadook, and an equally emotional thriller with a historical twist.

Carrie

carrie-1976Image via United Artists

The first Stephen King novel to ever be adapted on-screen, Carrie stars Sissy Spacek as the title character, a teenage girl whose life at school and home gets increasingly worse, all while she’s growing into intense telekinetic powers. The 1976 movie has its ups and downs, but after what Carrie goes through at the hands of the mean kids at school, you definitely relate to her desire to get revenge on the bullies, even if she goes a little too far. Carrie is like her origin story, and audiences are left wondering what would happen after that fateful prom, and if Carrie may ever return to kill the rest of her classmates. While the horror genre is filled with vengeful villains, Carrie brings a huge sense of relatability to her situation, in that she’s really just a 16-year-old girl who wants to be loved and doesn’t know enough about the world or her special abilities.

Unforgiven

unforgiven-clint-eastwood-socialImage via Warner Bros.

As this is about the best revenge films ever made, a Western was bound to make the list, and it’s Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Released in 1992, the film follows Eastwood’s character William Munny, a retired outlaw who agrees to take on one last job for a young man known as “the Kid,” who wants help tracking down the men responsible for injuring a sex worker in town and getting the $1000 reward. Raising two kids on his own, Munny could use the cash, so he asks for help from an old friend named Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), and together Munny, Ned, and the Kid must face off against the corrupt, selfish sheriff, “Little Bill” (Gene Hackman). Directed and starring Eastwood, Unforgiven is a study on the limited morals of classic Westerns, featuring a cast of characters with varying beliefs on when it’s okay to kill someone, or it it’s ever okay at all, while living in the dangerous, kill-or-be-killed world of the Wild West.

Cape Fear

cape-fearImage via Universal Pictures

A remake of the 1962 film of the same name, which was in turn based on a book, Cape Fear is a lesser-known film by Martin Scorsese. It really shouldn’t be so underrated, as it features the one and only Robert De Niro in one of his most chilling roles, playing a convicted rapist named Max Cady who is let out of prison and goes on a rampage to get revenge on the man who put him in jail. His target is Sam Bowden, played by Nick Nolte, who was Cady’s lawyer on the rape case. Well, Cady’s pissed because Bowden held back some evidence that might’ve lessened Cady’s jail time, but considering what the man does when he’s let out, I’d say that Sam definitely did the right thing. Still, Cady comes after Sam and his family, and over time he almost turns the tables on Sam, using his own laws against him to try to get him disbarred. Now, note that I said almost, because Cady’s psychopathy just can’t be stopped, and the rapist goes completely crazy while on his revenge mission, providing Sam the perfect opportunity to give Cady the sentence that he thought he deserved 14 years ago. Seriously, after watching Cape Fear, can someone convince De Niro to play a straightforward evil villain again?

Blue Ruin

blue-ruin-1Image via RADiUS-TWC

The second film made by Jeremy Saulnier, the man behind thrillers like Green Room and Hold the Dark, Blue Ruin is a brutal, gritty revenge story about a man named Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) who has already hit rock bottom after his parents’ death two decades earlier. Unfortunately, his life somehow gets worse when his parents’ killer is let out of prison. With literally nothing else to live for, Dwight tracks down the killer, a man named Wade Cleland (Sandy Barnett), and kills him, just as he plans to. But this action brings the whole Cleland family against him, intending to take the law into their own hands. With everything he’s been through, Dwight won’t back down, resulting in an intense, complicated story of Dwight’s battle against the messed up family. I know I’ve said this before with other movies on this list, but Blue Ruin is very grim and tense, and if you’ve seen any of Saulnier’s other movies (I’m specifically imagining a gross scene with an arm in Green Room), then you know what to expect with this violent, action-packed revenge story. Blair is an astounding, underrated actor who takes complete control of this story, which when accompanied by stunning visual work from Saulnier, who also serves as cinematographer, presents a gripping, very human experience.

Hard Candy

hard-candy-ellen-page-patrick-wilsonImage via Lionsgate

We all know what “catfishing” is, right? Well, in the 2005 film Hard Candy, director David Slade takes the story of pedophiles grooming minors on the internet and flips it on its head. This time around, Slade makes the pedophile, a photographer named Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson), the hunted, while a 14-year-old named Hayley Stark (Elliot Page) is the hunter. In Hard Candy, Hayley connects with Jeff online until they finally meet in person and he takes her to his house. But what Jeff doesn’t know is that Hayley has orchestrated all of this, and she has quite a lot planned for the man who she believes is a rapist, pedophile, and murderer, having been tracking and watching him for some time. The indie film features an amazing early performance by Page, with a role that showcases his ability to switch from pure innocence to sharp, clever intelligence at a moment’s notice. Page fully embodies the complicated character of Hayley, who constantly toes the line between vigilante and predator in extremely murky moral grounds. As always, Wilson is also fantastic, and he should definitely pursue more nuanced villain roles, because he’s clearly well-suited.

The Lady Eve

the-lady-eve-1Image via Paramount Pictures

The 1941 film The Lady Eve stars Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Harrington, a young woman who cons rich men out of their money with her father, “Colonel” Harrington, played by Charles Coburn. On one such con, Jean woos a rich heir named Charles Pike, portrayed by Henry Fonda, but soon she starts falling for him as well. Their love story is quickly ruined when Jean’s con background is revealed, leading Charles to break up with her. Intending to get her revenge, Jean reappears in Charles’s life with a new name and accent, and pretty soon Charles is falling in love with Jean all over again and he doesn’t know it, as she now goes by Lady Eve Sidwich. Charles is extremely naive, noticing the resemblance between Jean and Eve but never believing it could really be her. Along with that, the title and themes of the film hint at Jean being a representation of the biblical Eve to Charles’s Adam, with Jean causing Charles to fall to temptation. The Lady Eve is sweet and hilarious, and Jean is a truly unique heroine for the era, a woman who knows what she wants, makes a plan, and goes and gets it. She always has the power in her relationship with Charles, save when Jean finally falls in love with him.

Ocean’s Eleven

oceans-11Image via Warner Bros.

The revenge at the center of Ocean’s Eleven, the first film of the popular heist comedy franchise, actually has a few elements at play. For the main character, Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney, the job of robbing a major Las Vegas casino owned by a man named Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) is just a job — at first. For fellow team member Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), it’s another story, as he is a former casino owner and sees Benedict as his rival, with the robbery being the perfect revenge. But later on during the heist, Danny realizes that his ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts) is Benedict’s girlfriend, so now it’s personal. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the movie also stars Bernie Mac, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and more, all members of Danny’s dream team of thieves, who all play a key role in the elaborate heist. Clearly people liked Ocean’s Eleven, as the criminals come back for two more heists in Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen, but the first movie of the bunch will always be the one to beat.

Gone Girl

Rosamund Pike in Gone GirlImage via 20th Century Fox

Directed by auteur filmmaker David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn based on her book of the same name, Gone Girl is a mystery thriller with one of the most complex antiheroes I’ve seen in a while. Rosamund Pike plays Amy Dunne, a brilliantly intelligent, yet slightly psychotic woman who builds herself a picture-perfect life with Nick Dunne, played by Ben Affleck, which begins to fall apart over the years. Both Amy and Nick lose their jobs, they have to move from NYC to his hometown in Missouri to care for his mom, and then she finds out that he’s having an affair. To say she’s pissed off would be an understatement, and so she takes all those feelings of resentment and anger and uses them to execute an elaborate plan to frame Nick for her murder, leading to his arrest and conviction. Although Nick is absolutely clueless at first, he eventually figures out Amy’s manipulations, and the two circle each other from afar, slowly closing in. While Nick gives a good effort, Amy is a force to be reckoned with, and her constantly devious and methodical machinations to get what she wants will continually shock the viewer, but somehow through all of it, you’ll still be rooting for her. Affleck gives a fantastic performance here, but we all know that Pike is the true standout in Gone Girl, and I look forward to the day when she (hopefully) works with Fincher on another project.

The Crow

the-crow-social-featureImage via Miramax

Most people are familiar with The Crow due to Brandon Lee’s tragic on-set death, but the film, and especially Lee’s performance, warrants appreciation based on its own merits. In The Crow, Lee stars as Eric Draven, a man who is murdered alongside his fiancée on October 30, Devil’s Night. A year later, Eric is resurrected by a crow, giving him invulnerability and the ability to get revenge on the men responsible. The Crow is gritty, dark, and exciting, with a very compelling vigilante antihero anchoring the film. What some people might not know about the movie is that after Lee’s death, Paramount dropped out of distribution, and so if it wasn’t for Miramax stepping in at the last minute, The Crow likely would’ve never been finished and released at all. While the final product was changed slightly after Lee’s death, the actor had filmed most of his scenes already, and with a body double and post production work, they were able to do Lee justice and present a film that delivers on its premise. Years later, The Crow is still a satisfying revenge story that more people should check out.

Upgrade

Logan Marshall-Green in UpgradeImage via BH Tilt

Blumhouse has really made a name for itself over the past few years with smart, visually stunning horror movies, and 2018’s Upgrade is a part of that success. Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, who you might know as the writer/director of 2020’s The Invisible Man, Upgrade is set in a cyberpunk-style future where technology is notably more advanced than now. Logan Marshall-Green stars in the film as Grey Trace, a mechanic who hates the control of technology in their society, but after his wife is killed in an attack and he ends up paralyzed from the neck down, Grey changes his tune. A previous client of his named Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson) just happens to have an experimental technology called STEM, a semi-sentient implant that allows Grey to walk again. But once STEM starts to talk to him, it spurs on Grey’s need for revenge, leading him on a overpowered rampage around the city. Upgrade feels like a very violent episode of Black Mirror, focusing on the dangers of technology and vengeance. The movie also has an extreme sense of style with superbly designed action sequences reminiscent of John Wick, and overall it’s an underrated revenge movie that’s sure to become a classic.

The Man from Nowhere

the-man-from-nowhere-social-featureImage via CJ Entertainment

In Lee Jeong-beom’s The Man from Nowhere, Won Bin plays Cha Tae-sik, a reserved man living a simple life running a pawnshop, whose only joy is his friendship with a little girl from the neighborhood named So-mi (Kim Sae-ron). So-mi’s mother is a heroin addict, and she gets into big trouble when she steals a bunch of heroin from the bar where she works, gaining the attention of crime lord Oh Myung-gyu (Song Young-chang). Unfortunately for Tae-sik, So-mi’s mother pawns the bag with the drugs to him without him knowing what’s inside, wrapping him up in the situation. Myung-gyu comes for Tae-sik and the drugs, but Tae-sik escapes, revealing extreme combat skills that hint at a hidden past. Soon enough Myung-gyu and his men realize that So-mi is Tae-sik’s only weakness and all he cares about, so they kidnap the girl to get him to do as they say. But they have no idea who they’ve just pissed off, and Tae-sik promises to kill them all as he fights to get So-mi to safety. The Man from Nowhere, along with Oldboy and I Saw the Devil, are just a few examples of South Korea’s skill in producing action-packed thrillers with emotional, character driven stories. Even though Tae-sik spends most of the movie fighting and killing, The Man from Nowhere never strays from the reason why all of this is happening, which is the heartfelt relationship between Tae-sik and So-mi.