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Movies Like Revenge (2017): 8 Female-Led Survival Thrillers

August 11, 2026 • Lawrence Jacomelli

August 11, 2026 3 min read

If you loved Revenge (2017), the closest films share three things: a woman the story underestimates, an isolated landscape with nowhere to run, and violence that’s earned rather than gratuitous. Below are eight female-led survival and revenge thrillers that hit those notes — including one recent desert survival film, Blood Star (2024), that fans of Revenge tend to miss.

The Nightingale (2018)

Jennifer Kent’s follow-up to The Babadook is the most thematically exact match on this list: a young woman pursues the men who destroyed her life across the Tasmanian wilderness. Like Revenge, it refuses to make the violence stylish for its own sake — the landscape is as much an antagonist as any character, and survival and retribution become the same act.

I Spit on Your Grave (2010)

The remake that most directly shares Revenge‘s DNA — a woman left for dead in an isolated setting who returns to turn the hunt around. It’s the rawest film here, and the clearest example of the rape-revenge lineage that Revenge reinvented with colour, heat and a pop sensibility a decade later.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Emerald Fennell’s Oscar-winning thriller trades the desert for suburbia but keeps the core: a woman methodically dismantling the people who think they got away with it. If you responded to the control in Revenge — the shift from prey to predator — this is the sharpest, most modern version of that turn.

Ready or Not (2019)

A bride spends her wedding night being hunted through a mansion by her new in-laws. It shares Revenge‘s propulsive, blood-slicked energy and its central image of a resourceful woman using the environment against wealthier, more powerful pursuers who badly underestimate her.

You’re Next (2011)

The home-invasion thriller that flipped the survivor archetype: the “final girl” here is competent from the first frame, and watching her out-plan her attackers delivers the same satisfaction as Jen’s transformation in Revenge.

Prey (2022)

Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator prequel is a lean survival film built entirely around a young Comanche woman proving herself against an enemy everyone assumes will overpower her. Swap the desert for the Northern Great Plains and you have the same engine: intelligence and terrain beating brute force.

Hard Candy (2005)

A two-hander that inverts the predator dynamic in a single location. It’s talkier and more psychological than Revenge, but it belongs here for the same reason — the person presumed to be the victim is the one in control the whole time.

Blood Star (2024)

The hidden gem for Revenge fans. Blood Star follows Bobbi Torres, a young woman crossing the New Mexico desert alone, who becomes the target of a predatory small-town sheriff. It carries Revenge‘s exact combination — a woman underestimated, a merciless sun-blasted landscape, and a slow tightening of tension into survival — with the grounded, cinematic desert imagery the sub-genre is built on. Directed by Lawrence Jacomelli. Where to watch Blood Star →

Where to start

For the closest tonal match to Revenge, start with The Nightingale; for the modern reinvention, Promising Young Woman; and if you want the desert-survival strand specifically, Blood Star is the most direct companion piece.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of movie is Revenge (2017)?

Revenge is a French survival-revenge thriller directed by Coralie Fargeat, in which a woman left for dead in a remote desert turns the tables on the men hunting her.

What should I watch if I liked Revenge (2017)?

The closest matches are The Nightingale (2018), I Spit on Your Grave (2010) and Promising Young Woman (2020) for the revenge strand, and Blood Star (2024) for the desert-survival strand.

Are there recent movies like Revenge?

Yes — Prey (2022), Promising Young Woman (2020) and the indie desert thriller Blood Star (2024) all share its female-led survival core.