The world is an increasingly dark place these days, which is why it can be quite cathartic to watch deeply disturbing dystopian sci-fi and horror films, to see a world that looks eerily similar to ours but on a more intense level of depravity.
Whether you're a fan of the many twisted stories of Black Mirror or you just want to expand your science fiction horizons a little bit, Netflix is home to a surprisingly robust variety of dystopian and post-apocalyptic films. There's classics like Bird Box and more underrated titles like Upgrade and What Happened to Monday.
The following list highlights seven great dystopian movies currently available to watch on Netflix.
Bird Box (2018)
Sandra Bullock plays a single mother desperately trying to survive a post-apocalyptic landscape where everyone must wear blindfolds to avoid seeing mysterious entities that cause people to commit suicide on sight. Based on the novel by Josh Malerman, Bird Box and A Quiet Place go hand-in-hand as a genre that focuses on the horror of having one of your senses forcibly removed at risk of a brutal death at the hands of a monster or supernatural being.
What Happened to Monday (2017)
Tommy Wirkola directed this twisted sci-fi film set in a world where overpopulation has forced the government to enact a one-child policy. But when a woman gives birth to seven identical daughters, they're thrust into a dire situation where each one can only leave the house on certain days of the week to ensure no one knows that they broke the rule while simultaneously investigating a mysterious disappearance and making a truly chilling discovery.
The Kitchen (2023)
Released in 2024, The Kitchen kind of came and went on Netflix, which is a shame because it's an excellent movie starring Daniel Kaluuya who also made his directorial debut with this film, co-directing alongside Kibwe Tavares. It centers on a dystopian version of London where only one place dubbed "The Kitchen" remains for social housing, but it remains significantly at risk of being destroyed.
Circle (2015)
Another seriously underrated option, Circle is a sci-fi thriller with a simple, yet deranged, premise. A group of people wake up and discover they are surrounded by total strangers in an unrecognizable dark room. Every two minutes, one of them is killed and they soon learn that the remaining survivors are given the choice to decide who lives and who dies, resulting in the kind of surreal social experiment dystopian fiction thrives on. Perfect for fans of Black Mirror and Squid Game. A sequel is reportedly in the works.
Upgrade (2018)
Leigh Whannell (Saw, The Invisible Man) directs this suspenseful and action-packed cyberpunk horror movie about a man who gets implanted with advanced artificial intelligence to enhance his body and grant him superhuman strength and agility. Logan Marshall-Green stars as the lead character, Grey Trace, who loses everything in a horrific mugging resulting in his wife's death. He uses his new abilities to get revenge.
I Am Mother (2019)
Hilary Swank, Clara Rugaard, and Rose Byrne star in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie about a world trying to recover after a mass extinction event. A robot dubbed "Mother" is left to care for a human embryo and years later, "Daughter" begins to question the truth about humanity and the world she's been living in with only robots for social contact.
The Platform (2019)
This Spanish film has a really unique concept, the idea of a vertical prison system where inmates aren't house in individual cells but on floors. The downside is that the floors are constructed on top of one another in a tower-like structure and the only way they can eat is when a sizable moving platform descends each day. Anyone housed on the upper floors gets to feast on as much food as they want, leaving a dwindling amount of leftovers as the platform descends to the lowest levels. Netflix released a sequel last year.