Entertainment

These Brutal Revenge Movies Will Satisfy Your Need For Payback

by Danielle Burgos
American International Pictures

Ah, revenge: like ice cream it's best served cold, and there's nothing sweeter. And yet, applied to real life, the act of returning someone else's pain to them sevenfold rarely seems to work out like we'd hope. It's such a tough balance — elaborate, years in the making traps for those who've wronged you take so much time and effort, and by the time they kick in there's a feeling of emptiness or regret. Lightning-quick executed comeuppances seem trite. Your sworn enemy barely even has time to know why they're feeling the swift hand of justice. The best solution? Practice a more forgiving attitude IRL and leave revenge to the professionals —that is, screenwriters. These are 34 revenge movies streaming right now that'll satisfy your craving for payback without any of the lingering guilt or possibility of setting up your own cycle of revenge and retribution (such a hassle)!

These films' flair and style, perfect one-liners, and satisfying (or bitterly unsatisfying) conclusions give you all the perks with none of the personal waterworks. Whether it's Woman vs. Work (9 To 5), Man vs. Nature (Moby Dick), or the classic Person vs. Generic Thugs (And By Extension The Corrupt System/World) (The Crow, Death Wish, Lady Snowblood, Joshua, Fists Of Fury, Street Law), these films will slake your need for sweet, sweet revenge.

1

'Oldboy'

If you got locked in a room for 15 years for no discernible reason, you'd be pretty psyched to find out by whom and why too. Add serving the same dumplings for every meal to your list of grievances and you have the beginnings of a long, bloody path to answers.

Available on: Vudu, TubiTV, Shudder, Fandor, Kanopy

2

'Lady Snowblood'

Quite literally born for revenge, Lady Snowblood becomes the sword for her wrongfully imprisoned mother, her beauty disguising a cold-blooded killer with no remorse.

Available on: Realeyz

3

'9 To 5'

A double-whammy of revenge against sexism and capitalism, three harried office gals (who just happen to be Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda) team up to take down their pig of a boss.

Available on Hulu

4

'The Crow'

After he and his fiancee are murdered by thugs clearing out their building for a crooked real estate venture, Eric Draven returns with supernatural assistance to exact revenge.

Available on: Netflix, Hoopla

5

'Cape Fear'

Max Cady had 14 years in prison to plan revenge on his defending lawyer withholding evidence that could have set him free. Now that he's out, Max is about to make him and his family's life a living hell.

Available on: Netflix

6

'Ms. 45'

Raped twice in one day, mute seamstress Thana snaps and goes on an avenging streak against NYC's male creeps and perverts.

Available on: Shudder

7

'Fists Of Fury'

He made a promise he wouldn't fight... but it's Bruce Lee and you know when he inevitably breaks that promise it's gonna be BRUTAL.

Available on: Kanopy, Hoopla

8

'Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2'

Tarantino stole from the best in this longform tale of one woman hunting down everyone who participated in her wedding slaughter.

Available on: Netflix

9

'Joshua (1976)'

A civil war soldier returns home only to find his mom's been killed by white thugs in this blaxploitation western.

Available on: Amazon Prime

10

'The Limey'

Hearing of his estranged daughter's death, the eponymous Limey Wilson travels to L.A. to get some answers and knock some heads.

Available on: Amazon Prime

11

'V For Vendetta'

The film that launched a thousand Anonymous posts, this story based on Alan Moore's comic follows the mysterious V as he gets revenge on the government that used and abused him.

Available on: Netflix

12

'Killing Of A Sacred Deer'

This strange tale of retribution where a young man ingratiates himself into a doctor's family has its roots in the divine — if the title hint enough, it's based on Iphigenia At Aulis by ancient Greek's most woke playwright, Euripides.

Available on: Amazon Prime, Kanopy

13

'Crippled Avengers'

The villains of this tale already got their revenge, but remained bitter and vicious. When the father/son team cruelly disfigure four different men, they band together to get their own revenge.

Available on: Amazon Prime

14

'The Virgin Spring'

Ingmar Bergman's story of a family realizing they're hosting their daughter's murderers and what they choose to do about it is a painful meditation on faith, anger, and forgiveness. It was also the direct inspiration for...

Available on: Kanopy

15

'The Last House On The Left'

...Wes Craven's first feature, a far darker and more brutal take that ditches ideas of forgiveness for sadistic brutality.

Available on: Amazon Prime

16

'The Count Of Monte Cristo (2002, 1975)'

THE classic revenge tale. Edmond Dantes gets set up by his best friend and thrown in prison for life, but with the help of a fellow inmate he escapes, finds a hidden treasure, and returns as the Count to exact his revenge.

Available on: HBO Go (2002), Amazon Prime (1975)

17

'Kickboxer'

After his professional kickboxer older brother is permanently paralyzed by a brutal opponent, little bro Jean Claude Van Damme swears revenge and seeks out training from a master, while getting entangled with mafia doings.

Available on: Hulu

18

'Desperado'

A sequel to his far lower-budget El Mariachi, this one ups the explosions and features Antonio Banderas as the gun-toting guitar player out to avenge his wife's death at the hands of drug baron Bucho's thugs.

Available on: Starz

19

'Street Law'

This film set off a wave of poliziotteschi, or vigilante films, in Italy. When a guy gets mugged twice and the police drop his case, he teams up with a young robber for some Street Law.

Available on: Amazon Prime, Vudu, TubiTV, Epix

20

'Revenge (2017)'

A wealthy gadabout's sidepiece gets done extremely dirty by him when his two sleazy friends show up and start trouble. He does nothing and she's left for dead, but Jen's not done yet.

Available on: Hoopla, TubiTV, Shudder,

21

'Conan The Barbarian'

What is best in life? Watching a kid whose family was slaughtered by James Earl Jones' freaky snake cult grow into Schwarzenegger and get sweet revenge.

Available on: MaxGo

22

'Carrie'

Picked-on Carrie discovers she has telekinetic powers and is on the verge of becoming a more confident teen overall, but the girls in her class banned from prom for bullying her decide to get their revenge. Bad call, since Carrie's one spark away from fully exploding.

Available on: Starz

23

'Darkman'

Beating the current round of Marvel movies at their own game, this tale of a scientist mutilated in a lab explosion by corporate goons is more kinetic and cartoonish than anything actually comic-based. The doctor's synthetic skin allow him to look like anyone he wants, but comes with the side effect of inducing violent rage.

Available on: MaxGo

24

'Death Wish'

Charles Bronson stars in the ur-vengeance movie about a man who decides to take vigilante action after three street punks attack his wife and daughter.

Available on: Hulu

25

'Once Upon A Time In The West'

Henry Fonda plays a stone-cold killer who murders a family sitting on a wanted plot of land in cold blood. When the new wife finally gets in from out of town, she teams up with the criminal he pinned it on and a mute, mysterious stranger (Bronson again!) on his own revenge trip.

Available on: Starz

26

'I Saw The Devil'

When you plot revenge, you risk becoming what you're fighting against, but what if that's how you plan to get revenge? After his fiancee's murdered by a psychopath, secret agent Kim Soo-hyeon hunts him down... and lets him go, setting off a truly disturbing cat-and-mouse game.

Available on: Hulu, Hoopla, TubiTV, Shudder

27

'Moby Dick (1956)'

Can you avenge yourself on nature? Captain Ahab sure thinks so, and is gonna hunt down the white whale that took his leg or kill everyone on his ship trying.

Available on: Amazon Prime

28

'Taken'

Albanian sex traffickers kidnapped the wrong girl — daughter of the very large, very angry ex-CIA operative played by Liam Neeson.

Available on: HBO Go

29

'Sympathy For Lady Vengeance'

A revenge tale with several shades of grey. Geum-Ja, model prisoner and child-murderer who eagerly confessed, gets released, revealing both were faked to cover her real motive: REVENGE.

Available on: Kanopy, TubiTV, Shudder

30

'Brawl In Cell Block 99'

While this film has a weird conservative tinge (not to mention an on-hand abortionist threat), there's no doubt it's a revenge film of a Too Strong Man Pushed To The Limit, in this case Vince Vaughn as a drug pusher who, landing in jail after a bust goes wrong, has to get himself to the most brutal ward in the most brutal prison to kill a man at his enemy's behest.

Available on: Amazon Prime, Hulu

31

'Memento'

Nolan's overly-complicated story relies on the gimmick of revenge-seeking Leonard suffering retrograde amnesia. Hunting for the killer he has to rely on friend Teddy and various notes and clues tattooed on his body, but both can be deceiving.

Available on: Amazon Prime

32

'And God Said To Cain'

In this German Western take on The Count Of Monte Cristo, Gary Hamilton is pardoned after a decade for a crime he didn't commit. He heads back to his hometown, only to find he was betrayed by his best friend, now a local despot, and his wife, now his friend's woman.

Available on: TubiTV

33

Foxy Brown

Pam Grier IS Foxy Brown, going undercover as a high-end call girl to take on the mob that's destroying her neighborhood with drugs and whose thugs killed her boyfriend.

Available on: Starz, Amazon Prime

34

'Mandy'

A pure revenge movie that takes the time to show us what's lost and why it's devastating. Mandy and Red created their own bucolic idyll at the foot of Shadow Mountains; when freaky cult Children Of The New Dawn disrupt their small happiness, Red goes from rage-filled grief to cosmically dark demi-god in his unstoppable quest for revenge.

Available on: Hoopla, Shudder

Hopefully these films have slaked your bloodlust down to a mild petty grievance, something solvable with a flippant post instead of a flipped car. As always, the best revenge remains a life well-lived, so enjoy!