Movies like The 'Burbs (1989)
The best movies like The 'Burbs (1989) are Tales of Terror (1962), High Anxiety (1977) and R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015). If The 'Burbs hooked you with its comedy and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)7.9/10 from 1,851 votes
- NewestBeetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)Released 2024
Tales of Terror (1962)
Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHigh Anxiety (1977)
A psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisR.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015)
Teenage friends must resist the spell of an evil showman staging a house of horrors show in their small town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear in the Night (1972)
It took Peggy Heller a long time to recover from the trauma of a brutal physical assault, suffered in her youth. When she married Robert, he provided her with the love and reassurance she craved for and the two settled down in a pretty house in the grounds of the public school where Robert was a master. But the headmaster of the school is not what he seems and Peggy is convinced he means to harm her - is her fear a figment of her tortured imagination or are there forces at work that intend to manipulate her anxieties with fatal consequences?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNight Watch (1973)
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cat and the Canary (1939)
A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Invitation (2016)
Will and his new girlfriend Kira are invited to a dinner with old friends at the house of Will’s ex Eden and her new partner David. Although the evening appears to be relaxed, Will soon gets a creeping suspicion that their charming host David is up to something.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Baker (2007)
Milo is a professional hit man living on the edge. When failing to fulfill a contract for the first time, he escapes the city to avoid the wrath of his employers. Hiding out in a remote rural village, the locals mistake him for the new baker.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Old Dark House (1963)
An American car salesman in London becomes mixed up in a series of fatal occurrences at a secluded mansion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisScared Stiff (1953)
A nightclub singer and his partner escape mobsters by fleeing to Cuba with a beautiful heiress, who has inherited a haunted castle on an isolated island. The trio hunt for a hidden treasure and encounter a ghost, a zombie, and a mysterious killer...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
A noted professor and his dim-witted apprentice fall prey to their inquiring vampires, while on the trail of the ominous damsel in distress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hand (1981)
Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Betelgeuse, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDave Made a Maze (2017)
Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation. Ignoring his warnings, Dave’s girlfriend Annie leads a band of oddball explorers on a rescue mission. Once inside, they find themselves trapped in an ever-changing supernatural world, threatened by booby traps and pursued by a bloodthirsty Minotaur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Private Eyes (1980)
The lord and lady of a capacious manor are killed, and the lord's ghost seems to have returned to knock off the staff one by one, causing Inspector Winship and Dr. Tart to investigate the wacky house and its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
When a lawyer shows up at the vampire's doorstep, he falls prey to his charms and joins him in his search for fresh blood. Enter Professor Van Helsing, who may be the only one able to vanquish the Count.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Have a Ghost (2023)
After Kevin finds a ghost named Ernest haunting his new home, he becomes an overnight social media sensation. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of the latter's past, they become targets of the CIA.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)
A Halloween-hating dad reluctantly teams up with his teenage daughter when an evil spirit wreaks havoc by making their town's decorations come to life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEvil Cult (2003)
Tough-as-nails adventurer, Neil Stryker, faces immeasurable odds when he comes face to face with a bizarre EVIL CULT preparing for the apocalypse! Armageddon comes, all right, but not in the form that they expected. Their book of prophecy did not anticipate the arrival of Stryker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & comedy
Out of Plastic (2024)
An obsessed engineer and their unlucky friend discover the price of creation when plastic becomes the consumer. A modern twist on the classic creature horror genre, Out of Plastic explores the will of humanity to find permanence on Earth - through whatever means necessary. Since the first synthetic plastic created by Leo Baekeland in 1907, engineers have searched for ways to improve and expand on plastic. In this horror short, an engineer takes on the ultimate mission - replicating the immortality of plastics into a living organism.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & comedy
Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the city’s biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to get killed by an infamous assassin and come up with an idea of how to get out of his current dilemma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSin City (2005)
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTo Be or Not to Be (1942)
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeverly Hills Cop (1984)
Fast-talking, quick-thinking Detroit street cop Axel Foley has bent more than a few rules and regs in his time, but when his best friend is murdered, he heads to sunny Beverly Hills to work the case like only he can.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKing Kong (1933)
Adventurous filmmaker Carl Denham sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darrow and his first mate Jack Driscoll, they arrive on an island and discover a legendary creature said to be neither beast nor man. Denham captures the monster to be displayed on Broadway as King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn China They Eat Dogs (1999)
Arvid is an ordinary bank clerk who lives a rather unassuming life with his dear girlfriend. But his life is turned completely upside down when he bravely manages to avert a robbery against the bank where he works.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like The 'Burbs and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The 'Burbs?
The closest matches to The 'Burbs are Tales of Terror (1962), High Anxiety (1977) and R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The 'Burbs?
Start with Tales of Terror (1962), the closest match to The 'Burbs.
What is the highest-rated movie like The 'Burbs?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), rated 7.9/10 by 1,851 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The 'Burbs?
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The 'Burbs?
Yes: Tales of Terror (1962), High Anxiety (1977) and R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015).
How are movies similar to The 'Burbs chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The 'Burbs, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.