Movies To Watch If You Loved Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

It's that time again. You've just seen the big, bold blockbuster of the month, and you're hankering for more movies just like it. It happens to the best of us! Instead of turning to an algorithm that'll just recommend another Marvel movie you've already seen, how about checking out something totally new to you?

Built at the intersection between Marvel's IP-driven bottom line and filmmaker Sam Raimi's knack for horror and humor, the new Doctor Strange flick isn't exactly like most films. But, luckily, there are a lot of films it's a little bit like, including some pretty great ones. Whether you came away loving the movie's witchy mayhem, its multiverse-hopping hijinks, or even its hints at romance, this list has you covered. Here are eight movies worth checking out if you loved "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

Before Sam Raimi took on "Spider-Man," he brought another super-powered persona to life on the big screen: "Darkman." The 1990 film is based on Raimi's own short story, and stars Liam Neeson as Dr. Payton Westlake, a scientist turned revenge-seeking superhuman. Westlake is working on a cutting edge synthetic skin graft for burn victims when he himself ends up the victim of an explosion. To save his life, doctors perform a procedure that causes Westlake to stop feeling pain, making him feel strong and invincible while also destabilizing his mental health.

The movie follows Westlake as he tries to track down the men who left him for dead. Visually striking, funny, and R-rated, it's nothing like the superhero movies of today — but that's not a bad thing. "Darkman" is a balls-to-the-wall movie that's unafraid to get, well, dark. It's also an essential stepping stone in the dual tracks of Raimi's career, demonstrating both his handle on the superhero narrative and his masterful command of horror.

If Strange's romance plot felt a little thin to you, we've got good news: there's another multiverse movie out there that's grounded in real, profound emotion, and if you're lucky, you may even still be able to catch it in theaters. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's new genre-busting film is a word-of-mouth phenomenon, and for good reason. The movie stars Michelle Yeoh as a put-upon laundromat owner named Evelyn who's just trying to make it through tax season when she learns she has the ability to shift through universes.

"Everything Everywhere All At Once" has a take on the multiverse that's well and truly strange — in a good way. It's a place where you can be a famous actress, or a rock sitting on a cliffside, or a person born with hot dogs for fingers. The movie delves much deeper into the weird variances afforded by the idea of a multiverse than Marvel ever has, but it also gets deeper into the human condition, too. Evelyn's powers give her the chance to connect to her family — including husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and depressed daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) on a level she never has before. The film takes a massive sci-fi concept and uses it to tell a small but extremely meaningful story.

Although Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adventure has a cleaner visual style than the chaos of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," you can still see its impact in some of the latter film's scenes of uncanny urban design. When skyscrapers start to drift away and collapse in on each other, it's impossible not to think about "Inception." The hit film follows a skilled thief named Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) who assembles a team to sneak inside the sleeping mind of a very important person and plant a seed of an idea that will grow into his waking life.

The gorgeous, trippy visuals of "Inception" took audiences' breath away just over a decade ago, yet shot compositions that felt groundbreaking then — like those folding buildings — are oddly common now, including in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." Both movies also establish an internal logic within dream worlds that gives them a semblance of structure and familiarity. Raimi's dip into the multiverse relies heavily on dreams, which it theorizes are windows into other versions of the known universe. They also share an unseen ticking clock factor, as according to both movies, dabbling in dreams and unfamiliar dimensions for too long can have lasting consequences.

Some of us have an insatiable habit of rooting for badass, bloodthirsty, superpowered women, even if they're meant to be the villain. If you happen to share this particular habit, may I offer you "The Witch" in this trying time? Scarlet Witch may have burned hot and fast before fizzling out under a pile of rubble, but there are plenty of other witches on the rise out there. All movie witches are by definition very cool, but few are as hypnotically compelling as the coven at the center of Robert Eggers' debut film.

"The Witch" is an extremely authentic period-specific horror film that follows a Puritan family as they attempt to survive after being banished from a New England town for their zealotry. The story is anchored by Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), a teenaged girl whose imminent womanhood makes her a subject of suspicion within her superstitious, patriarchal family. The zippy thrills of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" contrast pretty sharply with the slow and steady dread-building of "The Witch," but both revel in the unbridled, awesome power of a kid-stealing magical woman.