7 Dark Comedies to Watch if You Loved 'The Roses'

The Roses presents a modern take on marital tension through dark comedy. This 2025 movie stars Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ivy Rose and Theo. The couple appears very happy on the surface. They have a loving marriage, successful careers, and great children. However, their connection contains hidden resentment and a sense of competition.

Theo's career falls apart while Ivy's ambitions grow. This shift creates a risky power imbalance. The film explores themes of jealousy, marriage, and professional rivalry.

The Roses displays how success can destroy relationships. Director Jay Roach reimagines the 1989 classic for modern audiences. The movie blends biting social satire with broad comedy.

The Roses examines genre roles and toxic masculinity in modern society. The story reveals how loving couples can turn into enemies overnight. The dark humor emerges from the characters' escalating conflicts and petty behavior.

For viewers who liked The Roses, there are other dark comedies with similar themes that will appeal to them.

Very Bad Things, Parents, World's Greatest Dad, and four other dark comedies to watch if you like The Roses

1) After Hours

A still from the movie (Image via Apple TV)

Martin Scorsese directs this underrated nightmare, which revolves around one terrible evening in New York City. The premise of the movie follows Paul Hackett visiting SoHo to meet a woman he fancies. Everything goes wrong from the moment he leaves his apartment. Paul loses his money and misses the last subway train home.

The residents mistake him for a burglar roaming the neighborhood. An angry mob chases him through the empty streets. The movie captures modern paranoia with accuracy. The movie shares The Roses' theme of situations going out of control. Both films trap their protagonists in increasingly unpredictable circumstances.

The comedy comes from Paul's desperate attempts to get home safely. Scorsese delivers a Kafkaesque world through this film, where logic does not cease to exist. The movie explores miscommunication and isolation in modern city life.

After Hours is available on Amazon Prime for viewers to watch.

2) The Cable Guy

The movie's premise follows Chip Douglas (portrayed by Jim Carrey), a lonely cable installer who becomes dangerously obsessed with customer Steven Kovacs. Chips makes his way into Steven's personal life through stalking conduct and manipulation. The cable guy has zero understanding of simple social boundaries. He uses his professional access to spy on clients and customers and gather their personal information.

Chip's desperate need for connection drives him to increasingly intense measures. The movie examines themes of media addiction and isolation. This movie connects to The Roses through its exploration of toxic relationships and the violation of boundaries.

Both films show characters who become their own worst enemies. The humor emerges from deeply uncomfortable social encounters. Ben Stiller's direction accurately balances genuine psychological unease and laughs.

The Cable Guy is available for viewers to watch on Amazon Prime.

3) Very Bad Things

This unhinged comedy follows five friends whose Las Vegas bachelor party ends in complete disaster. The friends accidentally kill a stripper in their hotel room during the celebration. The group decides to cover up the crime rather than contacting law enforcment people. Their clumsy attempts to conceal evidence lead to even more violence and additional killings. Each character reveals their moral thoughts under extreme pressure.

The film examines how regular people justify increasingly destructive actions to protect themselves. The movie mirrors The Roses's exploration of moral ambiguity within relationships. Both films show characters making self-destructive choices.

Very Bad Things is available on Amazon Prime for viewers to watch.

4) Parents

Bob Balaban directs this horror comedy set. The movie's premise follows a ten-year-old Michael Laemie, who suspects his parents are cannibals in hiding.

His father is employed at a mysterious chemical agency and brings home strange meat. The family dinners become increasingly absurd for the suspicious young boy. Michael's fear grows as he investigates his parents' peculiar nighttime behavior.

The movie uses black humor to critique idealized 1950s family values. The parents connect to The Roses through its focus on family dysfunction hidden beneath accurate appearances.

Both films reveal horror lurking under domestic normalcy. The comedy emerges from contrasting surface pleasantness with underlying darkness. Balaban creates an atmosphere of constant childhood confusion and dread about adult behavior.

5) World's Greatest Dad

This movie stars Lance Clayton (portrayed by Robin Williams), a failed writer working as a high school poetry teacher.

His teenage kid, Kyle, dies in an embarrassing autoerotic asphyxiation accident. Lance stages the death scene to look like a suicide and writes a fake note. The suicide note becomes famous throughout the community and school.

Lance continues to write fake content attributed to his dead son's memory. He finally gains the artistic recognition he always craved through exploiting the death of his son. The movie explores themes of artistic integrity, fame, and complex parent-child relationships.

This movie shares The Roses' examination of how people rationalize selfish action. Both films feature characters who abandon their moral principles for personal benefits.

6) Fargo

The Coen Brothers created this movie about a car salesman's kidnapping scheme gone horribly wrong. Jerry Lundegaard arranges his own wife's kidnapping to extract ransom money from her father. He hires two incompetent criminals who prove unpredictable and violent.

The plan falls apart when the kidnappers murder a state trooper and two innocent individuals. A pregnant police chief, Marge Gunderson, investigates the crime in folksy Minnesota style.

The movie contrasts polite Middle Eastern culture with brutal criminal violence. This movie connects to The Roses by portraying desperate individuals making bad decisions. Both films show how greed and desperation destroy lives completely. The comedy comes from characters maintaining politeness amid destruction.

Fargo is available on Amazon Prime for viewers to watch.

7) Burn After Reading (2008)

This is another Ceon brothers' masterful creation about Washington D.C characters whose lives intersect in chaotic manners. The premise follows gym employees Chad Feldheimer and Linda Litzke, who find a disc containing CIA analyst Osbourne Cox's personal information. They attempt to sell the worthless details back to Cox for money.

Meanwhile, Linda starts an affair with married Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer. The circumstances escalate dramatically when characters kill each other over the meaningless disc. The movie satires government paranoia and civilian incompetence equally.

The movie shares The Roses' theme of people creating chaos through bad choices. Both films feature characters whose self-importance exceeds their actual potential. The comedy stems from the enormous gap between the characters' perceived reality and their perceived importance.

These are seven dark comedies to watch if you liked The Roses. Let us know in the comments section which of these is your favorite.

About the author

Mannjari Gupta is a Listicle writer in the entertainment division at Sportskeeda. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and brings four years of experience in digital media, having worked with platforms like Pocket FM, Pepper Content, FilmyFiles, and BookGeeks.

Mannjari's passion for her field is driven by her belief that different genres fuel her imagination, enhancing her writing skills. She prioritizes thorough research and ethical reporting, ensuring that her articles reflect factual information rather than personal opinions.

Fascinated by powerful female-led empires, she admires figures like the Kardashians and Martha Stewart for their ability to redefine influence and build lasting legacies. If given a time machine, she'd delve into the Kardashian universe, not for the drama but to witness their ability to transform criticism into entrepreneurial success.

Outside of writing, Mannjari is a trained classical dancer specializing in Kathak. She also enjoys reading and relaxing during her leisure time.

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Edited by Mannjari Gupta