The much-anticipated second season of Squid Game is underway, and viewers are anxious to find out what deadly games Seong Gi-hun and his fellow contestants will face this time. The genre of dystopian survivor thriller might have been a niche when the first season of the blockbuster show was launched in 2021, but others have appeared since then to experiment with this unique and often unsettling aesthetic.

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The show has some distinctive features such as the game show premise, the futuristic setting, reality TV background, and often a lot of gore. For those viewers who love all of the above and want more of the same, several networks have caught on to the trend and produced shows that are similar to the bizarre and terrifying world of Squid Game.

7 Beast Games

Humanity Hits Rock Bottom

Beast Games
Reality
Competition
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Jimmy Donaldson

Release Date
December 19, 2024
Seasons
1

Making a show like "Bum Fight" used to be a joke, but in a world that's being crushed under the weight of late-stage capitalism, it makes too much sense. Famous YouTube personality Mr. Beast is either a hero or a villain depending on who you ask, and this endeavour has attracted the expected amount of controversy. The players have complained about mistreatment on set including accounts of assault and exploitation, maybe even risk to life and limb, maybe making this too much like Squid Game.

It's a game show, with an impressive pot of prize money available at the end, but of course, there are a few wacky details. There are 1000 participants worldwide, making it the biggest game show in history, and they face a series of challenges to narrow down the contestants.

6 All Of Us Are Dead

High School Apocalyptic Horror

All Of Us Are Dead
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Park Ji-hu
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Yoon Chan-young
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Cho Yi-hyun
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Lomon

Release Date
January 28, 2022
Distributor
Netflix
Seasons
2

Put together a coming-of-age story with a story of apocalyptic horror, and the result is the zombie drama All of Us Are Dead. This is also a Korean production, which takes place in present-day Hyosan. It's a fictional city with a posh high school that happens to have a completely inept science teacher who accidently creates and unleashes the Jonas Virus, graduating his character from incompetent teacher to the main villain.

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The story begins with students turning into zombies under mysterious circumstances, so most of the initial drama is about where the virus came from. The series is a live-action adaptation of the manhwa of the same name by Joo Dong-geun, and can be found under the English title School Attack.

5 Alice In Borderland

Trapped In An Abandoned Tokyo

Alice In Borderland was a successful anime before it was adapted as a live-action show, and both are based on the original manga of the same name by Haro Aso. It follows the same premise of a group of people trapped in a post-apocalyptic version of Tokyo, now abandoned but used as a "game arena" for the contestants who have to solve puzzles, answer questions, survive, and escape.

This game arena is known as Borderland, which gives the series its name, and players are faced with games that include trivia and playing cards as they explore. The original manga and anime follow the same basic plot. Much like Squid Game, it's about survival more than horror, but there's plenty of both for viewers to enjoy.

4 3%

The Reward Is The Offshore

3% is a Brazilian show that deserves more recognition, and not just because it's the first show in Portuguese that Netflix has ever produced. This dystopian horror thriller combines elements of game shows, survival, and class warfare similar to the Hunger Games, with its recruitment of impoverished young people as contestants with the promise of a better life as the prize.

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The story begins in a place called The Inland, and when the residents of this crime-ridden, dirty, and poor region are 20 years old, they can compete in The Process. If they succeed, and only 3% pass all the challenges and survive to do so, they are allowed access to the affluent Offshore society.

3 The Purge

Dystopian Horror In A Totalitarian State

The Purge
  • instar48264257.jpg
    Gabriel Chavarria
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    Derek Luke
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Hannah Emily Anderson
  • instar49828085.jpg
    Max Martini

Release Date
September 4, 2018
Creator(s)
James DeMonaco

The Purge is already one of the more popular options for viewers who enjoy dystopian or apocalyptic visions of the future, and it blew the genre wide open with the original movie which was released in 2013. This is good old-fashioned American action horror as opposed to dark fantasy or occult, which might be refreshing for those who prefer the evil of humans as opposed to the supernatural.

The realism of the show is that much more terrifying, and it's tied into the characters, plots, and locations of the movies. Set in the near future, specifically in 2027, the simple but devastating plot is based on a dystopian version of the United States, ruled by a totalitarian government, that allows anyone to commit any crime without repercussions in a certain 12-hour period. Humans take justice into their own hands, and some survive and others don't.

2 Physical: 100

Often Compared To Squid Game

Physical: 100
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Jeong Young-han