Movies like Painless (2012)
The best movies like Painless (2012) are Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) and Possum (2018). If Painless hooked you with its drama and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRoom (2015)8.0/10 from 9,941 votes
- NewestDrawn Together (2026)Released 2026
Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Thing Mary Saw (2021)
Winter, 1843. A young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family's matriarch. Her recollection of the events sheds new light on the ageless forces behind the tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPossum (2018)
A disgraced children's puppeteer returns to his childhood home and is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured him his entire life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaby Blues (2008)
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInheritance (2020)
The patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and destroy their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Harvest (2015)
After becoming orphaned, a lonely girl moves in with her grandparents and tries to befriend a sick, bed-ridden boy next door, despite his mother’s strong objections. Her persistence leads to a friendship, but during secret visits, she uncovers dark secrets in the boy's home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLocked (2025)
When Eddie breaks into a luxury SUV, he steps into a deadly trap set by William, a self-proclaimed vigilante delivering his own brand of twisted justice. With no means of escape, Eddie must fight to survive in a ride where escape is an illusion, survival is a nightmare, and justice shifts into high gear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Barcelona Vampiress (2020)
Barcelona, Spain, 1912. The disappearance of a girl from a wealthy family triggers a series of events that will shake the weak foundations of a hypocritical society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisThe Home (2025)
A troubled man starts working at a retirement home and realizes its residents and caretakers harbor sinister secrets. As he investigates the building and its forbidden fourth floor, he starts to uncover connections to his own past and upbringing as a foster child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOpen Grave (2013)
A man awakes -- without memory -- in a pit full of bodies and must figure out if the people who rescued him are the killers, or if he is the murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNocturnal Animals (2016)
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGod Is a Bullet (2023)
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStonehearst Asylum (2014)
An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoom (2015)
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGolden Night (1976)
After his family tries to kill him and he has been pronounced dead, Michel returns from the dead and sets about getting revenge on his family members. He sends each one a voodoo doll, warning of their fate. Wandering over the streets of Paris, Michel is the haunted and hunted, as he himself hunts his villainous kin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Arsenault and Fils (2022)
The Arsenaults, a close-knit family who profit from illegal hunting, have ruled the roost for several generations in Témiscouata, Quebec. The return to the fold of Anthony, the impetuous youngest of the family, then the arrival of Émilie, a radio host who exercises an ascendancy over Anthony and his older brother Adam, will come to test the harmony of the clan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Back Roads (2019)
A young man cares for his younger sisters after their mother is imprisoned for murdering their abusive father. When he strikes up an affair with a married woman, long-dormant family secrets bubble to the surface.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisRed (2008)
Avery, a reclusive older man, has a best friend in his dog, Red. When three teens kill Red without reason, Avery sets out for justice and redemption, attempting to follow the letter of the law. But when the law fails him, and the boys' father clearly defines right and wrong in his own way, Avery must avenge himself by any means possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Living and the Dead (2006)
Lord Donald and Lady Nancy reside in the magnificent but run-down Longleigh House with James, their mentally disabled adult son. Nancy has fallen seriously ill and Donald is preparing to sell the house to raise enough money to pay for an operation. He arranges for the family nurse, Mary, to take care of Nancy while he leaves to tend to the sale. However, James wants to prove to his father that he can look after his mother on his own and decides to lock Mary out of the house. It isn't long before James starts mixing his mother's pills and forgetting to take his own medication, and as the stress of looking after his mother increases, so too does the severity of his own condition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarely in Love (2013)
When a new troupe leader joins the 'Bnai Akiva' boy scouts movement, Yotam's world trembles. He is forced to cope with his sexual orientation and the difficulties he faces with family and religion, and is torn between his love of religion that forbids homosexuality and his mother who tries to 'cure' him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dandanko (1960)
A short scene of a mother and her little son playing ball games on a set of steps together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Drawn Together (2026)
Marfil, daughter of a powerful Spanish businessman, sees her life in New York turned upside down when she is kidnapped and released without explanation. Her father hires Sebastian Moore as bodyguard and, forced to spend every minute together, an inevitable attraction ignites in a world where nothing is as it seems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dance of Lust & Calculus (2017)
A man whose life revolves around building computer models of the dead (as a form of grief therapy) opens up when he begins to form a connection with a new client.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Henry Poole Is Here (2008)
Henry Poole abandons his fiancée and family business to spend what he believes are his remaining days alone. The discovery of a 'miracle' by a nosy neighbor ruptures his solitude and restores his faith in life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Painless?
The closest matches to Painless are Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) and Possum (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Painless?
Start with Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), the closest match to Painless.
What is the highest-rated movie like Painless?
Room (2015), rated 8.0/10 by 9,941 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Painless?
Drawn Together (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Painless chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Painless, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.