Darren Aronofsky
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This kind of tension has worked well in films as diverse as "Repulsion," "Brazil," "Eraserhead," and even Aronofsky's own films ("Pi," "Requiem for a Dream").
Aronofsky's startlingly original debut recalls the inspirational fervour of Eraserhead, as it constructs a paranoid vision from b/w cinematography, a pounding score, and flashes of sheer hallucinatory weirdness.
To get an idea of the director in case you have never seen him before, imagine the cinematography originality of Jim Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise mixed with the perfect dialogue of Kevin Smith 's Clerks and the bizarre and cryptic storyline of David Lynch's Eraserhead .
Aronofsky's rapid cutting keeps the pace up and many of his visuals are genuinely unsettling - Max's hallucinations during his brutal headaches are reminiscent of David Lynch's equally disturbing feature debut " Eraserhead ".
It's a bizarre premise, and the film's odd black-and-white look recalls David Lynch's surreal fantasy "Eraserhead."
Anyway, it was here that 28-year-old Darren Aronofsky earned the Filmmakers Award and plenty of critical acclaim for Pi, a sort of mad scientist psychodrama shot through with the grisly speed of the Japanese cyberpunk shocker Tetsuo and the DIY dread of David Lynch 's Eraserhead.
All About Eve (1950)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
influenced Black Swan (2010)
Themes Visuals Characters Plot
This eye-popping, inspired and often-demented (in a good way) cross between “The Red Shoes” and “All About Eve” channels horror maestros David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma and Dario Argento.
Darren Aronofsky's bizarre and brilliant Black Swan might remind you of many other movies, from All About Eve to David Cronenberg's The Fly.
It’s an all-or-nothing effort from the auteur, as reminiscent of The Red Shoes as it is of All About Eve and Mulholland Drive (not to mention the earlier works of Cronenberg, Argento and Polanski).
You can pick out all the references in this movie to other movies, not only "Red Shoes" and "Caligari," but also, for starters, "Phantom of the Opera," " All About Eve ," "Repulsion," and Aronofsky's own dreamy-druggy freak show " Requiem for a Dream ."
To put showbiz competition in All About Eve terms, every Margo Channing must have an Eve Harrington.
You turn it into a psychological thriller with the catfighting backstage elements of "All About Eve."
After Hours (1985)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
influenced Caught Stealing (2025)
Themes Characters Plot
The film begins with a sort of After Hours feel (complete with a supporting role from Griffin Dunne)…
There are shades of After Hours and Uncut Gems in the escalating anxiety-nightmare stakes…
He may not be as relatable as “After Hours’” Paul Hackett, played by Griffin Dunne, who makes an appearance here as coke snorting dive bar owner Paul…
Caught Stealing stands as a daytime flip on After Hours or Good Time, even if those two have better visual flare.
Admittedly, the film isn’t always able to handle the tonal sways the best, and it never reaches the uniquely thrilling or funny heights of films like After Hours.
It’s not ambitious like, say, “Black Swan” or “The Wrestler,” but there’s comparisons being made to Scorsese’s “After Hours,” which has me excited.
Repulsion (1965)
Directed by Roman Polanski
influenced Black Swan (2010), mother! (2017)
Visuals Themes Characters
Aronofsky, taking a page from Roman Polanski's blood-chilling Repulsion (1965), signals Nina's fall with subtle cues and gradually pulls us over to the other side of the mirror.
Film buffs will think of many other movies while watching "Black Swan," including the dance masterpiece "The Red Shoes" (1948), Roman Polanski's mental-breakdown showpiece "Repulsion" (1965), Dario Argento's ballet-academy shocker "Suspiria" (1977) and "The Piano Teacher" (2001), with Isabelle Huppert as a sadomasochistic musician.
Much like Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanksi’s Repulsion, Portman’s primary job is to crack up on camera -- while always mustering a modicum of control.
However, by presenting the action from inside the fractured mind of the lead character, it has generated comparisons to some of Roman Polanski's early work (especially The Tenant and Repulsion).
Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winning performance is central in this regard, just as Catherine Deneuve’s was in Repulsion, as she moves from being a near-child to a possibly murderous psychopath without ever losing our sympathy.
Among them: Roman Polanski's plunge into female hysteria, "Repulsion"; Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "All About Eve"; and Aronofsky's own performance drama, "The Wrestler."
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Directed by Roman Polanski
influenced mother! (2017), Black Swan (2010)
Visuals Themes Plot
Fans of the grittier side of New York City (of which Aronofsky made great use in his feature debut, Pi ) will love the on-the-ground feel of the film, which might spark memories of Dressed to Kill , Rosemary’s Baby , and Eyes of Laura Mars .
Flashes of "Rosemary's Baby" arise when paranoid Nina is challenged over whether the Sapphic event was real or not.
The influence of the controversial Polish filmmaker’s work looms large over this film, particularly his vintage ’60-era thrillers like Rosemary’s Baby , Knife in the Water and Repulsion .
Writer-director Darren Aronofsky wants to have his commercial cake and chomp down on some vexing personal issues, too, in mother!, a very Rosemary’s Baby-like intimate horror tale that definitely grabs your attention and eventually soars well over the top to make the bold concluding statement that, for some creators, art is more important than life.
You could say that Aronofsky is drawing on “The Shining” (the isolated setting and Bardem’s stony resentment) and also on “Rosemary’s Baby,” the greatest of all paranoid horror films.
In his first film since the 2014 Noah, Aronofsky sifts through Roman Polanski’s wastebasket and weeds out a little Repulsion here, a lot of Rosemary’s Baby there.
Inspired by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film, The Red Shoes (which, in turn, was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fable), Black Swan focuses on shy and serious Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a ballet dancer with extraordinary technical ability, but little passion.
The Red Shoes and its theme of losing one’s self to a part is an obvious influence, but it’s another Powell and Pressburger film, Black Narcissus, with its sex-starved nuns, that hits closer to home.
Stark cinematography only emphasizes this to the point where it feels like Black Swan must be consciously attempting to counter the lurid but astounding palette of the original tragic ballerina film, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger’s masterpiece The Red Shoes.
The mere prospect of a film that in many senses crosses Powell and Pressburger 's " The Red Shoes " with Roman Polanski 's " The Tenant " is certainly enough to raise an eyebrow, as the very notion screams potential camp classic in this day and age.
If Roman Polanski had made The Red Shoes (1948), the results might have been something like Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.
No backstage ballet story can be seen without " The Red Shoes " (1948) coming into mind.
Birds of Paradise (2021)
Directed by Sarah Adina Smith
influenced by Black Swan (2010)
Visuals Themes Plot
Before you can say “Black Swan,” Smith summons equally close comparisons to another dance-centric flick: Her visuals telegraph a dark-hued environment akin to that of “Suspiria” (the distressingly dusky one by Luca Gudagnino, rather than Dario Argento’s crimson-soaked classic).
What director Sarah Adina Smith ( Buster’s Mal Heart ) offers us instead is more akin to a high school production of Black Swan .
It’s not as troubling as “Black Swan,” or as operatically violent as “Suspiria” or even as desperately tragic as “The Red Shoes” though it gestures at those themes.
This film from writer-director Sarah Adina Smith, adapted from A.K. Small’s 2019 novel Bright Burning Stars , combines the cut-throat feminine energy of Thoroughbreds with the fiery competitiveness of Whiplash and Black Swan.
Birds of Paradise may have the DNA of Black Swan inside it, but it’s entirely unique in its narrative approach, telling a story about two teenage women, competing for a top prize at a Parisian ballet school.
With elements of “Black Swan,” “Suspiria” and even “Flashdance,” Amazon’s “Birds of Paradise” tells the story of two young American ballet dancers at a prestigious academy in Paris involved in a competition that will decide who gets a contract with the world-renowned Paris Opera Ballet (aka Opera National de Paris).
As her bipolar mother, Barbara Hershey channels Piper Laurie in "Carrie," and Mila Kunis is the down-to-earth party girl upon whom Portman fixates.
Raised in a claustrophobic Upper West Side apartment by an overbearing, overprotective single mother (Barbara Hershey, channeling Piper Laurie from Carrie ) who was forced to give up her own ballet career after she got pregnant, the poor girl has been trained to focus on nothing but her dancing career.
Playing the demanding, controlling mother is something a lot of actresses have attempted and most have come off as a pale knock off of Piper Laurie in Carrie .
As with The Social Network , there have been comparisons to older works to prop up this new one, mainly Repulsion (1965) and Carrie (1976).
Hershey) that makes Piper Laurie from "Carrie" look like June Cleaver.
Erica’s peripheral yet essential role in Nina’s story gradually reveals Black Swan as less indebted to The Red Shoes than to Brian De Palma’s Carrie .
Us (2019)
Directed by Jordan Peele
influenced by Black Swan (2010), mother! (2017)
Themes Visuals Plot
Doubles are often introduced to push the protagonists into an identity crisis, such as in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Duncan Jones’s Moon.
There’s also a tip of the hat to Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” in terms of dueling balletic styles and a gorgeously choreographed fight scene that looks like a combative pas de deux.
By the time we reach the White Swan vs. Black Swan ballerina showdown a la “Black Swan” (2010), we wish that Peele would have given the script another rewrite or two to flesh out the story logic.
Nyong’o, a remarkable performer, inhabits her two roles with such distinct single-mindedness (a ballet sequence harks back to Black Swan with a fluid and ingenious assault set-piece) that her mere presence elevates the serpentine moral and political universe of Us.
The scene effectively condenses the entirety of Black Swan into a single montage.
A thinking man’s thriller that works just as well as a singular slice of horror as it does as an examination of an artistic interpretation of themes far deeper than your average psychological thriller – not unlike Darren Aronofsky’s controversial and polarising mother!
The film’s genius is in its subtleties, which combine to make it more than just a “Rocky”-style underdog drama.
Public interest begins with the do-or-die of the mans very participation, a last chance at redemption not unrelated to the ancillary vibes of what Rocky meant for its writer and star.
Gritty, blue-collar US sports films were a genre unto themselves in the 1970s, from John Huston's 1972 boxing melodrama Fat City to Sylvester Stallone's 1976 breakthrough role in Rocky and the vastly underrated hockey flick Slap Shot with Paul Newman in 1977.
Screenwriter Robert D. Siegel’s script — which touches lightly but significantly on "Rocky" and "The Passion of the Christ" — is unvarnished, conversational and free of clumsy exposition.
If you've never seen, for starters, the "Rocky" movies or "Requiem for a Heavyweight" or "Somebody Up There Likes Me" or "Raging Bull," you might be forgiven in thinking "The Wrestler" was an original.
In its own tough-love way, the movie is as sentimental as "The Champ" or "Rocky."
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Directed by Mel Gibson
influenced Noah (2014), The Wrestler (2008), Black Swan (2010)
Themes Visuals
In surveying such mortifications of the flesh, Aronofsky captures not only the agony, but the devotion: in his hands, The Passion of the Christ might have amounted to more than a sanctified snuff film .
While images of damned human flesh tumbling from mountaintops recall DeMille, and a shot following a drop of rain nods towards the "tear of God" from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ , Noah has more in common with the traditions of sci-fi and fantasy than with the Ten Commandments.
If I had to compare "Noah" to any previous Biblical movies, I'd go with Mel Gibson's " The Passion of the Christ " and Martin Scorsese's " The Last Temptation of Christ ," not because the stories are similar (obviously they aren't; Old Testament vs. New) but because, even when you're confused or disgusted or bored, you still feel the director's mad passion radiating from the screen.
Regardless of your feelings about either movie, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” qualifies and so does Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
And speaking of odious bigots, Aronofsky’s film also begs comparison with another high-profile Lenten-season release from a decade ago, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
Others have pointed out that The Passion of the Christ and The Nativity Story and The Ten Commandments — films that these protesters have never complained about — also contain things that aren’t in the Bible.
HIM (2025)
Directed by Justin Tipping
influenced by Black Swan (2010), Requiem for a Dream (2000), mother! (2017)
Themes Visuals Plot
Enjoy bold, arty horror where the meaning is yours to piece together, like Black Swan or The Substance…
Other media titles have done it before – The Novice, Whiplash and Black Swan immediately spring to mind – but it’s still a sturdy thematic crux.
Blood is transfused between players, skeletons are rebuilt, and drugs hit the system in visual language pulled from Requiem for a Dream.
On the other hand, if you’ve enjoyed movies like Mother! or Black Swan, then surely, this is something you can appreciate as well.
Think Whiplash, Black Swan, or The Perfection, but with much heavier symbolism.
Tipping wears his inspirations on his sleeve—Satoshi kon’s Perfect Blue (1997), Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973)—yet doesn’t present exactly what he wants to do.
The Smashing Machine (2025)
Directed by Benny Safdie
influenced by The Wrestler (2008)
Visuals Characters Plot
…rather than the evocative and intimate close-ups that have defined masterworks like Raging Bull and even The Wrestler…
Certainly not on par with De Niro in Raging Bull or Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, both of whom viscerally tapped into the vulnerabilities of their characters and how it fuelled their demons.
Mickey Rourke showcased in THE WRESTLER…
…it’s a portrait of a fighter a la The Wrestler for sure…
“If you’re thinking along the lines of a film as unsettlingly insidious as Suspiria or as artistically eerie as Black Swan because of the similar setting and themes, you’ll find Nocturne isn’t anywhere close with its dialed down darkness.
Nocturne fares a bit better, even though at times it’s an almost blatant rip-off of Black Swan , substituting piano for ballet.
If anything, Nocturne is more indebted to the likes of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, the recent works of Ari Aster, and Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash (which was also produced in part by Jason Blum).
Witness Black Swan , Suspiria and its overlong 2018 remake, the recent gore-fest The Perfection (better known as "that Netflix vomit movie") and even the jazzy Whiplash , which is more of a thriller than a horror flick but still features lots of psychological terror and bodily harm.
Stylishly directed by British first-time feature filmmaker Zu Quirke, Nocturne could perhaps be best described as Raw meets Black Swan .
There are also stylistic influences ( Suspiria especially, but Black Swan and Carrie also come to mind) and creative choices (including a deliberately jarring array of sound cues) that elevate Nocturne above the other “Welcome to the Blumhouse” films—the rest of which are fine but do share a general vibe of being made-for-TV movies, which technically they are.
With a sober humanism reminiscent of John Huston’s Fat City , The Wrestler poignantly submerges itself in the nooks and crannies of sports’ minor leagues, even as its traditional narrative arc—Randy risks life and limb for autumnal glory, woos Cassidy, and, in the film’s clunkiest subplot, reconnects with estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood)—pushes slightly too hard with Christ-like undertones that imagine Randy sacrificing himself for our sinful entertainment.
Gritty, blue-collar US sports films were a genre unto themselves in the 1970s, from John Huston's 1972 boxing melodrama Fat City to Sylvester Stallone's 1976 breakthrough role in Rocky and the vastly underrated hockey flick Slap Shot with Paul Newman in 1977.
Aronofsky and writer Robert D. Siegel obviously know John Huston's Fat City (1972), which is one of my favorite sports films The Wrestler, though not as stellar, has much in common with it.
The pathos of personal ruin is an established trope, and the trick, as demonstrated by John Huston in “Fat City” and by Martin Scorsese in “Raging Bull,” is to stop it from sliding into the sentimental.
Think "Trainspotting," think "Kids," think "Requiem for a Dream," only funny -- that is, if you think leaving naked women tied to the bedposts for days while a heavy metal CD skips at full volume is funny.
It only escalates from there into a frenzy of animated fantasies and fast forwarded footage that could challenge Requiem for a Dream in the kinetic cinematic assault department.
He made the clips for Prodigy's Smack my b*&^% up and Madonna's Ray of light, and is clearly a fan of earlier junkie movies like Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy, especially Darren Aronofsky's almost unbearable Requiem For A Dream.
An entertaining but hideous romp on the circus side of crystal meth addiction, "Spun" wants to be another "Trainspotting" and/or "Requiem for a Dream."
There is very little material covered here that has not already been pounded into the ground by Darren Aronofsky's “Requiem for a Dream,” Lili Zanuck's “Rush” and even Kubrick's “A Clockwork Orange.”
At least "Requiem for a Dream," which this film was obviously inspired by, had the good sense to take drugs seriously.
The Substance (2024)
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
influenced by Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Visuals Themes
In that vein, it makes sense to lean on Showgirls and Brian de Palma's Carrie and Brian Yuzna's Society and even Cronenberg's The Fly, but the late-inning embrace of the imagery of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream feels slapdash, momentarily knocking The Substance off its axis.
Her cruelty towards Elisabeth, her ‘matrix,’ begins to transform the woman into an old crone, which suddenly makes The Substance begin to feel like, of all things, Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000).
…an overwhelming mishmash of styles that feels like if Gaspar Noé directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt and then David Cronenberg put it into the Brundlefly machine with the ‘80s cult classic From Beyond and those Ellen Burstyn scenes from Requiem for a Dream and it was then released by Adult Swim.
Clearly inspired by Black Swan—with similar motifs regarding molting feathers, razor-sharp talons and evil doubles—Hatching would have benefited from enmeshing itself more in the toll that gymnastic takes on women’s bodies, akin to the unvarnished glimpse of ballerinas that Black Swan is oft-regarded for.
Horror has a long and complicated history with motherhood, from classic entries like Psycho (1960) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968), to slasher fare like Friday The 13th (1980), to contemporary essentials like Black Swan (2010), The Babadook (2014), and Hereditary (2018).
Think “E.T.” meets “Black Swan” and you’ll start to understand the strange, grotesque journey of the film.
Like the main character in Black Swan , Tinja is raised to see her flaws before anything else.
Comparisons are warranted to Black Swan , but Hatching gives birth to its own clever storyline, stunning visuals, and strong performances.
Tinja's mother is reminsicent of the mother in Black Swan because she pushes her daughter to work hard and makes her suffer in the process.
The Novice (2021)
Directed by Lauren Hadaway
influenced by Black Swan (2010), Pi (1998)
Themes Music Visuals
Picture the adrenaline-inducing anxiety of Whiplash combined with the relentless nature of Black Swan and you’ll find The Novice fits squarely in the middle of these hyper-intense character studies.
An increasingly pulsating score amplifies the tension, setting a Darren Aronofsky-like mood, putting it in the same heightened state as The Wrestler or Black Swan.
Writer-director Lauren Hadaway has clearly studied the films of Darren Aronofsky, and while many other reviews are making strong comparisons to “Black Swan” – a movie which is still complete and utter trash – the more apt comparison is to “Requiem for a Dream.”
This is not just Black Swan on a boat or Whiplash with water.
The Novice shares narrative and cinematic similarities to films like Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash (which Hadaway worked on as sound editor) and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.
There’s an increasing abundance of on-the-nose symbolism, and as Dall’s erratic behavior begins to tilt into full blown psychological horror territory, a pronounced Black Swan influence rears its ungainly head.
This may all sound kind of dry and cerebral, and the fact that Aronofsky is currently being compared to Stanley Kubrick (and this film in particular to 2001: A Space Odyssey) no doubt adds to that impression.
But suffice it to say that, if this Faust hasn't succeeded in usurping the knowledge of God himself, I don't know who has (with the possible exception of Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey; and look what happened to him).
If Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a cold and ultimately confusing sci-fi epic, “The Fountain” is a feel-good head-scratcher of a sci-fi epic that places death and rebirth directly at the doorstep of love.
What may seem at first glance like a 2001: A Space Odyssey quickly reveals itself to be something more emotionally rich: A profoundly personal depiction of grief and its effects on the human psyche.
Only a fool would liken it to 2001: A Space Odyssey – hold Kubrick’s masterpiece up to Aronofsky’s work, and it will expose the film’s flaws tenfold.