10 Movies To Watch If You Love Dead To Me

The show Dead to Me, created by Liz Feldman and starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, premiered on Netflix in 2019 and was an instant success. This dark comedy takes a look at grief and loss, female friendships, single parenting, murder, and does it all with a little bit of, sometimes inappropriate, humor.

In July of 2020, it was announced that the series would be renewed for a third and final season. While fans anxiously await the new season to see how Jen and Judy navigate all their self-inflicted drama, here are a few movies to watch that might hold you over until the third season premiere.

10 Knives Out

One of the most brilliant things about the series Dead to Me is the way it handles tragic circumstances and grief. Jen and Judy meet at a grief group, which Jen is attending because her husband was killed in a hit and run.

The critically acclaimed film, Knives Out, written and directed by Rian Johnson, also deals with death in an enlightening, and even humorous kind of way that makes it relatable and also more human and nuanced.

9 A Simple Favor

More recently, audiences are seeing female-led productions and female duos starring on television and in films. Dead to Me has a wonderful group of powerful, creative females both in front of and behind the camera.

If you’re looking for a solid group of women to entertain you, A Simple Favor starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively should be at the top of your list. Kendrick and Lively, like Applegate and Cardellini, have terrific on-screen chemistry in this film.

8 Rough Night

Like Dead to Me this female-led feature film makes audiences laugh at murder. Rough Night, starring Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKenna, Zoe Kravitz, Jillian Bell, and Ilana Glazer is about a group of girls who were best fiends in college and reunite ten years later for Scarlett Johansson’s character, Jess’ bachelorette party.

A male stripper comes to the party to entertain the woman but ends up falling and hitting his head in a freak accident that kills him and sends the women on a night full of adventure.

7 Bad Moms

In Dead to Me, Christina Applegate’s character, Jen finds herself suddenly a single parent after her husband’s tragic death. Jen is doing the best she can with a teenage son and another younger son, but she welcomes help from Judy once Judy moves in.

In Bad Moms Applegate plays a picture-perfect parent to the point where it’s obnoxious and the “bad moms” in the film mock her and her type-A, judgmental personality, rightfully so.

6 Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead

For true blue Christina Applegate fans, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, is a classic. Christina Applegate has been acting for decades, getting her start at a very young age.

In this 1901 film, a young Applegate plays Sue Ellen or “Swell” for short, who must take care of her siblings while their mom is away from the summer and their elderly babysitter dies in her sleep. Swell steps up, gets a job, and learns all about responsibility in one crazy summer.

5 Dead Man On Campus

This is another film that gets audiences to laugh in the face of death, even when they know they really shouldn’t. In this film, Mark Paul Gossler and Tom Everett Scott play two failing college students, Cooper and Josh, who put an old rumor to the test.

They hear that if your roommate dies while you’re in school, you are automatically given straight A’s. Desperate to pass their classes, Cooper and Josh will do just about anything for good grades.

4 The Best Of Me

One of the best parts of Dead to Me is James Marsden. Marsden plays Steve, Judy’s love interest, and a very wealthy man who Jen meets when she offers to sell his home.

Marsden is wonderfully charming in this series and his chemistry with Linda Cardellini is palpable. For fans who just want more James Marsden, check him out in The Best of Me a film based on a Nicholas’ Sparks novel that will make you swoon even harder for this heartthrob.

3 Death At A Funeral

Death at a Funeral has been made twice. First, as a British comedy starring Matthew MacFayden and Andy Nyman, and then again in an American version directed by Neil Labute and starring Chris Rock.

This film pokes fun at a dysfunctional family and all of its elements, but takes place during a funeral, pushing the boundaries on comedy and the family dynamic all at the same time, which Dead to Me fan will definitely get a kick out of.

2 Three Billboards Outside Of Ebbing, Missouri

Audiences and critics alike praise Dead to Me for its strong, well-written female characters and the creators behind them.

For those viewers, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri should be high on your queue, if only for the brilliant performance by the powerful and commanding Francis McDormand, who won an Oscar for her performance in this film. The film also deals with tragedy and the way a woman shows true strength in her most vulnerable moments.

1 Ghost

This early 90’s feature film, starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, has all the same themes as Dead to Me. It has love, loss, women helping women, and it will make you cry just as hard as it will make you laugh.

It’s one of the most well-rounded films which helps with its staying power and the way this film is able to gain new fans even thirty years after its initial release. Once you see this film, you wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up on Jen and Judy’s must-see list too.

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