Few love stories feel as emotionally combustible as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, where the characters' longing lingers just like the fog over the moors, and it becomes hard to tell the difference between desire and destruction. Several filmmakers have tried to capture the same type of feverish intensity over the years, with director Emerald Fennell offering up her own version of "Wuthering Heights," starring Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff.
While the film took some serious liberties when adapting the source material, it pushed the book's passion into even more intimate territory. In general, today's steamy dramas, which you can watch on Netflix, HBO Max and more, aren't just about forbidden love. Instead, they also explore things like power and identity in ways that feel contemporary while echoing Brontë's book. Here are six movies that are steamier than "Wuthering Heights" if you want something similar.
Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)
Lady Chatterley's Lover tells the story of Constance Reid (Emma Corrin), a frustrated woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who begins a secret affair with Oliver Mellors (Jack O'Connell). As their connection grows from tentative curiosity into a proper relationship, class divisions and social expectations close in, forcing Constance to decide whether passion is worth the cost of freedom.
Based on D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel of the same name, this adaptation thrives on softness and subtle rebellion to create its sensual atmosphere. It's unabashedly romantic in a way many modern dramas avoid, making its intimacy feel real instead of indulgent. The movie also understands that yearning is hottest when it's emotionally earned. It's a must for viewers who enjoyed Intimacy (2001).
Deep Water (2022)
Deep Water follows Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda Van Allen (Ana de Armas), a wealthy couple whose bleak marriage is held together by a carefully negotiated infidelity arrangement that allows Melinda to seek passion elsewhere. But when her lovers start to disappear, Vic becomes the main suspect. Over time, desire and menace blur until their actual marriage becomes a psychological game.
Glossy, strange, and deliberately uncomfortable, the film treats eroticism like a weapon rather than something romantic and comforting. Its slow burn won't satisfy everyone, but the brazen way in which the film centers kink and jealousy inside suburban normalcy makes Deep Water fascinating. It's ideal for fans of 2014's Gone Girl-style relationship mind games who like their romance edged with danger.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande follows former schoolteacher Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson), who has lived most of her life inside rules so familiar they almost felt like furniture. Recently widowed and quietly dissatisfied, she hires Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), a younger sex worker whose calm confidence unsettles her in ways she didn't quite expect and maybe wouldn't have admitted to wanting.
Rather than chasing heat in the obvious sense, the film focuses on the fragile courage it takes to ask for pleasure. There's a vulnerability to the storytelling that occasionally circles the same emotions, though somehow that repetition feels honest. The movie is best suited for viewers who connected with the emotional candor of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019).
Sanctuary (2022)
Set inside an expensive hotel room, Sanctuary tells the story of Hal Porterfield (Christopher Abbott), a wealthy heir, and Rebecca Marin (Margaret Qualley), the dominatrix he hires for what seems like a familiar role-play. But when the lines that were supposed to be clear start smudging at the edges, it becomes difficult to tell who is really in control of the arrangement.
The film moves with a kind of theatrical sharpness, where all the dialogue and glances last a fraction too long. It's also oddly funny in places where laughter feels slightly unsafe, which is probably the point. By the end, the question isn't about who wins exactly, but whether winning was ever the right game to begin with. Sanctuary is ideal for viewers who enjoy movies with a push-pull psychological dynamic.
Fair Play (2023)
Fair Play follows Emily Meyers (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke Edmunds (Alden Ehrenreich), a couple who work at the same hedge fund, where ambition lurks beneath polite conversation. When Emily lands an unexpected promotion instead of Luke, their celebration gives way to sideways creeping resentment. But their desire for each other doesn't disappear. Instead, it starts sharing the same space with competition.
What's striking about the film is how ordinary the couple's unraveling feels. There are no major betrayals at first. Only tiny recalibrations of tone since the film understands that romance can sour through pressure no one remembers turning on. At times, it almost feels too tense to watch comfortably, making it perfect for fans of 2019's Marriage Story.
Babygirl (2024)
Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) appears to have constructed a life that fits together cleanly in Babygirl, with the perfect career and an enviable marriage. When a young intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson) enters her orbit, the balance she's maintained with such careful posture begins to tilt in ways that are subtle at first and then not subtle at all.
The film occasionally threatens to smooth over its messier emotions, though when it lets the chaos show, the story becomes far more interesting. Unlike other movies, the desire between Romy and Samuel isn't liberating in any simple sense. Some scenes go on longer than they strictly need to, but viewers who enjoyed the moral ambiguity of Eyes Wide Shut (1999) will find it entertaining.
