Waiting for Squid Game Season 2 like the rest of us? It is indeed a tiring process, so we have compiled a list of TV shows and Movies which, unlike the squid game second season, can be watched right now on your screens. The shows and tv shows in the list are compiled with the fact that each of us loved the squid game.
15. Hunger Games
- Director: Gary Ross
- Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
- IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84%
- Platforms Available: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
The Hunger Games, the first installment in the movie franchise, plays with the acquainted themes of fatal games with fairly substantial rewards over the last person standing. It takes place in a dystopian future in which 12 districts are ruled by the power-hungry Capitol. The yearly Hunger Games includes two homages from each neighborhood competing in a tournament to the death in an attempt to keep the masses in check. The contestants, like in Squid Game, are from the nether regions of societal structure and have next to no preference but to fold to the will of Capitol… or do they?
14. Alice in Borderland (2020)
- Director: Shinsuke Sato
- Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Asahina Aya, Tao Tsuchiya
- IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Netflix has noticed this trend in investing heavily in death-game shows such as “The Squiddy Game”. Earlier on Squid Game, the streamer was successful again in a similar Asian series: squid-themed Alice in Borderlands. Alice in Borderland takes place in what looks like an abandoned version of Tokyo. In the game, they do various tasks. All players get a visa, and if they pass through the games, the visas are extended. When their visa expires, their death will occur. An adaptation of an anime of a similar name written by Haro Aso, Alice in Borderland, is so popular Netflix plans to release another season soon.
13. Escape Room
- Director: Adam Robitel
- Cast: Adam Robitel, Logan Miller, Taylor Russell
- IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 51%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Check for cryptic invitations. Done. Deadly games. Check. A huge cash prize. Escape Room is, without a doubt, the ideal resemblance for Squid Game fans to investigate. The psychological horror movie like Squid Game, directed by Adam Robitel, depicts the events occurring after six strangers meet somewhere at Minos Escape Room Facility. With $10,000 on the line, they embark on a series of mind-bending games that push their boundaries and much more. This one is undeniably bloody and gory, but you’re bound to capture stuff related to that Squid Game buzz.
12. As the Gods Will (2014)
- Director: Takashi Miike
- Cast: Sota Fukushi, Mio Yuki, Shita Sometani
- IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 57%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
As God’s Will is so incredibly compatible with and is a movie like Squid Game that Squid Game creator Hwang Donghyuk has even accused him of copyright. (Hwang Donghyuk denied this influence, stating he wrote “Squid Game” years prior to ” The God Will ” being released. In Takashi Miike’s supernatural horror manga adaptation, schoolchildren in Tokyo get caught up in games where they get trolled in death unless it was a win. Throughout the game, young kids from different regions are put on gruesome teams to try their luck at God and find life through a competition called liar game or Die.
11. Liar Game
- Director: Shinobu Kaitani
- Cast: Shota Matsuda, Kosuke Suzuki, Michiko Kichise
- IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
- Platforms Available: Netflix
This anime TV drama from Japanese television was also adapted from the manga. This anime is very close to Squid Game in the sense that LiarGame involves players playing desperate games that demand huge amounts of cash. Squidgames Founder Hwang Dong-hyuk also cites Liar Game (manga) as his inspiration. Now in fairness, it’s less likely that the stakes will get higher for people to get shot if they just win. However, this gives the film more creativity. Based on a manga series of the same name by Shinobu Kaitani. Liar Games.
10. Darwin’s Game (2020)
- Writer: FLIPFLOPs
- Characters: Kaname Sudo, Sui, Ryuji Maesaka
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Platforms Available: Netflix
There are so many death games anime to watch. It would be very easy to write a list of squid games with a focus on anime instead. We have kept it to two anime titles, so we have a better base. A popular option is Darwins Game, where the player starts to play a mobile game without even knowing its deadly effects. Upon finding the truth about the situation, the player is assigned to locate and kill Gamemaster. Darwin’s Game is definitely up there when we talk about shows like squid game
9. Battle Royale (2000)
- Director: Kinji Fukasaku
- Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Chiaki Kuriyama
- IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
- Platforms Available: iTunes
Battle Royale is an early death games film based upon a manga and produced a successful sequel. The movie has been rumored possibility a remake in Hollywood for ages. Battle Royale sees students on field trips make a departure. They are forced out of government buildings and thrown to another island where their competitors compete to survive on. A new program to combat and curb juvenile delinquency will pit students against one another. It’s one of those classic survival game movies. Unlike the Battle Royale video game, this movie will shock you.
8. The Purge
- Director: James DeMonaco
- Cast: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Rhys Wakefield
- IMDB Rating: 5.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 39%
- Platforms Available: Amazon Prime Video
A very well family struggles to survive the night after their supposedly safe house is attacked in the coming decades, where all offenses are sanctioned once a year. The terrifying aspect of this movie like Squid Game and The Purge is that few people have a say in the matter. While some revel in the heinous festivities, others have been forced to play a distorted game of cat and mouse. With legitimate and believable characters, this one is eerily realistic to watch.
7. Extracurricular
- Director: Kim Jin-min
- Cast: Park Ju-Hyun, Dong-Hee Kim
- IMDB Rating: 8.5/10
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Extracurricular lacks the game show framework of Squid Game and Alice in Borderland, but it does contain some sophisticated characters and a tale centered on class discrepancy. The word “class” is stressed since the characters of Extracurricular are students from various backgrounds. Oh Ji-soo, a clever student who operates an illicit “security service” business to gain money, is played by Kim Dong-hee (Sky Castle, Itaewon Class).
Ji-soo was abandoned by his family when he was young, and he now acts as a guard for prostitutes, living a double life. However, affluent classmate Bae Gyu-ri (Park Ju-hyun) discovers his secret and blackmails him into allowing her to join his firm. Ji-turbulent soo’s but mostly stable existence was disrupted in the process.
6. 3%
- Director: Cesar Charlone
- Cast: Bianca Comparato, Rodolfo Valente, Cynthia Senek
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Platforms Available: Netflix
This sci-fi survivor drama is the very first Brazilian Netflix Original series, and it has a similar idea to Squid Game. People in the futuristic dystopian setting of 3% are divided into two groups: the perennially destitute “Inland” and the rich civilization that lives in a utopia known as “Offshore.”
When persons from the Inland reach the age of 20, they are offered the opportunity to engage in a competition referred to as The process, with the reward being progression to the Offshore. However, these trials are extremely rigorous, with just 3% of candidates succeeding each year.
It’s an intense survival series, similar to Squid Game, fuelled by identity politics and poverty-fueled despair.
5. Sweet Home
- Director: Lee Eung-Bok Jang
- Cast: Song Kang, Lee Do Hyun, Lee Si-young
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
It’s not about sports or class conflict in Sweet Home. Rather, this Korean drama series features an ancient post-apocalyptic survival storyline, complete with gore and unexpected twists. Sweet Home is built on Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-webtoon chan of the same name. It takes place in a world where mankind begins to mutate into monsters, and the few individuals who remain uninfected must band together to live. Doesn’t this seem like a typical zombie story?
Cha Hyun-soo (Song Kang) is the main character of Sweet Home, a high school junior who moves into an apartment complex after his family is killed in a car accident. When people all over the globe start turning into monsters and attacking one another, Hyun-soo and his neighbors are forced to rely on one another to keep their home safe from the infected.
The tale has mystical and fantastical aspects, and the program has been quite successful since it initially aired on Netflix in December 2020. Lee Eung-bok, Jang Young-woo, and Park So-Hyun directed the first season of the program. Some sources claim that the program will return for a second season, however, Netflix has yet to confirm this.
4. Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor
- Director: Yato Suzo
- Characters: Kaiji Ito, Ichijo, Kotaro Sakazaki
- IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Since the success of Squid Game, people from all over the internet have drawn analogies between the program and the Kaiji franchise, some more kind than others. But, given Kaiji’s influence, this isn’t exactly surprising, and at least one story claims that Kaiji was just an influence for Squid Game.
Kaiji, or Gambling Apocalypse, is a manga book authored and drawn by Nobuyuki Fukumoto which began in 1996 and is currently ongoing.
The title character of Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, Kaiji It, shares many similarities with Seong Gi-hun from Squid Game (Lee Jung-Jae). Kaiji is a gambling addict who eventually owes a large amount of money to a money lender.
3. Hellbound
- Director: Yeon Sang-ho
- Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jung-min
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 97%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
If Squid Game would be your first Korean drama, be sure to try out the latest Netflix drama Hellbound to discover what else Korean TV makers are capable of. The series, directed and written by Train to Busan filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho and inspired by his webtoon Hell, brilliantly blends horror and morality, exactly like Squid Game does.
When angels begin to slide down on Earth to inform sinners of their impending death and that they will be taken to hell by a trio of smoking life forms who knock the survivors to a fine paste before cooking them, the rest of the world takes notice, particularly a religious cult who sees this as God’s response to our growing ambiguity of right and wrong.
2. Kingdom
- Director: Kim Seong-hun
- Cast: Ju Ji-hoon, Bae Doona, Kim Seong-gyoo
- IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 96%
- Platforms Available: Netflix
Kingdom, another South Korean horror film, is a movie like Squid Game. It is set in a fictional medieval-inspired town during Korea’s Joseon era, and stars Sense 8’s Bae Doo-na and other great actors. Following the King’s death from an unknown sickness, the Heir To the throne seeks reasons for his father’s untimely demise. In his search for the truth, Prince Lee Chang rather finds an unnatural sickness that resurrects the dead and transforms them into zombies who terrorize the realm. There’s also a movie tie-in available to watch called Kingdom: Ashin of the North!
1. Dr. Brain
- Director: Kim
- Cast: Lee Sun-Kyun, Seo Ji-Hye
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 78%
- Platforms Available: Apple TV
A psycho science fiction adventure that premiered on Apple TV+ in November 2021 for another stage of K-dramas. The story revolves around a brain researcher who invents a method to transmit memories from one human to the next in order to explore a family crisis. It’s as bizarre a movie as Squid Game because it works by delving into the brains of the deceased and alive and imagining how that may seem, and it’s also founded in emotions that propel the plot.
