You just finished The Last Night at Tremore Beach, the latest mind-boggling offering from Oriol Paulo, and now you don’t know what to do with life. Well, the only way to fill the void is to start something similar, and that’s why you’re here. So in this article, I am going to suggest certain movies and shows that you might consider watching if you enjoyed Oriol Paulo’s Netflix show. I hope all of you find something here.
Caddo Lake (2024)
Let us start with something from the very recent past. I could have just suggested Dark instead, but assuming many of you have already seen that show (in case you have not, drop everything and do that; there you go—one bonus suggestion), I urge you to give Caddo Lake a try. Yes, the latest M. Night Shyamalan-produced horror-thriller takes a whole lot of ideas from the iconic Netflix series, but the good thing about the movie is that it also implements the ideas really well. The execution in Caddo Lake is pretty much perfect. I should not give away the story, as it is best to jump into it without knowing anything (I would advise you to skip the trailer even). But in case you are looking for a tease, the film is about an eight-year-old girl disappearing mysteriously and the investigation into said disappearance. Dylan O’Brien and Eliza Scanlen have delivered brilliant performances as the two main leads. One of the reasons Caddo Lake worked for me is the emotional beats, which is a major selling point of The Last Night at Tremore Beach as well.
11.22.63 (2016)
It is baffling how 11.22.63, the 2016 miniseries from Hulu, went under the radar despite having an A-lister cast led by James Franco (back then he was more acceptable than now, just saying). It was pretty well-made, the acting was good, it had a talented supporting cast with the likes of Sarah Gordon (Alias Grace) and George McKay (1917), and most importantly, it was a very interesting story. An English teacher getting the rare opportunity to travel back in time to stop the assassination of a famous US president is not something you see very often, and this show delivered on that unique idea. I’m sure you are gonna have a great time binge-watching this.
Lucia (2013)
Pawan Kumar’s unbelievably fantastic Kannada psychological thriller is the kind of film that you see and can never forget. It centers on this man, Nikki, who works at a movie theater and suffers from insomnia. Life takes a very strange turn when he comes across a unique pill and starts having lucid dreams. You need to see the film to know what happens next. This is probably the most obvious suggestion in the list, given the context.
Mirage (2018)
How can I not suggest something that is made by Oriol Paulo himself? If you have loved watching The Last Night at Tremore Beach then chances are you have already seen most of his popular works like The Invisible Guest(2016) or The Innocent (2021). However, Paulo’s 2018 psychological thriller with a dash of science-fiction that didn’t get much recognition was equally bonkers, like the other things he made. In this movie, a young woman forms a connection with a child and investigates a mystery that goes beyond space and time. That’s the most I can tell you about Mirage. In case you are a fan of Money Heist, Alvaro Morte plays an important part here, which should excite you.Â
Glitch (2015-2019)
Again, I thought about the French horror mystery series Les Revenants (2012-2015) first but then ended up with the Australian series Glitch, which is also about (almost) the same thing. In this series, a police officer has to deal with six dead people suddenly coming alive and returning from the grave. One of them being his wife further complicates the situation. Glitch is a supernatural drama that should click for you if you have enjoyed Paulo’s latest show.
The Leftovers (2014-2017)
In HBO’s The Leftovers, 2% of the world’s population vanishes randomly one day. The show, surprisingly, is more about the event’s aftereffect on the people who remained than why it happened. I believe that is the thing that sets it apart from other regular genre shows of this kind. And the reason I am suggesting The Leftovers to you, despite it being a very different show than The Last Night at.. is because of how much it cares for its characters. The Oriol Paulo show also focuses on the visions Alex has, but beyond all that, the character and his relationship with other people—be it Judy, his kids, or Leo and Maria—get equal importance. I guess I don’t have to explain further.Â
Thandatti (2023)
I will be honest here. Thandatti, the 2023 Tamil comedy-drama film directed by Ram Sangaiah (his debut), is not quite a masterpiece. The film might lose you in the middle as it often gets frustrating (that happens with Paulo’s show as well, though). But where Thandatti makes up for all that is the absolute killer twist in the end. That is the commonality between the Tamil film and the Spanish show, which justifies the inclusion of Thandatti here. The synopsis of the movie tells you that it is about a police constable trying to find a pair of earrings that belong to a woman who is dead. But it is obvious that the film is much more than that. If this makes you curious, then you ought to try it.
The Five Devils (2022)
Lea Mysius’ French fantasy thriller starring Adele Exarchopoulos has a very dense plot with so many things happening at different points in time. Quite naturally, it is a no-brainer that The Five Devils should be something that you should watch after finishing The Last Night at Tremore Beach. In many ways, the vibe of this movie also matches with the show. The movie is about Vicky, a little girl who has the unique ability to reproduce smells (and then storing them in jars). Exarchopoulos plays her mother, Joanne, and the two of them share a very strong bond. To know what happens to them, you need to watch The Five Devils, I suppose.Â
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Alright, this is something you probably didn’t expect to see here. Now while it’s true that the third Harry Potter movie is possibly the best one in the entire franchise, thanks to Alphonso Cuaron’s unique handling of the source material, that’s not exactly why I am putting it on this list. Assuming you’ve completed The Last Night… (why else would you be here anyway?), in the show, you find out that the entirety of Alex’s vision was actually something that was happening inside his head. So it’s a vision within a vision thing, and I could have thrown in Inception (2010) in the equation as well, but the third Harry Potter movie fits the bill. Obviously, if you haven’t watched any other Harry Potter movies, then I would advise watching the first two before going into it. But in case you don’t feel like doing that, you can still watch Prisoners of Azkaban as long as you are familiar with the basic lore of Harry Potter. In case you’re wondering what exactly this thing is about, well, in this one, Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, are in their third year at Hogwarts while an escaped prisoner from the Azkaban prison is out hunting the boy.Â
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
I am overreaching here for a bit. In this Indie Canadian drama that was released almost three decades ago, a small mountain town is devastated after a bus accident that kills a dozen schoolchildren. There is one survivor, who now has to live with the trauma of what happened. The reason I am bringing up this movie is the small town setting and also teenagers losing their lives untimely thanks to adults making wrong decisions. Again, this is far-fetched, but you know what happens to Estrella in The Last Night… Ian Holm and Sarah Polley star in this fantastic movie, which everyone should watch.Â
The Rest Is Personal (2013)
Okay, I might be overreaching a bit more, but for this one, there is a valid reason. In 2013, I managed to catch The Rest Is Personal at a near-empty South Kolkata theater. It turned out to be one of those movies that’ll change your life forever. I was never the same again, and I am certain the same is going to happen to you if you give this underrated Bengali movie a chance. In The Rest Is Personal, a documentary filmmaker is frustrated due to being unlucky in love. One day, he gets to know about a strange rural village where you can magically find love. He decides to travel there and takes his cameraman along, with the intention of documenting the whole experience. Love is a central theme in this unique story, just like how important it is in The Last Night at Tremore Beach—be it Alex and Estrella or Judy and Alex. Just like has been lost for his entire life before finding love (Judy) in Tremore, the documentary filmmaker in The Rest Is Personal is seeking the same fate.Â
Behind Her Eyes (2021)
Sure, the final twist in The Last Night… left you speechless, but wait till you see another Netflix series, Behind Her Eyes. If the twist of this show fails to shock you, then nothing probably can. The show is about Louise, a single mother who gets attracted to David, who is a psychiatrist and also Louise’s boss. The two of them get into a relationship, but there’s a problem: David has a rather temperamental wife, Adele. In case you are wondering about the twist I have been blabbering about, I urge you to watch the six-episode series. You are not going to be disappointed; I can bet on that. Also, Eve Hewson as Alice was quite a revelation in that show, I must say.
Something in the Dirt (2022)
One of the greatest films to come out of the ‘COVID’ genre (what I’m referring to is basically movies that were made during/based on the pandemic), Something in the Dirt stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moohead in the lead, who also direct the movie. They are the same duo who directed some of the most popular pop culture stuff in recent times, like Moon Knight (2022) and Loki (2023). However, Something in the Dirt is one of their avant-garde works. In this strange little film, a man named Levi (Benson) rents a Los Angeles apartment where strange things start to happen. Levi gets fascinated, and so does his neighbor John (Moorhead). That’s the best I can put it, and it would be better if you saw it for yourself.
Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
An FBI agent walking into a small, picturesque town to investigate the gruesome murder of a homecoming queen sounds simple enough for a plot. But David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, which is now considered to be one of the greatest pieces of media to be ever made, is obviously something way beyond that. It is literally everything that you will be looking for after watching The Last Night… There is a lot of suspense; for the most part, you have no idea what is going on, and most of the people are not what they seem like. That doesn’t mean that there’s no romance and laughter, in case you’re wondering. While Oriol Paulo concludes the story over one season, Twin Peaks leaves you with the weirdest possible cliffhanger in the end. In case you do watch the show and reach that point, then I suppose you should also watch Twin Peaks: The Return, which was released in 2017, i.e., twenty-six years after the original show. You should also try Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), a prequel film to the original series, in case you need some more Twin Peaks fix.