Movies like Butterfly Tears (2023)
The best movies like Butterfly Tears (2023) are Celia (1989), No Such Thing (2002) and Before I Wake (2016). If Butterfly Tears hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWaking Life (2001)7.5/10 from 995 votes
- NewestDon't Leave the Kids Alone (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishThe Wait (2023)Also in Spanish
Celia (1989)
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Such Thing (2002)
A young journalist journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancé only to encounter a mythical creature who longs to die.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore I Wake (2016)
An orphaned child's dreams—and nightmares—manifest physically as he sleeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wait (2023)
Eladio, hunting estate keeper, takes a bribe from a veteran hunter. Weeks later, his whole life falls apart. What looked like the opportunity of a lifetime, turns into a macabre descent to hell when he finds out that his misfortune might not be entirely by chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMedusa (2020)
After being bitten by a lethal snake, a young woman experiences changes in her senses and appearance, as she sheds her old self and slowly turns into a deadly weapon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRisa and the Wind Phone (2026)
Risa, after her father's death, discovers she has the ability to communicate with him from beyond the grave. As she explores this supernatural connection, she faces emotional challenges and family secrets that will test her faith in what she thought was possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Surrender (2025)
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNine Days (2021)
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Transfiguration (2016)
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Leave the Kids Alone (2026)
A mother moves into a new house with her two children. One night she must leave the siblings home alone. What begins as a blast of carefree play soon turns into a claustrophobic horror story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 Exorcisms (2022)
After participating in a séance, young Laura begins to behave strangely. Alarmed, her parents ask Father Olmedo, one of the few exorcists authorized by the Vatican to intervene in cases of demonic possession, for help.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDon't Listen (2020)
After a tragic turn of events at the new home he's fixing up, Daniel hears a ghostly plea for help, spurring him to seek out a famous paranormal expert.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDust Bunny (2025)
Ten-year-old Aurora asks her hitman neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she claims ate her family. To protect her, he must battle an onslaught of assassins while accepting that some monsters are real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaddy, I'm a Zombie (2012)
The misadventures of a teenager girl in her new life as zombie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Asphyx (1972)
Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Zero Theorem (2013)
A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sleeping Woman (2024)
Ana, a nursing assistant, begins to feel attracted to Agustín, the husband of the woman in a vegetative state that she has been hired to take care of. Soon she begins to be harassed by strange paranormal phenomena that seem to try to throw her out of the house and separate her from Agustín.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDonovan's Echo (2011)
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore I Fall (2017)
Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCycle (2022)
Composer Herman completely goes into writing his work "Cycle", losing absolutely all connection with the outside world. One evening, he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he begins to understand that his composition begins to come to life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
The Gift (2000)
Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others' futures—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucid Love (2024)
Juno, an ordinary man, always feels insecure because he has a beautiful girlfriend, while Trish, a beautiful woman, is always played by men. They never expected to meet in a place full of wonders, a place that would determine their love lives, in a lucid dream.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & fantasy
Dagon (2001)
A boating accident off the coast of Spain sends Paul and his girlfriend Barbara to the decrepit fishing village of Imboca. As night falls, people start to disappear and things not quite human start to appear. Paul is pursued by the entire town. Running for his life, he uncovers Imboca's secret..they worship Dagon, a monstrous god of the sea...and Dagon's unholy offspring are on the loose...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Images Of Our Childhood Memories (2026)
A woman struggles to find balance in her own relationship with nostalgia while unravelling the fate of a childhood friend who vanished after becoming consumed by it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & fantasy
Coming SoonMovies like thisSin piedad (2025)
Under the relentless sun, a killer stalks through the mountains, where the innocence of a young couple becomes prey. With no shadows to hide their fate, the hunt is a macabre game in broad daylight, where fear is not hidden in the darkness, but burns with the rawness of the unperturbed noon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Waking Life (2001)
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSolita (2022)
Alone at night, a woman lays in bed as she reveals a traumatizing nightmare to her beloved cat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
The Skeleton Key (2005)
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSex and Lucía (2001)
Lucía is a young waitress in Madrid who seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island after the loss of her longtime boyfriend. Amidst the fresh air, dazzling sun, and glistening deep blue water, Lucía begins to piece together the dark corners of her past relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Butterfly Tears?
The closest matches to Butterfly Tears are Celia (1989), No Such Thing (2002) and Before I Wake (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Butterfly Tears?
Start with Celia (1989), the closest match to Butterfly Tears.
What is the highest-rated movie like Butterfly Tears?
Waking Life (2001), rated 7.5/10 by 995 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Butterfly Tears?
Don't Leave the Kids Alone (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Butterfly Tears?
Yes: The Wait (2023), Risa and the Wind Phone (2026) and Don't Leave the Kids Alone (2026).
How are movies similar to Butterfly Tears chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Butterfly Tears, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.