10 Movies Like Echo Valley You Must See

Directed by Michael Pearce, ‘Echo Valley’ stars Julianne Moore as Kate Garrett, a woman who lives on a farm in southern Pennsylvania and trains horses while coping with a personal tragedy. The situation takes a turn for the worse when her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) shows up at her doorstep one night with her clothes soaked in blood that does not belong to her. Kate tries her best to comfort a hysterical Claire suffering from drug addiction while piecing together the previous events in her life.

In time, she comes to realize how far she is prepared to go to protect her daughter. A gripping and fast-paced thriller, the Apple Studios production explores the themes of love, sacrifice, and survival through the eyes of a desperate mother. If the film has managed to blow you away, here is a curated list of movies similar to ‘Echo Valley’ that you may consider for your next watch.

10. The Good Mother (2023)

Miles Joris-Peyrafitte’s ‘The Good Mother’ revolves around Marissa Bennings (Hilary Swank), a journalist who attempts to track the killers of her estranged son. She forms an unlikely alliance with his pregnant girlfriend Paige (Olivia Cooke) and dives into the seedy underbelly of Albany in upstate New York. The duo is confronted with a decaying society filled with corruption and drugs, and their situation only worsens as they get closer to the truth. The film showcases a mother going to extreme lengths to secure justice for her son, even in his absence.

9. The Mother (2023)

‘The Mother’ by Niki Caro follows an unnamed US military operative (Jennifer Lopez) with links to arms smuggling rackets who gives birth to a daughter, Zoe. To ensure her protection, the “mother” waives her parental rights after turning into an informant for the FBI. The traffickers whom she betrayed decide to go after her twelve years later. To lure her out of hiding, they kidnap Zoe (Lucy Paez). While the plan works as intended, Lopez’s character comes out ready to kill. The question raised in Echo Valley about the lengths a mother would go to protect her children is conclusively answered in the movie.

8. Kidnap (2017)

‘Kidnap’ tells the story of Karla Dyson (Halle Berry), a waitress and single mother whose six-year-old son, Frankie (Sage Correa), gets kidnapped at a carnival. Too distraught to wait for law enforcement to do their job, Karla takes the responsibility of getting her son back upon herself. She follows them by car and on foot, refusing to back down even in the face of mortal danger. The Luis Prieto directorial establishes mothers as unstoppable forces when the safety of their children is at stake. Like Kate in ‘Echo Valley,’ Karla does not hesitate to get her hands dirty for the sake of her offspring.

7. Panic Room (2002)

David Fincher’s thriller ‘Panic Room’ is set in New York about a newly divorced woman, Meg Altman (Jodie Foster), and her young daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart). The duo is forced to enter the panic room of their brownstone residence when three intruders, Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), and Junior (Jared Leto), carry out a brutal home invasion. The film shows a mother and daughter pair experiencing the helplessness of being backed into a corner, yet not losing the resilience to live through the ordeal.

6. The Lost Daughter (2021)

Based on the eponymous novel by Elena Ferrante, ‘The Lost Daughter’ chronicles Leda Caruso, a middle-aged university professor on a holiday at the beach by herself. She becomes enamoured of a young mother, Nina (Dakota Johnson), and three-year-old daughter Elena (Athena Martin), whom she meets during the trip. As she becomes close to them, Leda is haunted by the memories of the early days of her own motherhood and the unconventional choices she made. The experiences contrast sharply with Kate’s actions in ‘Echo Valley,’ even though both test a mother’s devotion. ‘The Lost Daughter’ notably marks the feature directorial debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal.

5. Run (2020)

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty, ‘Run’ stars Sarah Paulson as Diane Sherman, who gives birth to a premature baby that fights for its life in the incubator in the prologue. Years later, Diane lives with Chloe (Kiera Allen), her teenage daughter with multiple health conditions such as arrhythmia, hemochromatosis, asthma, and diabetes, as well as paralysis from the waist down. While Diane appears to be a doting mother, Chloe begins to doubt her intentions and starts to investigate. While the film explores a mother’s love like ‘Echo Valley,’ it highlights the perils when it crosses the boundary and becomes an obsession.

4. Motherly (2021)

‘Motherly’ by Craig David Wallace revolves around Kate (Lora Burke) and her 9-year-old daughter, Beth (Tessa Kozma), whom she shares with Brad. Convicted of killing Beth’s friend, Courtenay, two years prior, Brad was sent to prison, where he took his own life. One night, Kate’s home is broken into by Courtenay’s parents, who consider her to be their daughter’s real killer and wish to make the family pay for their past. In the face of life and death, Kate is forced to make the hard choices with her daughter’s life hanging in the balance. The choice she faces is reminiscent of what her namesake comes across in ‘Echo Valley.’

3. The Lie (2018)

Based on the German film ‘We Monsters’ by Marcus Seibert and Sebastian Ko, ‘The Lie’ opens with Kayla Logan (Joey King) being driven by her father, Jay Logan (Peter Sarsgaard), to a ballet retreat. They find Kayla’s friend Britney Ismali (Devery Jacobs) waiting by the side of the road and offer her a lift. However, things go south fast when Jay stops the car in the woods and Britney goes missing without a trace. Directed by Veena Sud, the film shows Kayla’s parents, Jay and Rebecca Marston (Mireille Enos), standing up for their daughter, even as accusations of murder are levelled against her. Similar to the mother in ‘Echo Valley,’ the couple does not shy away from any scenario that gives Kayla the best chance to live freely.

2. The Deep End (2001)

Loosely adapted from the book ‘The Blank Wall’ by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, ‘The Deep End’ tells the story of Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton), an upper-middle-class family woman staying in a picturesque property along Lake Tahoe in California. With her husband being away as an active service member of the US Navy, Margaret is alone when the body of her eldest son Beau’s (Jonathan Tucker) partner washes up on their beach.

With her maternal instincts to save her family kicking in, Margaret hides the body. However, trouble brews as a stranger tries to blackmail Margaret, claiming he knew what she did. There are multiple similarities between the Scott McGehee and David Siegel film, ‘The Deep End,’ and ‘Echo Valley,’ with both films concerning mothers’ actions to protect their children. What drives the women to act dangerously is the possible allegations of murder looming above their children’s heads.

1. Mother (2009)

From the mind of filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, ‘Mother’ follows an unnamed widow (Kim Hye-ja) who resides with her mentally challenged son, Yoon Do-joon (Won-bin), in a small South Korean town. The pair spend their days selling medicinal herbs, but their lives are turned upside down when the body of a young murdered girl is discovered, and circumstantial evidence suggests Yoon Do-joon to be involved. The mother fails to keep faith in the system and takes the law into her own hands in an attempt to prove her son innocent. Just like Kate in ‘Echo Valley,’ the titular character in ‘Mother’ shows the grit and determination to do whatever it takes to keep her child away from any possible danger.