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The Shards is a classic Bret Easton Ellis story, populated by sexy, empty monsters and punctuated by horrifying imagery. The man who gave us Less Than Zero and American Psycho knows how to deliver the icy, perverse thrills that only a show set in 1980s Los Angeles (and told from his distinct point-of-view) can give us. Whether it was the hot, dangerous characters, the neon-lit visuals, or the tense mystery and mounting sense of paranoia that you loved best, if you’re looking for more of it, there’s one movie that’s perfect for Shards fans: 2008’s The Informers.
The Informers is the perfect movie for fans of The Shards
The Informers is also adapted from the fiction of Bret Easton Ellis, it’s also set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and it’s got the same kind of sweat-slick, monied vibe as The Shards. Structured as separate narratives about characters who don’t always meet or realize how they’re connected, The Informers is centered on Graham (Jon Foster), a drifting, bisexual rich kid who deals drugs and hates his film producer father. When Graham’s friend Bruce is killed outside a party, Graham carries a trauma he can’t quite connect with, crossing paths in ways both direct and indirect with a zonked-out rock star (Mel Raido), a kid trying desperately to survive a soul-killing vacation with his father (Lou Taylor Pucci), and his girlfriend (Amber Heard) and boyfriend (Austin Nichols).
Unlike The Shards, there’s no central mystery or throughline like the Trawler. But the same sense of existential dread pervades the film—in fact, it’s easy to imagine that the Trawler is working in the background of the film’s stories, but these self-absorbed people don’t realize it because it doesn’t directly affect them. And the ending of the film is a gut punch—a horrifying moment of revelation that tells you that no matter how rich these folks are, or how attractive, or how privileged, they’re also all doomed.
So, yes, The Informers is bleaker than The Shards, following people who use drugs and bad behavior to avoid the emptiness that threatens to swallow them, but just as in the series, there’s something incredibly entertaining about watching these pretty, wealthy people make terrible decisions and do terrible things to each other and themselves. Add in a terrific cast that includes Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger, and Mickey Rourke, and you have the ideal movie for fans of the show. Rent The Informers on Prime Video.
More movies to check out if you're a fan of The Shards
If The Informers didn’t give you enough of that bleak vibe of ruined youth, don’t fret: Here are a few more movies that capture what The Shards is laying down.
Heathers (1988)
A banger of a 1980s teen comedy, Heathers has the same black heart beating at its center as The Shards—just with a little more sarcasm and a lot more Ohio than California. Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) is part of a popular clique of girls known as The Heathers, led by the ultimate Mean Girl Heather Chandler (Kim Walker). Veronica’s already conflicted about how terrible her shallow, mean-spirited friends are when she meets Jason “J.D.” Dean (Christian Slater in his Imperial Era), who openly mocks the popular kids and makes rebellion look really, really cool. But in a parallel to Bret’s suspicions about Robert in the show, J.D. is slowly revealed to be a lot more disturbed than Veronica suspected, leading to some darkly funny violence. Stream Heathers on Pluto TV or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Summer of 84 (2018)
If you really liked the serial killer angle in The Shards, check out Summer of 84. The vibe and atmosphere are very different, but it digs into that paranoid sense that someone in your circle might be a monster. In a small town in Oregon in 1984, 15-year-old Davey (Graham Verchere) comes to suspect his neighbor, a police officer named Mackey (Rich Sommer), is a serial killer responsible for the disappearance of more than a dozen kids over the previous decade. He convinces his friends to help him investigate, plunging them into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse where their main disadvantage is the fact that none of the adults around them believe a bunch of kids. If you’re looking for more stories of young people hunting serial killers, check it out. Rent Summer of 84 on Apple TV.
Cruel Intentions (1999)
If your favorite aspect of The Shards is the reptilian coolness of its rich-kid characters, look no further—it doesn’t get more reptilian than Sebastian and Kathryn (Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar). Wealthy and popular Sebastian is an expert manipulator who finds it easy to sleep with his classmates at an elite high school, and accepts a challenge to seduce the chaste and naive new girl, Annette (Reese Witherspoon). A masterclass of manipulation, emotional abuse, and unintended consequences follows, mining the same vein of decadence and corruption that made The Shards so memorable. Stream Cruel Intentions on Netflix, The Roku Channel, Kanopy, Hoopla, or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Super Dark Times (2017)
It’s a lot less glamorous than The Shards, but if you grooved on the show’s story of young people realizing they might have a monster in their midst, check out Super Dark Times. Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends in high school who share a crush on the same girl. When an accident leaves another kid dead, they panic and cover up the crime. When Josh begins behaving strangely and more kids go missing, Zach begins to suspect his friend has turned into a monster. The title of this movie pretty much sums up how the rest of the story goes. Stream Super Dark Times on The Roku Channel or Tubi, or rent it on Prime Video.
Saltburn (2023)
On the surface, Saltburn is a different kind of story from The Shards—but it trades in the same slow burn of darkness and violence among the obscenely wealthy. Oliver (Barry Keoghan) attends Oxford on a scholarship, lonely and ostracized by his much wealthier peers. When a seemingly random moment brings him into the orbit of the handsome and popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), Oliver is introduced to Catton’s dysfunctionally wealthy family at their estate, Saltburn. Oliver proceeds to reveal himself as a sociopathic Tom Ripley type who slowly invades the Cattons’ world. Just like the show, it’s really a study in how people with money live in a very different—and sometimes much darker—world than the rest of us. Rent Saltburn on Prime Video.
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