Curator Watchlist
A tense, mean little psychological thriller that turns a high-school grudge into a slow-burn nightmare. It’s strongest as a study of guilt, social cruelty, and marital unease, with sharp performances and a nasty sense of escalation.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 48m
Director: Joel Edgerton
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall, Jason Bateman
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.
Joel Edgerton
Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall, Jason Bateman
A tense, mean little psychological thriller that turns a high-school grudge into a slow-burn nightmare. It’s strongest as a study of guilt, social cruelty, and marital unease, with sharp performances and a nasty sense of escalation.
The Gift is an effective reminder that the most unsettling threats are often social, not supernatural. Joel Edgerton builds the film around small humiliations, old resentments, and the way a polished life can crack under pressure. Rebecca Hall gives the movie its emotional center, while Jason Bateman’s controlled surface makes the whole thing feel like a pressure cooker.
What keeps it working is the precision of the escalation. It begins as an awkward reunion story and gradually becomes something much darker, without losing its grip on ordinary domestic detail. The film is less interested in neat plotting than in the damage people do to one another and the stories they tell themselves to justify it.
It’s also a divisive movie by design. Some viewers will bounce off the ambiguity and the deliberately nasty moral terrain, but if you like thrillers that get under your skin rather than simply chase twists, this is a strong pick. The ending lands as a provocation, not a comfort.
🔮 dana danger 🔮 (2.5★) · 1859 likes
i really don't like "did the creepy guy rape the innocent woman or not" as a Clever Plot Twst
Mike D'Angelo (3.5★) · 1057 likes
69/100 First, the ending. My friend Bryant despises this movie for treating possible rape as collateral damage in a pissing contest, but it seems fairly clear to me that Gordo didn't actually do it. No reason not to show it if he had—"just planting a seed of doubt" doesn't wash, since Simon can easily order a paternity test should the uncertainty bug him that much (and he might as well, really, now that his marriage has been destroyed). Still, this… more
Dakota Joaquin (4.5★) · 1037 likes
Why is Jason Bateman always trying to get a promotion lmao
matt lynch (3★) · 716 likes
Don't be a dick.
Holly-Beth (4★) · 613 likes
since this movie has an open ending i'm just going to choose to believe that gordo chose to be the bigger person, didn't do what he implied, and wasn't the father... for my own sanity bc i was on gordo's side until the last five minutes... also fuck jason bateman
A tense domestic drama where secrecy, guilt, and suspicion corrode a marriage from the inside.
Shares the same interest in buried pasts, suburban unease, and the violence hidden beneath ordinary life.
A sharp, nasty thriller about marriage as performance, manipulation, and public self-deception.
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Slow-burn dread, social awkwardness, and the sense that something is deeply wrong at a gathering.
A controlled, adult thriller where buried wrongdoing and pressure-cooker performances drive the suspense.
For viewers who like meticulous, unsettling tension and the slow accumulation of dread.
A bleak, unforgettable study in obsession and the terror of not knowing what really happened.
A classic cautionary thriller about domestic stability collapsing under obsession and consequence.
A revenge-driven nightmare about a family stalked by a man from the past.
revenge, bullying, marital strain, guilt, paranoia, social humiliation, identity, past trauma
psychological thriller, slow burn, domestic suspense, revenge, marriage, paranoia, moral ambiguity, creepy atmosphere, 2010s, uncomfortable