Movies like The Specter of Terror (1973)
The best movies like The Specter of Terror (1973) are In a Glass Cage (1986), The Return (2006) and Raging Grace (2023). If The Specter of Terror hooked you with its thriller and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedColombiana (2011)6.7/10 from 2,995 votes
- NewestSweetest Day (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishIn a Glass Cage (1986)Also in Spanish
In a Glass Cage (1986)
A mysterious teenager named Ángelo cares for Klaus, a German doctor with a dark past who lives trapped in an iron lung.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return (2006)
Joanna Mills has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father, and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRaging Grace (2023)
An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Thing Mary Saw (2021)
Winter, 1843. A young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family's matriarch. Her recollection of the events sheds new light on the ageless forces behind the tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath's Roulette (2023)
Seven strangers wake up in a mansion in the middle of nowhere to discover they are part of a twisted game. They will have 60 minutes to choose one person to die; otherwise, all of them will be murdered. As the clock ticks down, the most lurid secrets will come to light, and they’ll discover they are all connected by a dark past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHypnotic (2021)
A young woman seeking self-improvement enlists the help of a renowned hypnotist but, after a handful of intense sessions, discovers unexpected and deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLa Civil (2021)
Cielo is a mother whose teenage daughter is kidnapped in Northern Mexico. When the authorities offer no support in the search, Cielo takes matters into her own hands and transforms from housewife into a vengeful militant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Crooked Somebody (2018)
An attention-seeking psychic is kidnapped and tries to use the situation to boost his popularity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCutter's Way (1981)
Alex Cutter is a boozy, belligerent and deeply cynical Vietnam veteran whose encounter with a landmine during the war has left him minus an eye, a leg and an arm. When his drifter playboy friend Richard Bone is falsely accused of murder, Cutter sets out for revenge in his own inimitable style.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sleeping Woman (2024)
Ana, a nursing assistant, begins to feel attracted to Agustín, the husband of the woman in a vegetative state that she has been hired to take care of. Soon she begins to be harassed by strange paranormal phenomena that seem to try to throw her out of the house and separate her from Agustín.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDear Mr. Gacy (2010)
A chronicle of the interaction between college student Jason Moss and the object of his obsession, serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLost in the Night (2023)
A young man from a small mining town embroils himself with a wealthy family with a dubious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisErótica (1979)
Two men commit a robbery. One is caught but the other escapes. He ends his escape on a lonely and deserted beach where he meets a beautiful woman named Erótica. They start a passionate love affair that is interrupted when the other con man escapes from prison and joins them. A sexual/sentimental love triangle begins leading to a violent confrontation between the two men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Names of God (2023)
After being implicated in a terrorist attack, Santi, a taxi driver, is taken hostage by one of the perpetrators.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColombiana (2011)
After witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, Cataleya Restrepo grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents' death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this5150 Elm's Way (2009)
Yannick moves to a small, quiet town to study cinema. One day when he fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu and his family had other plans for Yannick. Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatic chess player who wants to rid the world of evil. And even though Ian has done nothing wrong, he is beaten, tortured and tormented before Beaulieu makes him an offer: win at chess and he is free to go. And so Ian is now a pawn in Beaulieu 's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bedroom Window (1987)
Baltimore, Maryland. Sylvia sees a girl being attacked from her lover Terry's bedroom window. The assailant flees and his victim is saved. But that same night another girl is found murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
When hundreds of videotapes showing torture, murder and dismemberment are found in an abandoned house, they reveal a serial killer's decade-long reign of terror and become the most disturbing collection of evidence homicide detectives have ever seen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHero and the Terror (1988)
Danny O'Brien is back in action fighting the notorious Simon Moon, also known as The Terror. Three years earlier O'Brien had single-handedly captured The Terror and was called Hero by the people of L.A. Now Simon has escaped and has started killing women again, and O'Brien is the only man who can stop him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisAtrocious (2018)
After they're arrested, the horrific crimes of two serial killers are revealed via confiscated videotapes. These tapes contain brutal murders displaying pure human wickedness, the background, paraphilias and psyche of these murderers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerrified (1995)
Traumatized after witnessing her jealous husband kill her adulterous lover and then himself, an unbalanced, nymphomaniac young woman finds herself stalked by an unknown assailant, but she cannot make anyone believe her desperate situation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Sweetest Day (2026)
‘Survivor girl’ Mindy prepares for the battle of her life against the undead confederate soldier that nearly killed her once before.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Killing for Love (1995)
A group of movie people, director, screenwriter, producer, actors and actresses meet for a weekend at a remote house. Proceedings soon begin to resemble a typical slasher film: couples pair off, have sex, and get either murdered or abducted
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Sleepless (2001)
An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBorderland (2007)
Three college students, Phil, Ed, and Henry take a road trip into Mexico for a week of drinking and carefree fun only to have Phil find himself a captive of a group of satanic Mexican drug smugglers who kill tourists and whom are looking for a group of new ones to prepare for a sacrifice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like The Specter of Terror and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Specter of Terror?
The closest matches to The Specter of Terror are In a Glass Cage (1986), The Return (2006) and Raging Grace (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Specter of Terror?
Start with In a Glass Cage (1986), the closest match to The Specter of Terror.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Specter of Terror?
Colombiana (2011), rated 6.7/10 by 2,995 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Specter of Terror?
Sweetest Day (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Specter of Terror?
Yes: In a Glass Cage (1986), Death's Roulette (2023) and La Civil (2021).
How are movies similar to The Specter of Terror chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Specter of Terror, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.