Movies like Return to the Theatre of Terror (2023)
The best movies like Return to the Theatre of Terror (2023) are Whisper (2007), The Evil (1978) and Z (2019). If Return to the Theatre of Terror 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 ratedCaddo Lake (2024)7.2/10 from 625 votes
- NewestSpace/Time (2025)Released 2025
Whisper (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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Evil (1978)
Shortly after moving into a dark, brooding mansion, a psychologist and his co-workers are terrorized by a horrible evil being.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisZ (2019)
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEradication (2022)
When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Let Go (2019)
A detective suffering from a personal loss receives a call from his recently deceased niece. Being able to communicate across time, the two work together to try and stop the crime before it occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrawlers (2020)
On Saint Patrick's day—a night of wild parties and drunken revelry—three unlikely friends band together to save a college town from a vicious horde of body-snatching aliens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisWake Up (2024)
A group of young activists set out to make an environmental statement by vandalizing a home superstore as it closes. But their plan goes terribly wrong when they become trapped inside and must face a deranged security guard with a gruesome passion for primitive hunting. As the night fills with violence and terror, the teenagers find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloodline Killer (2024)
Moira Cole endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after her family's murder at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Signal (2014)
On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness – only to find himself in a waking nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvaders from Mars (1953)
A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Time Shifters (1999)
Tom Merrick gets caught up in a time-traveling conspiracy and must set the timeline right before it is irrevocably altered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this57 Seconds (2023)
When a tech blogger lands an interview with a tech guru and stops an attack on him, he finds a mysterious ring that takes him back 57 seconds into the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImpostor (2001)
A top-secret government weapons designer is arrested by a clandestine government organization on suspicion of being a clone created by the hostile alien race wanting to take over Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrankenstein Unbound (1990)
The ultimate weapon, claimed to be safe for mankind, produces global side-effects including time slides and disappearances. The scientist behind the project and his car are zapped from the year 2031 to 1817 in Switzerland where he meets Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMad God (2021)
A silent figure known as The Assassin travels through a nightmare underworld of tortured souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities forged from the primordial horrors of the unconscious mind of Phil Tippett, the world's preeminent stop-motion animator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Beyond (1986)
The Resonator, a powerful machine that can control the sixth sense, has killed its creator and sent his associate into an insane asylum. When a psychiatrist becomes determined to continue the experiment, she unwittingly opens the door to a hostile parallel universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
A crack test pilot lands to find the planet has been devastated by unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResident Evil (2002)
When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpace/Time (2025)
After a fatal test shuts down their project, a disgraced team of scientists enters the criminal underworld to rebuild a forbidden space-bending engine that could rescue humanity or annihilate it entirely.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Howling (2017)
A local myth will be discovered to be true by a group of teenagers on a night out on remote farmland. Is there a bloodthirsty creature that has been wandering the land?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Subservience (2024)
With his wife out sick, a struggling father brings home a lifelike AI, only to have his self-aware new help want everything her new family has to offer... Like the affection of her owner and she'll kill to get it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSphere (1998)
A spacecraft is discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, presumed to be at least 300 years old and of alien origin. A crack team of scientists and experts is assembled and taken to the ocean floor to investigate. However, the ship is not as it seems and when a giant perfect sphere is discovered in the cargo bay, things begin to fall apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Based on an "actual event" that took place in 1943. About a US Navy Destroyer Escort that disappeared from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and sent two men 40 years into the future to 1984.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRunaway (1984)
In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisFinal Destination (2000)
After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have Death hunt them down, one by one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Paradox Project (2024)
Dr. Splits, a brilliant scientist, creates a time machine, but a critical error results in the fragmentation of his personality into distinct and competing parts. As these divided aspects clash with one another, an internal conflict unfolds. The ultimate question remains: which personality will emerge victorious in the end?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Caddo Lake (2024)
When an 8-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes on Caddo Lake, a series of past deaths and disappearances begin to link together, forever altering a broken family’s history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCute Little Buggers (2017)
When hostile aliens crash land on local farmland, the villagers at the summer ball get suspicious when young women start going missing. The villagers soon band together around our hero Melchoir to fend off the alien bunny invaders and bring back peace to the sleepy English countryside.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Corpse Vanishes (1942)
A scientist keeps his wife young by killing, stealing the bodies of, and taking the gland fluid from virgin brides.
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 Return to the Theatre of Terror?
The closest matches to Return to the Theatre of Terror are Whisper (2007), The Evil (1978) and Z (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Return to the Theatre of Terror?
Start with Whisper (2007), the closest match to Return to the Theatre of Terror.
What is the highest-rated movie like Return to the Theatre of Terror?
Caddo Lake (2024), rated 7.2/10 by 625 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Return to the Theatre of Terror?
Space/Time (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Return to the Theatre of Terror?
Yes: Whisper (2007), The Evil (1978) and Z (2019).
How are movies similar to Return to the Theatre of Terror chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Return to the Theatre of Terror, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.