What Are The Best Dark Romance Movies On Netflix?

Question

Netflix's library changes so often, it's tough to keep up. Looking for those truly dark, twisted love stories that actually disturb you a bit, not just angsty dramas.

Miguel Fernando Mosquera Noriega · Answer

I think for a good dark Netflix romance film to watch, The Handmaiden (the Korean version) is great and twisted. If you like movies with mostly grey morality and a lot of high tension, I think you’ll get something similar out of the web novel Dark Desires: Forbidden romance stories. It centers around a very dangerous bargain that the two main characters enter into, which can be very confusing to distinguish between obsession and love, and creates a lot of intensely personal and high stakes for the two leads.

Simon · Answer

My pick for dark romance is ‘1922’ (2017). Yes, this is a horror movie, and it’s odd in that it links a murder to a failed marriage. Below Her Mouth (2016) is another offbeat choice. It’s raw and it’s real and it’s mostly focused on the affair between two women but it’s also a movie about self-destruction. The way each touch is shot is electric and that’s even when things start to go wrong for the characters.

While not exactly violent, In the Shadow of Iris is a French thriller where deception and love are two sides of the same coin and most importantly it makes sense. More power to Netflix for selecting the divisive The Lodgers. Set in 1920s Ireland this gothic horror story revolves around a family of two sibling lovers who are locked in their manor for most of the year by their parents. The film is equal parts a creepy supernatural tale and seriously dark sibling love. These films all have a distinct feel. No matter how complicated love can be in real life, in these films, love is just simply bad for you.

Brody · Answer

Obsession is another recent Netflix miniseries that hooks you into the story of a rather obsessive relationship between two characters while at the same time laying out how their behavior constitutes a ‘crime’. This four-part show develops an engaging story around these core themes while keeping you on tenterhooks for more. It doesn’t contribute greatly to the romantic side of dark romance, but on the whole an enjoyable noir type of story (The Discovery is another recent Netflix movie that falls more into the ‘dramatic romance’ category which is certainly quite heavy but remains a lovely melancholic love story in a near future in which afterlife has become scientific fact).

If you want to go for a moodier take on the romance of the dark side, then the true historical lesbian love story of Elisa & Marcela (2019) could be just the ticket. Shot in a dark, shadowy style, it’s more of a desperate, anguished tale of people struggling to be together against all odds in 1901 Spain. Or, if you prefer something more extreme and depraved, The Perfume (2018) takes the classic 19th century novel of murder and-made-into-a-perfume and updates it with a modern twist. Tense, dark and pungently sensual, it’s a real guilty pleasure – and one that doesn’t make light of the horror. It makes you feel complicit in the crimes.

Reagan · Answer

So last night I re-watched a series of dark romance movies on Netflix and now I’m wrecked. So many are just utterly intense and leave you feeling rather unsure of the hero/ine of the story and sometimes even questioning your own morals too. ‘The Handmaiden’ (2016) from Park Chan-wook is a masterclass in a twisted love story, with stunning visuals and so many shocks along the way. Each twist and betrayal has hit me like a punch to the gut. ‘Cam’ (2018) on the other hand is an erotic thriller/ psychological horror film that explores the world of online cam sex and the consequences of obsession and the struggle to maintain one’s identity in the face of extreme desire.

I also really like Gothic romances like ‘Crimson Peak’ (2015) which is a gorgeous love story (in a really negative way) that follows a woman to a ‘wonderful’ mansion in the countryside. The costumes are so great in this movie that I like to watch it just for those. It’s a really beautiful movie, and a really terrible love story which Guillermo del Toro frames as being both positive and negative in the worst possible way. I also really like ‘Passion’ (2012) which is a slow burning romantic thriller that follows a pretty deadly corporate rivalry. It’s kind of like ‘Single White Female’ but set in an art gallery world and it’s really great. The films that I’ve picked for you all refuse to paint love in a nice and pretty way, instead they allow it to be messy and sometimes even to bleed (literally and/or metaphorically)).

KIDMINGUR · Answer

Many dark romances are best left to our imagination. ‘The Babadook’ is a complex horror movie about how grief can turn into a monster. The connection between a widow, Amelia, and the imaginary Mr. Babadook in the basement of her house is especially impressive as it is a powerful metaphor for how one has to deal with their trauma in order to move on from it. She does not love the Babadook. In fact, she is keeping it and even feeding it in order to survive her trauma. It is a complex, dark, and very moving relationship. Another film, ‘His House’, is a new type of horror movie: refugee horror. A married couple, who escaped from their home country, is haunted by a ‘witch’ from their past. Their toxic relationship is put to the test as the man struggles with his survivor’s guilt and the haunting represents their shared trauma. Their romance is brittle and will it survive a new country and the ghost of their past? It’s awful and heart-breaking.

Abubakar Adamu Mas · Answer

I’m looking for a dark romance that has even the tiniest glimmer of hope and real humanity in it. It’s okay if it’s mostly misery, but there has to be something more than just.
‘The Handmaiden’ is a good example of this. Yes, it’s got loads of betrayal in it, but in the end the girls get to escape and it’s really triumphant.
‘A Silent Voice’ is another good example. The ending is really hopeful and we get to see the start of the healing process for the main characters.
‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ was another good example. Yes, it’s a very tragic story but it was wonderful in showing the beauty of love even in death.
And then there’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending It’. It’s very dark but it’s also very human and sad. It’s about the sadness of the roads not taken and the loneliness of the life that could have been.
My point is that the darkest romance has to be one where I believe in the couple first, and then their perversion or whatever loses them can be revealed. If I don’t care about the couple then their dark and edgy world is just scenery. Which is to say that character development is even more important in a dark romance than it is in any other type of romance.

Cassy Veenstra · Answer

It’s possible that the thrill of the dark romance comes from allowing us to safely enter into a world of unhealthy relationships for a while. We can experience our ownversion of a unhealthy obsession, danger, and tragic love without any negative consequences. We can even find ourselves empathizing with the messed up characters in a story of dark romance and root for them as they go down a bad road of love. This genre has become extremely popular in novels and now is crossing over to become a big part of the film and television world. This form of storytelling allows us to explore the edges of human connection and why people fall into categories of love that bleed into possession, sacrifice into madness, and devotion into doom. Because Netflix has such a large global reach, they are able to handpick from cultures around the world and choose the ones that have the highest threshold for these types of stories. Thus, the international picks are often the strongest films and series of dark romance.

Er_Rash · Answer

There is a bit of a shift in definition here between 'dark romance' = ‘thriller/horror with a romance’ and ‘dark/ toxic/ doomed/psychologically complex in a way that is deeply emotional and unsettling and makes you feel something while at the same time making you feel nothing good’ — and then there are the Netflix movies that manage to encompass both. The Handmaiden is a good example of a Netflix movie that fits this. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is another example, but it doesn’t really have a traditional romance in it. You is another example, but it’s a series. Maybe we need a new term for this ‘in between’ stuff, though? ‘Romantic Thriller’ kinda implies mainstream rom-coms with a mystery or two, while ‘Psychological Romance’ is kinda a given here. Classic terms for this ‘genre’ are ‘Gothic Romance’, but that implies historical settings, etc. Anyhow, it’s fun to search for these specific films that fit in this very specific category of currently available flicks — this thread is a really good overview of what’s currently available, anyway.

tim33160 · Answer

But it’s the international section where the real gemstones are hidden. American movies polish off the rough edges of original ideas to make them more commercially viable. Korean films are different – they have no problem mixing genres in very original ways. So while there’s a huge amount of romance on offer, you can also find plenty of thrillers, horror and comedy. I mentioned before that I recently watched The Call and while that was a very good thriller in its own right, it was also a great time-travel puzzle and a very personal vendetta story. The connection between the two female leads is the engine that drives the entire story. If you want more relationship dramas put under the microscope then look to Spanish thrillers such as The Invisible Guest and Mirage. For more philosophical or visceral dramas look to the French offerings The Swarm and The Wave. The Netflix US produced content for this niche area is sadly lacking. Explore more of the subtitles on offer.

Hannah Opoku Acheamfour Annor · Answer

My go-to isn’t actually even a movie. I’m really into the series ‘You’. The first season in particular is a really great take on dark romantic obsession from the perspective of the predator. The way that Joe Gascoine can justify his actions as a grand romantic gesture to murder and stalk this young woman is really compelling. Penn Badgley does a great job of making you uncomfortable with Joe’s creepiness. Netfix also has ‘Rebecca’ with Lily James and Armie Hammer. It’s more of a Gothic style suspense rather than straight up dark romance, but the marriage of the protagonist to Maxim de Winter is shrouded in the secret of his first wife’s death. The psychological weight of the past on their marriage is really compelling. Another Netflix Original is ‘The Rental’ a thriller that takes place during a weekend getaway gone wrong. The film focuses on the two couples and how their infidelity and secrets reveal and cause paranoia. Not strictly dark romance films, but they scratch that itch for me of love and danger and deception.

Love Hm · Answer

It’s also worth noting the ‘comedy’ tag can be a hidden gem. While ‘The Lovebirds’ is a comedy-mystery, a very dark murder plot is at the center of the movie, and it’s up to our stranded couple to solve the crime. They’re a realistically strained couple on the verge of a breakup when they first get into a fight in the midst of a life or death situation. Thus, it’s a very light take on the ‘relationship-in-peril’ subgenre. My expectation going in was totally wrong, which is pretty great. I’d also recommend ‘Game Over, Man!’ (a bro-comedy where a group of friends must save a hotel from being robbed) just to prove a point that there’s some great stuff in ‘comedy’ tag too, but this probably won’t count. ‘Murder Mystery’ (Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston) is also a fun take on married couple sleuthing.

What Are The Best Dark Romance Movies On Netflix?

11 Answers

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