Movies like The Shadow (1954)
The best movies like The Shadow (1954) are Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (1998), Invisible Sister (2015) and The Shadow (1994). If The Shadow hooked you with its tv movie and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInvisible Sister (2015)6.7/10 from 319 votes
- NewestHalloWiebe: Overdrive (2026)Released 2026
Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (1998)
Acting Lieutenant Hornblower attempts to study for his promotion examination, but becomes distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInvisible Sister (2015)
Teenager Cleo's school science project goes quite awry, causing her popular older sister Molly to go invisible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shadow (1994)
Based on the 1930s comic strip, The Shadow is put up against his archenemy Shiwan Khan, who plans to take over the world by holding a city to ransom using an atom bomb. Using his powers of invisibility and "the power to cloud men's minds", The Shadow comes blazing to the rescue with explosive results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Sister's Secret (2018)
Twin sisters secretly swap places on their thirtieth birthday. The harmless prank becomes a nightmare when one of them is murdered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Night Stalker (1972)
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBasilisk: The Serpent King (2006)
Two millennia ago, a Lybian king has a basilisk (snake-shaped dragon), which petrifies people, subjected to the same fate with a golden scepter during a solar eclipse. Both these and several victims are dug up by modern archaeologist Harrison 'Harry' McColl's expedition. Despite a cryptic warning from tribal locals, everything goes to his Colorado university's museum. It's all exhibited during another eclipse, which leads to the monster reviving. Harry and some of his friends must try to petrify the monster again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bad Seed Returns (2022)
Several years after the murderous events of the first movie left her father dead, Emma is now living with her aunt Angela and navigating high school. Angela’s husband begins to suspect that Emma may not be as innocent as she appears and suggests sending her off to boarding school. Meanwhile, a new girl at school seems to know Emma’s secrets, leaving Emma no choice but to slip back to her old ways and take care of her enemies by any means necessary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPsych 3: This Is Gus (2021)
In preparation for a shotgun wedding before the birth of Baby Guster, Shawn and Gus go rogue in an attempt to track down Selene’s estranged husband, as Lassiter grapples with the future of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987)
In this sequel, Scott Wylde, an American kickboxer, must go to Cambodia to rescue his Vietnamese girlfriend from Russian and Vietnamese troops.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Cast A Spell On Me (2015)
Despite agreeing to an arranged marriage to a childhood friend, a successful businessman tries to track down a beautiful woman that he met at a Halloween party.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret (2013)
True story based on Jodi Arias, a seductive 28-year-old aspiring photographer found guilty of killing her former lover, Travis Alexander, who was found nude in his home shower with a slit throat, 27 additional stab wounds and a bullet to the head. While investigating the violent killing, Mesa, Arizona police retrieved a digital camera from Alexander’s washing machine, revealing shocking images authorities claim Arias took during their sexual escapades, as well as during and after his murder. While Jodi pled not guilty and contends she killed Alexander in self-defense, police concluded that when he broke off their relationship, she stalked her ex-boyfriend and seduced him one final time before murdering him in cold blood. Her subsequent trial has been grand theater, dominating the cable news networks as she testified in her own defense and offered explicit insight into the sex, lies and obsession that led up to Alexander’s murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Warrior's Way (2010)
A warrior-assassin is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCave Rescue (2019)
When a youth football team of 12 boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach is trapped deep inside a cave in Northern Thailand, thousands of volunteers and soldiers from around the world unite in a race against time to find them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKept Woman (2015)
Jessica and her fiancé Evan have just moved from the city into their dream home on a quiet suburban street. Soon after, Jessica catches her seemingly friendly new neighbor, Simon, in a strange lie and can't let her suspicions rest. The danger escalates when Simon lures her inside his home and imprisons Jessica in his secret bunker, meticulously decorated in the idealized style of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scream Team (2002)
Eccentric Frank Carlyle ran a horror shop in small-town Steeple Falls, which takes pride in and profit from its Halloween traditions. Frank's widower grandson Richard grudgingly returns there from Boston with his own kids, bright Ian and bratty Claire, to settle the inheritance. Ian discovers great-grandpa's house is really haunted, and not just, as legend holds, by historic owner Zachariah Kull, who was burned on the stake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCan Elon Musk Rule the World? (2025)
What does the world's richest man, dedicated chaos agent, and Donald Trump's new best buddy want out of politics? To shape the world? Or is it bigger than that?
Why it matches: Similar story and style
La cueva (1985)
Conejín (Little Bunny) sets off on a journey with a friend to the mysterious Guácharo Cave, unaware that mythical creatures dwell within its depths. As they explore the cavern, they uncover ancient secrets and embark on an adventure that will test their courage and friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Ghettos in the Holocaust (2023)
The gruesome story of the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe in the dark days of World War II, based on the records written by their inhabitants, who bear witness to the human tragedy of the Shoah; but also to an indomitable will to live.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Rozłam (2020)
The protagonist receives a sports bracelet for his birthday. While using the device, he discovers that increasingly strange things are happening in his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
HalloWiebe: Overdrive (2026)
When Wiebe and his team of security guards have to stop a thief from stealing an amusement park's most valuable attraction, they quickly learn this new villain is stronger than they could have imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Drowned in Hong Kong (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
The Shadow (1933)
A group of people in an old dark house are terrorized by a mysterious hooded figure dressed in black who proceeds to kill them off one by one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Invisible Avenger (1958)
Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow, investigates the murder of a New Orleans bandleader.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Shadow Strikes (1937)
Lamont Cranston assumes his secret identity as "The Shadow", to break up an attempted robbery at an attorney's office. When the police search the scene, Cranston must assume the identity of the attorney. Before he can leave, a phone call summons the attorney to the home of Delthern, a wealthy client, who wants a new will drawn up. As Cranston meets with him, Delthern is suddenly shot, and Cranston is quickly caught up in a new mystery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Shadow?
The closest matches to The Shadow are Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (1998), Invisible Sister (2015) and The Shadow (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Shadow?
Start with Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (1998), the closest match to The Shadow.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Shadow?
Invisible Sister (2015), rated 6.7/10 by 319 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Shadow?
HalloWiebe: Overdrive (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Shadow?
Yes: Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant (1998), Invisible Sister (2015) and The Shadow (1994).
How are movies similar to The Shadow chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Shadow, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.