Movies like Play Dead (1983)
The best movies like Play Dead (1983) are The Dogs (2025), Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) and Deranged (1974). If Play Dead hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHereditary (2018)7.3/10 from 9,088 votes
- NewestThe Dogs (2025)Released 2025
The Dogs (2025)
After fleeing his psychotic father, a young teen and his mom seek refuge in a remote farmhouse, only to face a pack of ferocious dogs and the sinister spirits that haunt the property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDevil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)
A canine minion of Satan terrorizes an unsuspecting suburban family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeranged (1974)
A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies, he misses her, and a year later digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based loosely on the true story of Ed Gein.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCurse of Chucky (2013)
After her mother's mysterious death, Nica begins to suspect that the talking, red-haired doll her visiting niece has been playing with may be the key to the mounting bloodshed and chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Not a Serial Killer (2016)
In a small Midwestern town, a troubled teen with homicidal tendencies must hunt down and destroy a supernatural killer while keeping his own inner demons at bay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrahms: The Boy II (2020)
After a family moves into the Heelshire Mansion, their young son soon makes friends with a life-like doll called Brahms.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCult of Chucky (2017)
Confined to an asylum for the criminally insane for the past four years, Nica is wrongly convinced that she, not Chucky, murdered her entire family... until a string of grisly deaths occur after her psychiatrist introduces a new group therapy tool -- a "Good Guy" doll.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wrath of Becky (2023)
Two years after she escaped a violent attack on her family, 16-year-old Becky attempts to rebuild her life in the care of an older woman -- a kindred spirit named Elena. However, when a violent group known as the Noble Men break into their home, attack them and take their beloved dog, Becky must return to her old ways to protect herself and her loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPiglet (2025)
On Kate's 21st birthday camping trip, her friends encounter Piglet, a monstrous human-pig hybrid who brutally murders one of them. They uncover Piglet's origins and Kate must confront her past to survive the relentless killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Prowler (1981)
Thirty years after a murder on the night of Avalon Bay's graduation dance, the sleepy town's teens meet grisly ends at the hands of a prowler once thought to be a jilted soldier home from war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNightmare at Shadow Woods (1987)
Twins Todd and Terry seem like sweet boys -- that is, until one of them takes an axe to the face of a fellow patron at the local drive-in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Based on Wes Craven's 1977 suspenseful cult classic, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carter family soon realizes the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family...and they are the prey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Seasoning House (2012)
The Seasoning House - where young girls are prostituted to the military. An orphaned deaf mute is enslaved to care for them. She moves between the walls and crawlspaces, planning her escape. Planning her ingenious and brutal revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisOddity (2024)
After the brutal murder of her twin sister, Darcy goes after those responsible by using haunted items as her tools for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPet Sematary (1989)
After the Creed family's cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightmares (1983)
A collection of short stories. In one a woman who leaves her house late at night to drive to the store while a killer is loose encounters some problems. In the second an arcade whiz kid's obsession with a game leads to deadly consequences. In the third a small town priest loses his faith and decides to leave town, but in the desert is stalked by a mysterious black pick-up truck. In the final story, a family's problem with a rat is larger than they think.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Children (2008)
A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisVampires (1998)
The church enlists a team of vampire-hunters to hunt down and destroy a group of vampires searching for an ancient relic that will allow them to exist in sunlight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Wax (2005)
A group of unwitting teens are stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntisocial Behaviour (2007)
Jakob Kelser is a lonely man living in a run-down house on the edge of a council estate. After enduring weeks of aggrevation and torment from local youths , Jacob, in a last-ditch attempt to once again lead a normal life, plots his revenge on his unsuspecting tormentors. One by one, they're be taught a lesson. One by one, they meet their deaths.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Five years after the horrible bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, new counselors roam the area, not sensing the ominous lurking presence that proves that the grisly legend is real.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th Part III (1982)
An idyllic summer turns into a nightmare of unspeakable terror for yet another group of naïve friends. Ignoring Camp Crystal Lake's bloody legacy, one by one they fall victim to the maniacal Jason, who stalks them at every turn...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisFriday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
After his revival in a hospital morgue, Jason fixes his vengeful attention on the Jarvis family and a group of hitherto carefree teenagers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Homicidal maniac Jason returns from the grave to cause more bloody mayhem. Young Tommy may have escaped from Crystal Lake, but he’s still haunted by the gruesome events that happened there. When gory murders start happening at the secluded halfway house for troubled teens where he now lives, it seems like his nightmarish nemesis, Jason, is back for more sadistic slaughters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Butcher (2006)
A tragic car accident in the middle of nowhere finds six stranded college students fighting for their lives after making a horrifying discovery in a remote farmhouse in director Edward Gorsuch's rural frightener. With no place to run and no police station for miles, these doomed students are about to discover that down home hospitality is the last thing on the minds of the murderous family who stalks them through the woods.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisTamara (2005)
Tamara, an unattractive girl who is picked on by her peers, returns after her death as a sexy seductress to enact revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisFriday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood (1988)
Tina Shepard, a telekinetic teenage girl, accidentally unchains Jason from his watery grave, allowing him to go on another killing spree in the area.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Play Dead?
The closest matches to Play Dead are The Dogs (2025), Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) and Deranged (1974). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Play Dead?
Start with The Dogs (2025), the closest match to Play Dead.
What is the highest-rated movie like Play Dead?
Hereditary (2018), rated 7.3/10 by 9,088 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Play Dead?
The Dogs (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Play Dead?
Yes: The Dogs (2025), Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) and Deranged (1974).
How are movies similar to Play Dead chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Play Dead, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.