Movies

12 Movies to Watch Before ‘Knives Out’

These gems will get you hyped for Rian Johnson’s upcoming whodunit.
Knives Out
By  · Published on November 22nd, 2019

Deathtrap (1982)

Deathtrap

Based on the play of the same name by Ira Levin, this Sidney Lumet-directed comedy is another movie that influenced Johnson’s latest effort. While the director hasn’t gone into any great detail about which aspects of Deathtrap got his creative juices flowing, there are obvious nods to Lumet’s film there.

Deathtrap revolves around a murder plot concerning writers. The story follows a struggling playwright (Michael Caine) who hatches a plan to murder a talented student (Christopher Reeve) and take credit for his work. However, when the young writer arrives at his more experienced counterpart’s mansion, things start to get a little bit crazy.

It’s difficult to talk about Deathtrap without giving too much away, and while it’s another movie of the “whodunit-adjacent” variety, it’s well worth a look if you like mystery, murder, and exquisite dark comedy. Pair this one up with Sleuth and enjoy a wonderful double bill.


Clue (1985)

Clue

Johnson wants all of us to know that Knives Out isn’t Clue, but the 1985 film based on the murder-mystery board game of the same name was still an inspiration for him. The similarities are also evident: both movies are genre reconstructions that take place in isolated mansions, they revolve around groups of quirky characters being investigated for murders, they boast strong ensemble casts, and they each possess a streak of black humor.

More than anything, however, both Clue and Knives Out are love letters to classic whodunits. When Clue was released in the mid-1980s, the murder-mysteries that inspired it were a thing of the past for the most part. Clue and Knives Out are very like-minded because they’re both celebrations of a bygone era of filmmaking and literature, albeit with some modern twists.


Gosford Park (2001)

Gosford Park

This Robert Altman film is another 21st-century whodunit that channels the manor house mysteries of yesteryear, but that’s not the only similarity that Gosford Park shares with Knives Out. The story follows a rich family who gathers for a weekend of shooting, but it doesn’t take long until their dark secrets come pouring out. While many movies of this ilk are primarily concerned with plot, this one is also very character-focused. As we’ve already established, strong characters are important to Johnson.

Moreover, Gosford Park is also a satire of classism that takes jabs at the elite. Knives Out explores similar themes about class politics, while also poking fun at MAGA supporters and the alt-right. Johnson acknowledged the similarities with Gosford Park in an interview with ScreenRant, while opening up about his intentions to make his themes more relevant to modern America.

“I think about ‘Gosford Park’; you think of Agatha Christie’s books — it’s all about the upstairs, downstairs. I think, because you’re getting a cross section of society with the subjects, you see the issues of class come to the forefront.

[It’s] usually done, though, in a period movie and usually done in Britain, so we can kind of cluck our tongues and say, ‘Oh, those British class things.’ The idea of putting it in America in 2019, and carrying that over and using it to dig into some of the stuff that we got going on right now – that seemed really interesting.”

In short, Knives Out is another whodunit that comments on sociopolitical issues in an entertaining way.


Brick (2005)

Brick

Johnson burst onto the scene with Brick, a film noir throwback that takes place in the contemporary suburbs of California and revolves around a high school student investigating a murder. It’s like a Dashiett Hammet story about and for millennials, and it’s just wonderful.

Noir and whodunnits are completely different types of movies, but they share enough similarities to make them entertaining bedfellows. However, the reason why Brick deserves a rewatch before Knives Out is because it showed from the outset that Johnson has a knack for putting a fresh, fun spin on well-known film genres.


The Internet Warriors (2017)

The Internet Warriors

In Knives Out, Jaeden Martell plays Jacob Trombey, a teenager who spends most of his time trolling people on the internet by espousing the kind of hate speech that would make Richard Spencer proud. Of course, as the director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Johnson has encountered many of these people in the past, so you can understand why he wanted to poke fun at them in his new movie.

That said, Kyrre Lien’s 2017 documentary The Internet Warriors examines the real-life versions of these trolls in a bid to determine what makes them act like toxic assholes on the internet. Lien interviews various subjects who have been guilty of this behavior in the past, and it’s worth checking out if you want to learn more about the real Jacob Trombeys of the world.

Stream The Internet Warriors below via The Guardian

Pages: 1 2

Related Topics: ,

Kieran is a Contributor to the website you're currently reading. He also loves the movie Varsity Blues.