Movies like The Octopus (1915)
The best movies like The Octopus (1915) are Head Full of Honey (2018), Brand Upon the Brain! (2007) and Won't Back Down (2012). If The Octopus hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Octopus
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)7.3/10 from 326 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Head Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Theatre Live: Hamlet (2015)
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeople Like Us (2012)
After flying home to L.A. for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father, a struggling man discovers that the will stipulates that he must deliver $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed, and her troubled 12-year-old son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHide Your Smiling Faces (2014)
Tommy and his older brother Eric live in the midst of vast remote forests. The death of their friend pushes them close to the edge. Eric doesn’t know how to channel his energy. All at once, nature’s vastness feels stifling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtraordinary Measures (2010)
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children are diagnosed with Pompe disease—a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. With the support of his wife, John ditches his career and teams with unconventional specialist, Dr. Robert Stonehill to found a bio-tech company and develop a cure in time to save the lives of his children. As Dr. Stonehill works tirelessly to prove the theories that made him the black sheep of the medical community, a powerful bond is forged between the two unlikely allies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn (2011)
Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Age of Innocence (1924)
Newland Archer is engaged to May Mingott of a prominent New York family. Shortly after the engagement is announced, Newland finds himself attracted to May's older married cousin Countess Ellen Olenska.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love's Toll (1916)
Leaving her small town home and coming to New York to study voice, Marian Lane soon falls in love with Allen Crauben.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Back to Liberty (1927)
Tom Devon, alias Reginald Briand, is the mastermind behind an organization of gentlemen thieves, including Jimmy Stevens and Rudolph Gambier. Jimmy falls in love with Tom's innocent daughter, Gloria, after he rescues her from an embarrassing scene in a restaurant. Tom disapproves of the romance and decides to dissolve the partnership. When an embittered Rudolph kills Tom he frames Jimmy, but Gloria is determined to clear him. Posing as a thief, she seeks the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Devdas (1935)
Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a prostitute. All Indian prints of this Bengali version were destroyed in a fire that ravaged New Theatre’s studios. Today, only one copy of the film survives which belongs to the Bangladesh Film Archives. Of that copy almost forty percent is destroyed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Satan (1920)
A three-part historical film: the first episode takes place in ancient Egypt, the second is based on the Hugo novel La Fin de Satan, and the third takes place during the 1917 Russian revolution. Lost film, minor fragments survive
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Behind the Monastery Wall (1928)
The old nunnery owns the best lands. Nuns rent out the land to local rich men, and exploiting peasants they have a wealthy life. The peasants live in misery. Especially, the family of the peasant named Levin. He is forced to give away his last horse, his son Andrii is imprisoned, his daughter Nastia becomes a maid of a rich landlord. Trying to prevent the master’s harassment, Nastia escapes and gets to the nunnery. She can see the other life of the nuns who manufacture false relics, drink alcohol and kill children. Nastia ends up in the basement for resisting one of the “spiritual pastors.” Meanwhile, her brother Andrii escapes from prison. He stirs up a rebellion and saves his sister. The film is lost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Film Lost To Time (2024)
A film buff's obsession with an elusive, possibly nonexistent film spirals into a dangerous descent, blurring the line between reality and madness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Barricade (1917)
Debutante Hope Merrill returns home one day to find her financier father Amos Merrill on the verge of committing suicide. Rather than reveal the truth -- that he has misappropriated funds from his own company -- Merrill claims that he has been ruined by young John Cook, Hope's sweetheart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Valiants of Virginia (1916)
When his opponent is killed after a duel over the honor of Virginia belle Judith Fairfax John Valiant flees North. Before taking flight John entrusts a note of explanation for Judith to Major Bristow. Bristow, however, has designs on the belle and withholds the missive. As the years pass John founds a successful business, loses his wife in childbirth and Judith marries Tom Dandridge and has a daughter, Shirley. Many years later, John Jr., now head of the Valiant Corporation, returns to his father’s estate during a financial crisis and falls in love with Shirley Dandridge. To rekindle her romance with John, Katherine tells Shirley of the family feud and Shirley suddenly cools toward John. On his deathbed, Barstow finally gives Judith John's letter in which John reveals that Edward had shot himself during the duel. John and Shirley are happily reconciled.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Larceny (1996)
A man breaks into a flat, startling the occupant. They argue about the new girlfriend of the 'burglar', who's come to get her stuff. Then a third man bursts out of the cupboard...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Octopus?
The closest matches to The Octopus are Head Full of Honey (2018), Brand Upon the Brain! (2007) and Won't Back Down (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Octopus?
Start with Head Full of Honey (2018), the closest match to The Octopus.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Octopus?
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980), rated 7.3/10 by 326 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Octopus?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Octopus?
Yes: Head Full of Honey (2018), Brand Upon the Brain! (2007) and Won't Back Down (2012).
How are movies similar to The Octopus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Octopus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.