Movies Similar to Shock to the System: A Donald Strachey Mystery

The Bastards' Fig Tree(2017)

A trigger-happy Nationalist fears retribution from the son of a man he executed. To mollify the boy's anger, he takes a drastic step: he keeps constant watch over the fig tree the boy has planted at his father's gravesite. As the years pass, the man's lonely vigil makes him a tourist attraction, much to the chagrin of his former colleagues.

6.0

Looking Glass(2018)

A psycho- sexual thriller following a couple that buys an old motel in the desert looking for a new beginning, but what seemed at first as an escape is soon a thrilling ride through a mysterious world when Ray discovers a two way mirror and witnesses a horrifying murder. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, Ray must race to save his wife and himself from a gruesome secret connected to the motel and the strange people who visit there.

4.7

Blackwater(2019)

Native American country singer Birdie Blackwater is court ordered to attend 180 days of wellness therapy after 10 years of reckless alcoholic abuse.

0.0

Firebird(2021)

At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.

7.4

Connor & Jayden(2022)

Star quarterback Connor Tucker finds himself in unfamiliar territory as a broken leg puts him out for the season. Adjusting to life off the football field, Connor surprisingly starts falling for school outcast Jayden Sansbury in this LGBTQ story.

1.0

Live by Night(2016)

A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.

6.3

2 States(2014)

A man and a woman come from two very different cultural backgrounds, and decide that they won't get married until they convince their parents. As feared, differences between the families pose a hurdle.

6.5

Candles at Nine(1944)

A rich but miserly old man taunts his relatives about who will get his money when he dies, and is soon mysteriously murdered. It turns out that he has left his estate to a beautiful young actress whom the other relatives didn't know was related to him. Several attempts on her life are thwarted by a detective, who sets out to discover who's behind the scheme to kill her.

4.5

The Brasher Doubloon(1947)

Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock hires Marlowe to find an old rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that belonged in her deceased husband's collection. Marlowe begins investigating, but quickly finds himself entangled in a series of unexplained murders.

6.0

Marlowe(1969)

Mysterious Orfamay Quest hires Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe to find her missing brother. Though the job seems simple enough, it leads Marlowe into the underbelly of the city, turning up leads who are murdered with ice picks, exotic dancers, blackmailed television stars and self-preserving gangsters. Soon, Marlowe's life is on the line right along with his case.

6.0

The Long Goodbye(1973)

In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.

7.4

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas(1998)

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

7.2

Reclaim Your Brain(2007)

Frustrated, because he is forced to produce bad TV-shows, a manager of a TV-station, enters the station and manipulates the ratings, to initiate a TV-revolution.

6.7

Who Killed Bambi?(2003)

Isabelle, a beautiful nursing student, is starting her internship at a prestigious hospital. She meets Dr. Philip there, feels atracted to him from the beggining and starts suffering from strange fainting; so he calls her Bambi: her legs don't support her. Patients mysteriously start to dissappear from their rooms; so Bambi and Dr. Philip start a cat vs. mouse paranoid game, in order to catch the probable killer.

6.1

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me(1992)

In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.

7.4

Für den unbekannten Hund(2007)

Almost casually, the young concrete worker Bastian kills a tramp. The police believe it was an accident and so the murder remains undiscovered for the time being.

3.8

Ménage(1986)

Bickering couple Monique and Antoine are interrupted by bisexual burglar Bob while fighting in a bar. With husband and wife in need of cash, Bob teaches them the most efficient house burglary methods. Monique is attracted to the charismatic thief, but Bob is more interested in Antoine, who eventually succumbs to his attentions. As the trio continues living together, Monique grows unhappy about being ignored by both men.

6.6

A Thousand Billion Dollars(1982)

A young journalist uncovers an assassination disguised as a suicide, linked to an American multinational seeking to dominate French industries. Determined to expose the truth, he races against time to gather evidence before more lives—and his own—are at stake.

6.9

The Prize(1963)

A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living. Craig, who is infamous for his drinking and womanizing, formulates a wild theory that physics prize winner Dr. Max Stratman has been replaced by an impostor, embroiling Craig and his chaperone in a Cold War kidnapping plot.

6.8

Law of Desire(1987)

Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.

7.2