If You Loved ‘Verity’, You Have to Watch These 10 Films

'Gone Girl' (2014)If you can’t stop thinking about Verity’s unreliable female narrators, watch Gone Girl. Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel, the movie is about a man who becomes a suspect when his wife goes missing. While he hires a powerful attorney and faces a growing media storm, we see his relationship in flashback: how he met his cool girl wife, the scavenger hunts she used to arrange for them, and how their marriage started to struggle after they moved from New York to Missouri.On the off-chance that you don’t know the big Gone Girl twist over a decade later, I won’t spoil it here. This is one you’ve got to experience in real time.Stream Now on Prime Video'Rebecca' (1940)If you want more stories about women who go to big spooky houses where a wife haunts the narrative, Hitchcock adapted one of the best. This classic gothic thriller is adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel. It follows the young second wife of a rich man as she comes home with him to his country manor. Is the house actually haunted by Rebecca, the first wife? Or does the young woman just feel as though she can never measure up to the first love of her husband’s life?The twists, mysteries, and imposter syndrome of Rebecca also inspired Taylor Swift’s music video for her new song “Patient Zero,” which also co-stars Dakota Johnson.Stream Now on PhiloAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below'Jane Eyre' (2011)Excuse this inelegant summary, but another famous novel about “the other woman” is Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. It has been adapted many times, of course, but check out director Cary Joji Fukunaga and writer Moira Buffini’s adaptation starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Like Lowen in Verity, Jane travels to the country to take on a new job—as a governess, instead of a ghostwriter. Like Lowen, she falls in love with the man who lives there, Rochester.She also discovers some dark secrets about the family she’s stepping into and Rochester’s first wife. This story is typically considered a little more romantic than some others in the genre, but whether or not you’re rooting for these crazy kids is up to you to decide.Stream Now on Prime Video'Crimson Peak' (2015)If you want an even spookier version of Mia Wasikowska as a young wife named Edith in a weird house, you must watch Guillermo del Toro’s gothic romance Crimson Peak. It’s perfect for October and severely underrated. In this story, it’s not an ex-wife or a mean housekeeper antagonizing the heroine: it’s her new husband’s sister. Eek! There may or may not be some Targaryen nonsense going on there. And maybe the house is haunted.Can Edith uncover the secrets, and more importantly, make it out alive? She’s also a novelist, like Lowen and Verity, if that’s not enough to tempt you.Stream Now on NetflixAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below'The Stepford Wives' (2002)If you were suspicious of Josh Hartnett’s character from the beginning of Verity (and you’ve already seen Trap), might I recommend one of the most classic horror movies about men conspiring against women? You may prefer to watch the original 1975 thriller, also based on Ira Levin’s satirical novel, but I think we deserve some Nicole Kidman in our lives.When a young couple moves to a pristine suburban neighborhood, the wife is immediately spooked by how docile and traditional the other women in the neighborhood are, especially given their ambitious backgrounds. She’s on the case and racing against time to uncover what happened to them before it happens to her, too.Stream Now on Paramount+'Ex Machina' (2014)If you can’t stop thinking about the nature of lying and whether or not manipulating the truth is human nature, have I got a doozy for you. Ex Machina is not dissimilar to other gothic romances, on and off this list, even though it is also science fiction. Domhnall Gleeson plays the ingenue, a young programmer who receives an invite to the boss’s estate. Oscar Isaac plays the eccentric, reclusive CEO. And Alicia Vikander plays Ava, the mysterious woman humanoid artificially intelligent robot in the shadows. “Can AI lie” feels like a silly question to ask in 2026, but it made for a thrilling narrative in 2014.Stream Now on HuluAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below'Gaslight' (1944)If you can’t stop thinking about how many times Lowen thought, or was told, that she was going crazy in Verity, then you should watch the movie that resulted in the term gaslighting. George Cukor’s thriller follows a young opera singer named Paula who marries her accompanist and then begins to suspect that he may be connected to her aunt’s murder. In order to keep her from asking questions, her new husband stages various mishaps in the house so that Paula will think she’s going crazy.Fun fact: Gaslight features Angela Lansbury’s first-ever film role.Stream Now on Prime Video'The Bigamist' (1953)If you’ve enjoyed the other old movies on this list, I have to recommend one directed by a woman. Ida Lupino’s noir The Bigamist is about a man who, as the title might lead you to suspect, is married to two women. He gets caught in a lie when his first wife wants to adopt a child with him and the two undergo a background check.While there aren’t a lot of huge twists in this one, it’s worth it for the performances. This is a quietly tragic mystery. Some men don’t need violence to ruin their whole life: they just do it naturally.Stream Now on Prime VideoAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below'A Simple Favor' (2018)Or, if you just want the comedy version...Paul Feig’s satirical thriller is the best. It’s just the best! A Simple Favor is about a mommy blogger named Stephanie, played by Anna Kendrick, who befriends a stylish mother at her son’s school named Emily played by Blake Lively. The two form an unexpected bond. When Emily asks Stephanie to watch her son, she thinks nothing of it. But then Emily disappears. Stephanie tries to find out what happens and, much like Lowen, gets in way over her head.She also might end up falling for Stephanie’s husband in the process. It comes with the territory in this genre, apparently!Stream Now on Prime Video'The Invitation' (2022)Finally, let’s follow the Crimson Peak thread and go full vampire. The Invitation starts out a lot like Verity. Nathalie Emmanuel’s character, Evie, is an ordinary girl in NYC in need of a paycheck. She takes a DNA test and discovers that she has rich relatives in England. When one of them invites her to a family wedding, she accepts. There are just a few things: she’s expected to be the bride, and the groom is literally Dracula.Evie learns more secrets about her family history during her stay, and honestly might go along with the wedding. She actually has agency in these bloody circumstances... imagine that!Stream Now on Hulu