Movies To Watch If You Love Ratched

This content was paid for by Netflix and created by Looper.

Ryan Murphy's vision for Ratched, the prequel series featuring One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's infamous nurse, is a tantalizing take on the nefarious Angel of Mercy. Where the original film deals in the drab tones you'd expect in a hospital, the new series boasts plenty of color in its 1940s picturesque setting — which makes the horrors of Lucia State Hospital that much more prominent. 

It's quickly evident to viewers that the psych ward's cheery nature isn't reflective of the profoundly flawed psychiatric practices conducted in the '40s, starkly contrasting the show's sinister vibe. From a child who receives a lobotomy (based on the true story of Howard Dully) to the torturous hydrotherapy given to nonconforming lesbian patients, Ratched opens the hospital doors to a slew of social issues still prevalent today. Masked in the eerie glow of life in a bygone era, the series tells the story of Ratched's origins while tackling issues like homophobia, sexism, and racism. Ratched makes fans question everything they thought they knew about the titular nurse, offering a modern twist on the decades-old character without trying to rewrite the book and film that came before. 

But while Ratched's ward is closed until season 2 (or until the staff can get the bloodstains out of the carpet), Netflix has a slew of likeminded films to satiate fans until the followup season drops. Between plots surrounding serial killers, sham hospitals, genetic splicing, and another Ryan Murphy project, there's enough material to entertain Ratched fans until the wicked nurse is back in session.

Most patients in Ratched's care are generally worse off after they leave (if they leave at all) than they were when they entered the hospital. The same can be said for the asbestos team tasked with clearing Danvers State Mental Hospital, a local abandoned psychiatric facility in Massachusetts (in real life as well as the film Session 9). While the team isn't committed themselves (or are they?), the darkness enveloping the hospital haunts them as they try to do their job and get out quickly.

Yet even though the patients are long gone, the echoes of their pain and suffering remain in the dilapidated halls of the towering structure — and viewers have to figure out whether the ghostly events of the film actually happened, or if it's all in the protagonist Gordon's head. Session 9 is a stumper without a clear-cut ending, making it the perfect choice for psychological thriller fans who want a truly mind-bending experience.

The 2001 film, starring talents like Netflix's Cursed's Josh Lucas and CSI: Miami's David Caruso, prompted endless fan theories that attempt to explain the film's events. Is it all in Gordon's head? Is the ward haunted by the spirit of a patient with dissociative identity disorder? Was Gordon actually a former patient plagued with repressed memories? Put on your best Ratched hat and figure the mystery out for yourself. However, don't set your GPS for Massachusetts because the 1878 hospital that's rumored to have originated the prefrontal lobotomy was largely demolished in 2006. And all horror fans know how much ghosts just love renovations — just ask Gordon's asbestos crew. Better leave the speculation to the Netflix screen and leave the EMF readers at home. 

Of course, any Ratched movie marathon has to include the wretched nurse's original onscreen appearance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Released in 1975 and set in the early '60s, the classic film revolves around the petty crook Randall Patrick McMurphy and his scam to evade incarceration by pleading insanity and getting locked up in the local psychiatric hospital. If only he'd known that Nurse Mildred Ratched's ward would be darker than any prison cell.

Like Ratched, the film seeks to shed light on the inhumane psychiatric practices (like lobotomies and forced electroshock) that were prevalent during the time. While many of the "treatments" shown in the film and series have since been abolished in most countries, both succeed in shining a light on the stigma attached to mental health that's still an issue today. Jack Nicholson's captivating performance as McMurphy and Louise Fletcher's chilling portrayal of Ratched earned them Oscars. Other top-tier talents like Danny DeVito joined the dynamic duo — along with real patients from Oregon State Hospital, the psychiatric hospital where filming took place.

This Oscar-winning film has long since cemented itself as a classic. Its impact is mirrored in Ratched's success — which has been trending in Netflix's Top Ten since its release. The world isn't done with Mildred Ratched... and Mildred Ratched isn't yet done with the world.

For fans whose favorite part of Ratched is the actual (albeit poor) mental health treatment and psychological thrills, the slow-burn Netflix original film Clinical should be next on the binge list. Much of the 2017 movie centers around protagonist Dr. Jane Mathis (Vinessa Shaw), and her journey to work through the trauma of watching a patient brutally cut her own throat. Viewers face the hard-to-watch scene early in the film as it plays out onscreen, haunting the audience just as much as its main character.

As Dr. Mathis works with her own psychiatrist to escape her guilt and put the traumatizing event behind her, she begins seeing patients again. In particular, one patient aggressively seeks her out to help him work through an accident that deformed his face, and Dr. Mathis has to decide if the prospect of helping the traumatized man is worth the boundaries he continually tries to cross.

It's unclear whether she's haunted by real ghosts, the memories that plague her, or something else entirely. The doctor's ethics fly out the window completely when she steals prescriptions from her psychiatrist and begins self-medicating — further muddying the difference between reality and fiction. While Dr. Mathis' intentions are pure, it's unclear throughout the film who the real villain is. How responsible is the good doctor for the deadly events that keep following her around? Did she create her demons, or did her demons create her? Dr. Mathis and Ratched would have a lot to talk about.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind chronicles the topsy-turvy relationship between Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) that plays out of order onscreen, the way people play out real memories in their minds. Memory isn't precisely linear, and the film amps up that notion as viewers experience the couple's highs and lows. This romantic drama with a dose of science fiction imagines what would happen if there was a way to erase someone from your memory entirely. Would we be better off — or even the same person — without all of the memories and experiences that make us who we are?

The shady memory wiping company that claims Carrey and Winslet's characters as clients has a heap of A-list actors playing employees: From Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood to Mark Ruffalo and Tom Wilson, Lacuna Inc. is the place to be (unless you value your life's experiences). If Edmond and Ratched had Lacuna Inc., maybe they could have forgotten their horrifying childhood and prevented their slide into horrific malpractice. Then again, if Joel and Clementine have taught us anything, it's that memories have a way of coming back — whether we want them to or not.