A man with no short-term memory hunts his wife's killer, piecing together a gritty, cerebral puzzle.
Suspenseful and tense. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Kanopy (free), Hoopla (free) and 3 more.
No surprises for an R: moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.
Se7en (1995)Properly scary · extreme gore · brutal violence · emotionally devastatingTwo detectives hunt a serial killer whose gruesome crimes are meticulously based on the seven deadly sins.
Psycho (1960)Properly scary · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA woman on the run finds a chilling, atmospheric motel where dread steadily builds to a shocking twist.
Shutter Island (2010)Suspenseful · light gore · strong violence · emotionally devastatingA marshal's investigation into a missing patient unravels amidst chilling visions and a pervasive sense of dread.
Gone Girl (2014)Suspenseful · light gore · emotionally devastating · measuredA husband's missing wife ignites a media frenzy, revealing a darkly comic and intimate mystery.
The Prestige (2006)Suspenseful · full attention · strong violence · emotionally devastatingTwo rival magicians engage in a cerebral and darkly-comic battle of obsession with deadly consequences.
The Invisible Guest (2017)Suspenseful · light gore · emotionally heavy · measuredA shrewd lawyer and a businessman accused of murder craft a defense, but the truth keeps shifting.
Zodiac (2007)Suspenseful · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyJournalists and an amateur cartoonist obsess over an elusive serial killer, even as the public forgets.
The Third Man (1949)Suspenseful · emotionally heavy · measuredA naive writer uncovers a dark conspiracy in atmospheric postwar Vienna, leading to a melancholy, gritty pursuit.Memento is on our Whodunits, Revenge, Noir and neo-noir, Set in Los Angeles and Based on books lists.
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.
