Movies like Cruel
The best movies like Cruel are Strange Darling (2024), I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) and I Spit on Your Grave (2010). If Cruel hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGrindhouse (2007)7.0/10 from 1,984 votes
- NewestFear Below (2025)Released 2025
Strange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)
Broke, and in desperate need to update her portfolio, New York City model Katie calls a number from a tear-off flyer offering free photos. But this innocent attempt quickly turns into an unthinkable kidnapping nightmare where she's ripped away from everyone and everything she knows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Spit on Your Grave (2010)
A beautiful woman from the city, Jennifer Hills, rents an isolated cabin in the country to write her latest novel. Soon, a group of local lowlifes subject her to a nightmare of degradation, rape, and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisWalden (2023)
Walden Dean is a stenographer, whose mind witnessed all types of injustices in the courtroom. After discovering he has a terminal illness, repressed anger deep within him surfaces -- taking justice into his own hands in the most gruesome ways imaginable.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMassacre at Central High (1976)
Maimed by bullies at a California high school, a new student engineers acts of revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMandy (2018)
The Shadow Mountains, 1983. Red and Mandy lead a loving and peaceful existence; but when their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloodline (2019)
Evan values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaXXXine (2024)
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManiac (1963)
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Final (2010)
A group of high school outcasts get revenge on the students that torment them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last House on the Left (1972)
On the eve of her 17th birthday, Mari and her friend Phyllis set off from the family home to attend a rock concert in the city. Attempting to score some drugs along the way, the pair run afoul of a group of vicious crooks, headed up by the sadistic Krug.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadhouse (1974)
A horror movie star returns to his famous role after spending years in a mental institution, but the character seems to be committing murders independent of his will.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vampire Lovers (1970)
In the heart of Styria the Karnstein Family, even after their mortal deaths, rise from their tombs spreading evil in the countryside in their lust for fresh blood. Baron Hartog whose family are all victims of Karnstein vampirism, opens their graves and drives a stake through their diabolical hearts. One grave he cannot locate is that of the legendary beautiful Mircalla Karnstein. Years of peace follow that grisly night until Mircalla reappears to avenge her family's decimation and satisfy her desire for blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight of the Hunted (2023)
When an unsuspecting woman stops at a remote gas station in the dead of night, she's made the plaything of a sociopath sniper with a secret vendetta. To survive, she must not only dodge his bullets and fight for her life, but also figure out who wants her dead and why.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bad Seed (2018)
A widower suspects that his seemingly perfect adolescent daughter is a heartless killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStitches (2012)
The clumsy and unfunny clown Richard "Stitches" Grindle entertains at the 10th birthday party of little Tom, but the boy and his friends play a prank with Stitches, tying his shoelaces. Stitches slips, falls and dies. Six years later, Tom gives a birthday party for his friends at home, but Stitches revives to haunt the teenagers and revenge his death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Purge: Anarchy (2014)
One night per year, the government sanctions a 12-hour period in which citizens can commit any crime they wish -- including murder -- without fear of punishment or imprisonment. Leo, a sergeant who lost his son, plans a vigilante mission of revenge during the mayhem. However, instead of a death-dealing avenger, he becomes the unexpected protector of four innocent strangers who desperately need his help if they are to survive the night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThousand Year Sleep (2007)
Samantha, Lydia, Isabella, and Lisa. These four young women are about to learn that humanity is just an irrelevant flame burning nowhere in the vastness of space. Their dreams will be shattered and one man will marvel at the evil he has committed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Tell-Tale Heart (2010)
A computer-generated rendering of the classic Poe tale about a man's sanity being a point of contention as he confesses to murdering an elderly man, driven by the victim's pale blue 'vulture eye', culminating in guilt-induced auditory hallucinations of the victim's beating heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
After a series of scientific experiments directed towards freeing the inner man and controlling human personalities, the kindly, generous Dr Henry Jekyll succeeds in freeing his own alter ego, Edward Hyde, a sadistic, evil creature whose pleasure is murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear Below (2025)
A rag-tag team of divers attempting to salvage a sunken car from a river are thwarted by a highly aggressive bull shark.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
Once hounded from his castle by outraged villagers for creating a monstrous living being, Baron Frankenstein returns to Karlstaad. High in the mountains they stumble on the body of the creature, perfectly preserved in the ice. He is brought back to life with the help of the hypnotist Zoltan who now controls the creature. Can Frankenstein break Zoltan's hypnotic spell that incites the monster to commit these horrific murders or will Zoltan induce the creature to destroy its creator?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Horrible Sexy Vampire (1971)
Some kind of sadist, but not human, is murdering people. A doctor is convinced that the killings are the evil workings of a reclusive odd baron who died many years ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972)
Dracula kills another innocent victim and Dr. Seward decides it's time to wipe him off the face of the earth. Armed with a hammer and a wooden stake, he arrives at Castle Dracula and duly dispatches the vampire Count. Next day, however, Dr. Frankenstein arrives with his assistant, Morpho, and a large crate containing the monster. Using the blood of a pub singer who has been abducted by his creation, the doctor brings Dracula back to life and uses him for his own ends. The Count and a female vampire continue to terrorise the town, so Dr Seward once again sets out for Castle Dracula. Unfortunately, he is attacked by the Frankenstein monster and left for dead. Amira, a gypsy, rescues him and summons up a werewolf to do battle with the forces of evil...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
Professor Frankenstein creates a teenager from an accident victim, who gets angry when he learns he is going to be taken apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Projected Man (1966)
Matter-transmitter sabotage leaves a British scientist (Bryant Halliday) disfigured and full of amps.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Voices Carry (2024)
Henry checks into his BNB for his first wedding photography gig but gets much more than he bargained for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Like Cruel and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Cruel?
The closest matches to Cruel are Strange Darling (2024), I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) and I Spit on Your Grave (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Cruel?
Start with Strange Darling (2024), the closest match to Cruel.
What is the highest-rated movie like Cruel?
Grindhouse (2007), rated 7.0/10 by 1,984 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Cruel?
Fear Below (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Cruel?
Yes: Strange Darling (2024), I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) and I Spit on Your Grave (2010).
How are movies similar to Cruel chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Cruel, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.