Movies Like The Red Effect

If you liked The Red Effect (2017), a movie, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Hate U Give (2018)
★ 8.1/10
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds…
2
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
★ 7.6/10
Three friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles navigate a neighborhood plagued by violence, unemployment, and crime, each responding differently to the harsh realities of street life. As tragedy strikes close to…
3
The Perfect Neighbor (2025)
★ 6.8/10
Police bodycam footage reveals how a long-running neighborhood dispute turned fatal in this documentary about fear, prejudice and Stand Your Ground laws.
4
The Desperate Hour (2022)
★ 6/10
A woman desperately races to save her child after police place her hometown on lockdown due to an active shooter incident.
5
Home Room (2002)
★ 6.8/10
A high school shooting has repercussions on the town and students.
6
Two Distant Strangers (2020)
★ 7/10
A man trying to get home to his dog becomes stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive a deadly run-in with a cop.
7
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
★ 6.9/10
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
8
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
★ 8.1/10
After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the…
9
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
★ 7.7/10
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but…
10
Tongues Untied (1990)
★ 6.7/10
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs…
11
O.J.: Made in America (2016)
★ 8.4/10
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
12
I Am Not Your Negro (2017)
★ 7.7/10
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
13
Nightcrawler (2014)
★ 7.7/10
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news…
14
1992 (2024)
★ 6.9/10
In 1992, Mercer is desperately trying to rebuild his life and his relationship with his son amidst the turbulent Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Across town, another father and son put their own…
15
The Life Before Her Eyes (2008)
★ 6/10
As the 15th anniversary of a fatal high school shooting approaches, former pupil Diana McFee is haunted by memories of the tragedy. After losing her best friend Maureen in the attack, Diana has been profoundly affected…
16
Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2009)
★ 6.6/10
With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.
17
Fresh (1994)
★ 7.2/10
Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.
18
Knock on Any Door (1949)
★ 6.2/10
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
19
All the Empty Rooms (2025)
★ 7.2/10
A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
20
Gladiator (1992)
★ 7.7/10
Tommy Riley has moved with his dad to Chicago from a 'nice place'. He keeps to himself, goes to school. However, after a street fight, he's noticed and quickly falls into the world of illegal underground boxing — where…