Movies like The Sandman (1981)
The best movies like The Sandman (1981) are The Woman in Black (1989), The Fair Haired Child (2006) and Roadkill (2011). If The Sandman hooked you with its horror and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSuccubus (2024)8.3/10 from 279 votes
- NewestGantung: Musketeer Code (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianThe Fifth Cord (1971)Also in Italian
The Woman in Black (1989)
A lawyer travels to a small seaside town to settle the estate of a recently deceased woman, but soon becomes ensnared in something much more sinister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fair Haired Child (2006)
A creepy couple kidnaps a teenage outcast and locks her in their basement with their seemingly kindhearted adolescent son - who harbors a terrifying secret involving the forces of evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisRoadkill (2011)
Six young friends on a road trip in Ireland run afoul of gypsies who curse them for accidentally running down an old woman. The curse takes the form of a terrifying flying beast that tries killing them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies 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 · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Horror House (2012)
On Halloween night, a sorority house is overrun with ghosts, while a vengeful housemother goes on a killing spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDreams in the Witch House (2005)
A college student renting an old room in a boarding house discovers a plot by sinister, otherworldly forces to sacrifice his neighbor's infant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It (2007)
Cassie, a 13 year old Gothic girl, is trying to fit in at her new school. To entertain herself, she plays a series of pranks on the popular kids and her younger brother, Max. When she goes to a Halloween store looking for new tricks, she finds a little book called "The Evil Thing"
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery (1989)
While on vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies, Miss Marple correctly suspects that the apparently natural death of a retired British major is actually the work of a murderer planning yet another killing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Sister (2015)
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a fatal attraction to Zoe's brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boogeyman (2023)
Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, a teenage girl and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it’s too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDr. Strange (1978)
A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInfidelity in Suburbia (2017)
With her husband away at work, and her son at school, Laura dreams of a home-renovation project to supplant her restless days. Elliott, her irresistibly hot private contractor, soon fulfills her more forbidden dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod Is a Bullet (2023)
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington (1987)
Travelling on the 4.50 from Paddington, Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on a passing train - but where is the body?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuccubus (2024)
A new father going through a marital separation joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman... whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRace with the Devil (1975)
Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhisper (2007)
Sinister things begin happening to kidnappers who are holding a young boy for ransom in a remote cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shed (2019)
The story of Stan, an orphaned teenager stuck living with his abusive grandfather and tasked with routinely protecting his best friend from high school bullies. When Stan discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside the tool shed in his backyard, he tries to secretly battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers the creature and has a far more sinister plan in mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Fifth Cord (1971)
A journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer who's been targeting people around him, while the police are considering him a suspect in their investigation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEin Mord liegt auf der Hand (1983)
What good is having a title of nobility if you're practically broke? Count Carl-Enno zu Wutzbach therefore comes up with the idea of marrying off his daughter Sylvia. He has chosen brewery owner Oscar Betzel as her husband. But then a fortune teller makes him an eerie prediction: he will commit murder!
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Gantung: Musketeer Code (2025)
Four best friends accused of being the cause of the death of a female student who hanged herself in the school auditorium.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Cinderella (1997)
Cinderella chafes under the cruelty of her wicked stepmother and her evil stepsisters, until her Fairy Godmother steps in to change her life for one unforgettable night. At the ball, she falls for handsome Prince Christopher, whose parents, King Maximillian and Queen Constantina, are anxious for him to find a suitable paramour.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Christmas Miracle for Daisy (2021)
Whitney Alder owns interior design firm Marietta Designs, which she runs with her friend Andi in the small town of Marietta, Montana. Whitney is designing Santa’s float for the annual Marietta Christmas Parade when a potential job opportunity comes her way: the full redesign of a landmark home by Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisWillard (1971)
A social misfit, Willard is made fun of by his co-workers, and squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father by his boss. His only friends are a couple of rats he raised at home, Ben and Socrates. However, when one of them is killed at work, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack those who have been tormenting him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Caller (1965)
The inhabitants of Ganymede need to find mates from another world or they will become extinct. They soon discover a suitable breeding stock amongst the females of planet Earth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1976)
A group of old friends have a tradition of going to a public bathing house on New Year's Eve. Occasionally too much vodka and beer makes two of them unconscious. The problem is that one of them (Sasha) has to go to Leningrad but another one (Zhenya) goes. Zhenya wakes up at Leningrad airport. Believing that he is still in Moscow he takes a taxi and goes home. The street name, building and even apartment number, the way an apartment complex looks the same and the key coincide completely - just typical Soviet-type 'economy' architecture. Imagine the surprise of Nadya when she enters her apartment and finds a man without trousers in her bed. What's more - Nadya's fiancé also finds him there...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrim: el asesinato de la calle del Turco (2014)
Madrid, Spain, December 27, 1870. General Juan Prim i Prats, president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of War gets involved in a treacherous ambush, is mortal injured and dies three days later. A mystery, a conspiracy, a murder that was never solved.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like The Sandman and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Sandman?
The closest matches to The Sandman are The Woman in Black (1989), The Fair Haired Child (2006) and Roadkill (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Sandman?
Start with The Woman in Black (1989), the closest match to The Sandman.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Sandman?
Succubus (2024), rated 8.3/10 by 279 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Sandman?
Gantung: Musketeer Code (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Sandman?
Yes: The Fifth Cord (1971).
How are movies similar to The Sandman chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Sandman, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.