Movies like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground (2023)
The best movies like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground (2023) are Abducted in Plain Sight (2017), Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025). If The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAthlete A (2020)7.5/10 from 299 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)
A family falls prey to the manipulative charms of a neighbor, who abducts their adolescent daughter. Twice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025)
Aileen Wuornos remains a rarity: a female serial killer. From childhood abuse to death-row revelations, this documentary revisits her life and crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPredators (2025)
In the mid-aughts, Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator drew millions of weekly viewers to watch sting operations: men planning to meet minors for sex would instead be confronted by polished host Chris Hansen, then by the police — all on hidden camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Picture (2022)
A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Imposter (2012)
In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAthlete A (2020)
Follow the Indianapolis Star reporters that broke the story about USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's abuse and hear from gymnasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America (2023)
Survivors, whistleblowers, and experts recount the Boy Scouts of America's decadeslong cover-up of sexual abuse cases and its heartbreaking impact.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKidnapped: Elizabeth Smart (2026)
Elizabeth Smart's harrowing abduction at 14 from her family's Utah home unfolds through her own words and never-before-seen material in this documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCapturing the Friedmans (2003)
An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMommy Dead and Dearest (2017)
Child abuse, mental illness, and forbidden love converge in this mystery involving a mother and daughter who were thought to be living a fairy tale life that turned out to be a living nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeliver Us from Evil (2006)
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaternal Instinct (2026)
Police pull over a woman who claims she just gave birth. But the baby — and the blood — aren't hers. Twisted lies unravel in this true-crime documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl Model (2011)
A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012)
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Toxic Love Story (2026)
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crash (2026)
A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVictim/Suspect (2023)
Investigative journalist Rae de Leon travels nationwide to uncover and examine a shocking pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me (2023)
From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWho Killed These Women? (The Tinley Park 5) (TBA)
"Who Killed These Women?" is an intense examination into the largest unsolved mass shooting in modern day America today. On Feb 2, 2008 a killer executed five women inside a Lane Bryant department store in suburban Chicago. One person managed to survive as she shifted her head at the last second as the bullet grazed her neck.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Akte Münsterlandmörder (2022)
4 women, murdered and forgotten. About a serial killer who kept the Münsterland and its surrounding regions in fear from 1971 to 1974 and then disappeared without a trace. The film uncovers new theories and provides possible answers to the questions: Who was this unknown? Who knows the truth?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Crimes Against Humanity (2017)
A reflection about the urgent necessity of a Universal Jurisdiction enabled to act where other initiatives fail. We are resolved to give voice to the forgotten victims of the Spanish Franco regime and determined to become an agent of change for the dissemination of some events which have left a mark on the Spanish society and which are still unknown nowadays by most of the population, who thinks to know them, but actually got a manipulated version in the best-case scenario.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Renée Nyberg: Terrorist Attack in Bali (2021)
Renée Nyberg meets the man behind the terrorist act in Bali in 2002 and the Swedes who were there and fought for their survival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Words to Tell You (2025)
Mariam, Asiya, and Anissa were 11, 7, and 5 years old when they were raped. The attackers were their paternal uncle, a neighborhood youth, and the nanny's son. They have no memory of the event. To protect them, their bodies developed traumatic amnesia. Years later, the memories returned, and they decided to file a complaint.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)
After Kai saves a woman's life, he turns into an overnight hero and viral sensation — until disturbing truths about his erratic behavior come to light. This shocking documentary chronicles a happy-go-lucky nomad's ascent to viral stardom and the resulting steep downward spiral.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnraveled: The Stalker's Web (2021)
Co-hosts Alexis Linkletter and Billy Jensen return for Unraveled: The Stalker's Web to track the multi-decade wrath of one of the most prolific stalkers to ever prowl the cyberworld. Compiling upwards of fifty victims, this online predator unleashed vicious attacks that cost people their livelihoods, destroyed their marriages, and drove some toward suicide. And when he can target anyone, anywhere—who will he come for next? Alexis Linkletter and Billy Jensen investigate his trail of destruction to unmask this deadly threat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
NCR: Not Criminally Responsible (2013)
NCR: Not Criminally Responsible tells the story of a troubled young man who stabbed a complete stranger 6 times in a crowded shopping mall while gripped by psychosis. Twelve years later, his victim, who miraculously survived, is terrified to learn that he's out, living in the community under supervision. He's applying for an absolute discharge, and if he succeeds, he'll no longer be required to take the anti-psychotic drugs that control his mental illness. With unprecedented access to the patient, the victim, and the mental institution, the film looks at both sides of the debate and puts a human face on the complex ethical issues raised.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
I Shot Andy Warhol: SCUM Manifesto (2024)
New York, June 3, 1968. Valerie Solanas enters the Factory, Andy Warhol's studio, and fires three shots at him, who miraculously survives, but is seriously wounded. What led this woman to try to kill the famous pop artist, as well as to write a manifesto calling for the eradication of men?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Crossbow Murders: The Killings That Shocked Britain (2025)
Uncover the chilling true story of Kyle Clifford, a 26-year-old ex-soldier whose brutal murders of Carol, Louise, and Hannah Hunt shocked Britain. This documentary delves into the heinous crimes that led to his life sentence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground?
The closest matches to The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground are Abducted in Plain Sight (2017), Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground?
Start with Abducted in Plain Sight (2017), the closest match to The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground?
Athlete A (2020), rated 7.5/10 by 299 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground?
Yes: Abducted in Plain Sight (2017), Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers (2025) and Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025).
How are movies similar to The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Girl in the Cellar: 8 Years Underground, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.