Top 10: Movies That Remind Us Of The Hunger Games

Kicking off our list is the sci-fi thriller in which mind-control technology allows competitors to control convicts in a real-life video game shooter. The twist? The first kid to score thirty points will win the competition, and their avatar will walk away with their freedom and their life.

Okay, this competition isn’t to the death, per se, but one of its competitors does pay with his life. In the fourth installment of the series, Harry is forced to compete against his peers in a dangerous Tri-Wizard tournament, and must be the first to complete three magical tasks, all while the threat of Lord Voldemort lurks in the shadows.

In this satirical and campy tale, a club has been organized to allow people to hunt each other in front of a film crew. Members alternate between playing hunter and prey, until they’re all killed. Interestingly, their deaths are used for commercials to promote the event and keep up enrolment.

In this futuristic tale, the only violence that exists is in the brutal game of Rollerball. This sport is used to satisfy the population’s need for bloodshed, and to secretly oppress their notions of individuality. However, when the game’s champion becomes an icon, the rules are discarded, and he must eliminate all other players to survive and bring self-determination back to the masses.

An isolated location and several contestants in a fight for their lives: sound familiar? Here, the hunted pair off to improve their odds. However, only one can claim freedom and the ten million dollar prize. Of course, they must also flee a pack of hunters, just to keep things interesting.

In this satirical take on the deadly reality game show genre, six people are selected at random to kill each other for freedom and fame within a small Connecticut community. Interestingly, this film adds an emotional element by focusing on the love story of a pregnant contestant.

We all know TV producers would kill for high ratings, and in this case they do. Set in – you guessed it – the far future, prisons are overcrowded and the masses are bored. The solution is a deadly pay-per-view event in which killers try to stay alive. Jason Statham stars as a former speedway champion outfitted with a violent set of wheels and the goal of beating his rivals to the checkered flag.

In this post-apocalyptic action film, a police officer, played by Arnold, is wrongly convicted of massacring rioting civilians. He is placed in a deadly TV reality show, where the contestants are promised freedom if they survive. Like “The Hunger Games,” this story was inspired by a novel; however, it adds such things as deadly hockey players, a dude covered in light bulbs, and a bunch of Arnie’s best one liners.

Coming in a close second is the story of a man awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. Jack Conrad, played by the WWE’s “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, is selected to take part in a live show against the world’s most notorious inmates for a single get-out-of-jail-free card and a wad of cash. Why don’t these criminals band together to mount an escape? Simple: they’ve each been strapped with an ankle bomb that will go boom after 30 hours.

Coming in at number one is the most comparable selection on our list. “Battle Royale” takes everything you love about “The Hunger Games” and kicks it up a notch: It’s violent, full of subtext and controversial as hell.

This Japanese film focuses on the decision by that country’s government to teach their rebellious youth population a lesson. They do this by randomly placing 42 teenagers on an isolated island where they’re forced to outlast each other. The teens are also equipped with a bag of randomly-selected weapons. Hey, they don’t call it a “Battle Royale” for nothin’!

That’s our list of films that remind us of “The Hunger Games:” which do you think compares best?