Movies like Poltergeist III (1988)
The best movies like Poltergeist III (1988) are Candyman (2021), Damien - Omen II (1978) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986). If Poltergeist III hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)7.7/10 from 1,039 votes
- NewestInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)Released 2026
Candyman (2021)
A Chicago artist's sanity starts to unravel, unleashing a terrifying wave of violence when he begins to explore the macabre history of the Candyman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDamien - Omen II (1978)
Since the sudden and suspicious deaths of his parents, young Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle and enrolled in a military school. Widely feared to be the Antichrist, he relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's business empire — and the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
The Freeling family move in with Diane's mother in an effort to escape the trauma and aftermath of Carol Anne's abduction by the Beast. But the Beast is not to be put off so easily and appears in a ghostly apparition as the Reverend Kane, a religious zealot responsible for the deaths of his many followers. His goal is simple - he wants the angelic Carol Anne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalloween (2018)
Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalloween Ends (2022)
Four years after the events of Halloween in 2018, Laurie has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious: The Red Door (2023)
To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh Lambert and a college-aged Dalton Lambert must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family's dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApartment 7A (2024)
A struggling young dancer finds herself drawn in by dark forces when a peculiar, well-connected older couple promise her a shot at fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious (2011)
A family discovers that dark spirits have invaded their home after their son inexplicably falls into an endless sleep. When they reach out to a professional for help, they learn things are a lot more personal than they thought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInsidious: The Last Key (2018)
Parapsychologist Elise Rainier and her team travel to Five Keys, NM, to investigate a man’s claim of a haunting. Terror soon strikes when Rainier realizes that the house he lives in was her family’s old home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)
Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, discovers she can travel into The Further, where she possesses an ability to bring what lives there back to the real world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSinners (2025)
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Deliverance (2024)
Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her personal demons, moves her family into a new home for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParanormal Activity 2 (2010)
Just as Daniel and Kristi welcome a newborn baby into their home, a demonic presence begins terrorizing them, tearing apart their perfect world and turning it into an inescapable nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisParanormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)
Margot is a documentary filmmaker looking to meet her long-lost mother and extended family in a secluded Amish community. She and her film crew soon realize the family that welcomes them into their home might be hiding a sinister secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vigil (2020)
A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisAnnabelle: Creation (2017)
Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the doll maker's possessed creation—Annabelle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnnabelle Comes Home (2019)
Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens' ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Ben (2016)
Tom Riley thought he was getting the deal of a lifetime when he bought a house below market value at a Sheriff's sale. He invested every penny he had with the plan of flipping the home for a profit. Once he owned it, however, he noticed strange happenings, all of which were captured on 21 Surveillance Cameras located throughout the home inside and out. At first, he thought people were breaking in, but he soon realized he was dealing with something Paranormal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Soul Eater (2024)
When the disappearance of children and bloody murders multiply in a small mountain village, an old legend shrouded in sulphur reappears... Commander Guardiano and Captain of the Gendarmerie De Rolan are forced to join forces to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBen (1972)
A lonely boy becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPooka Lives! (2020)
A group of thirty-something friends from high school create their own Creepypasta about Pooka for laughs, but are shocked when it becomes so viral on the internet that it actually manifests more murdererous versions of the creature.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Son of Kong (1933)
Beleaguered adventurer Carl Denham returns to the island where he found King Kong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisShutter (2025)
After a senior analog photographer discovers the spectral image of a former college student haunting his photos and coming to life, his girlfriend investigates the phantom, uncovering a horrific past crime that is now claiming his friends' lives one by one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
3 from Hell (2019)
After barely surviving a furious shootout with the police, Baby Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Captain Spaulding are behind bars. But pure evil cannot be contained. Teaming up with Otis’ half-brother Winslow, the demented Firefly clan escape to unleash a whole new wave of murder, madness and mayhem.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSilent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989)
Ricky Caldwell, the notorious 'Killer Santa Claus', awakens from a six-year coma after being kept alive on life-support by a slightly crazed doctor experimenting with ESP and other special abilities. Ricky targets a young, clairvoyant blind woman, named Laura, whom is traveling with her brother Chris, and his girlfriend Jerri to their grandmother's house for Christmas Eve, and Ricky decides to go after her, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisFading of the Cries (2009)
Jacob, a young man armed with a deadly sword, saves Sarah, a teenage girl, from Mathias, a malevolent evil that has begun plaguing a small farmland town while in search of an ancient necklace that had belonged to Sarah's uncle. Jacob sets out to get Sarah home safely, running through streets, fields, churches and underground tunnels, while being pursued by hordes of demonic creatures. Along the way, both come to terms with the demons within themselves - Sarah begins to understand her hatred towards her mother and sister may be unjustified and Jacob discovers the secrets of his past, realizing the only way to truly defeat the demons is to return to the very place his family was murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Scream Blacula Scream (1973)
After an aging voodoo priestess dies, her arrogant son Willis Daniel's believes he is next in line to lead. He is outraged when Lisa, his mother's adopted apprentice is chosen as the leader. Willis seeks revenge by reviving the African prince Blacula — but soon finds that he cannot control him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Poltergeist III and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Poltergeist III?
The closest matches to Poltergeist III are Candyman (2021), Damien - Omen II (1978) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Poltergeist III?
Start with Candyman (2021), the closest match to Poltergeist III.
What is the highest-rated movie like Poltergeist III?
Insidious: Out of the Further (2026), rated 7.7/10 by 1,039 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Poltergeist III?
Insidious: Out of the Further (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Poltergeist III?
Yes: Candyman (2021), Damien - Omen II (1978) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).
How are movies similar to Poltergeist III chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Poltergeist III, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.