Movies like The Anomalisa Effect (2024)
The best movies like The Anomalisa Effect (2024) are Whirlpool (1950), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) and Reality (2023). If The Anomalisa Effect hooked you with its thriller and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedSpellbound (1945)7.4/10 from 1,044 votes
- NewestLuciano's Successor (2024)Released 2024
- In ItalianRevolver (1973)Also in Italian
Whirlpool (1950)
The wife of a psychoanalyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and suspicion points only one way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReality (2023)
Augusta, Georgia, United States, June 3, 2017. After running some errands, Reality Winner returns home, where she is approached by two men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRevolver (1973)
An Italian prison official's wife is kidnapped, and the kidnappers demand that a notorious prisoner be released in order for the man to get his wife back. He gets the man released - but then kidnaps him himself, in order to ensure that the man's colleagues don't kill his wife. Enraged, the gang sets out to free their compatriot and kill the man who took him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtortion (2017)
A doctor desperately tries to save his wife and their 5 year old son after their vacation in the Bahamas takes an unexpected turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCause for Alarm! (1951)
A bedridden and gravely ill man believes his wife and doctor are conspiring to kill him, and outlines his suspicions in a letter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpellbound (1945)
When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTime Without Pity (1957)
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Naked City (1948)
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Woman in the Window (1944)
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisUnion Station (1950)
Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lady Vanishes (2013)
Young socialite Iris Carr befriends an older woman while traveling solo by train. When Iris wakes from a nap, the woman is gone and other passengers claim she never existed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Name Is Julia Ross (1945)
Julia Ross secures employment with a wealthy widow and goes to live at her house. Two days later, she awakens in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Most Beautiful Wife (1970)
A 16-year-old Sicilian becomes the target of a mafia hit man after refusing to go through with her prearranged marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Body (2024)
Rich entrepreneur Rebecca Zuin has died from an alleged heart attack, raising suspicions on the part of a police inspector after her body disappears from the morgue. When her handsome young husband becomes a suspect, he starts thinking she may have faked her death to sadistically torment him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mechanic (1972)
Arthur Bishop is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as he hits middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes on one of his victim's sons, Steve McKenna, as his apprentice. Arthur puts him through a rigorous training period and brings him on several hits. As Steven improves, Arthur worries that he'll discover who killed his father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this23 Paces to Baker Street (1956)
Philip Hannon, a blind playwright living in London, overhears part of a conversation , that leads him into a desperate race, to find a kidnapped child. When he gets no help from the police, he along with his butler, and his ex fiancée, attempt to track down the crooks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Psycho (2000)
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Diary of Lies (2023)
After making the cheer squad at her new school, Natalie becomes public enemy number one after she's framed for murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Old Flame (2022)
A college reunion spirals into violence when two former lovers reconnect and rediscover a dangerous secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
This Man Must Die (1969)
When his young son is killed in a hit and run accident, Charles Thenier resolves to hunt down and murder the killer. By chance, Thenier makes the acquaintance of an actress, Helène Lanson, who was in the car at the time of the accident. He then meets Helène’s brother-in-law, Paul Decourt, a truly horrible individual.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHannibal Rising (2007)
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAgontuk (2024)
A masked serial killer has been targeting girls named "Iti". The mysterious murders continue to unfold one by one. A vibrant young journalist Shraboni, while reporting on them delves deeper into the cases, as she unknowingly walks into the killer's trap.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Cycle (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 drama
Luciano's Successor (2024)
In order to hunt down a missing artifact, two detectives interrogate the recently captured master thief Arsenia Beaumont. But Arsenia is not one to let her secrets be known to just anyone. Only one detective has ever earned her respect. The detectives must prove they are worthy opponents if they want to finish their case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Tere Bin : Brain Overpowering Heart (TBA)
In a near-future world where emotions can be scientifically altered, a young man is confronted with a revolutionary neural technology designed to suppress emotional pain. As love, memory, and logic collide, he must decide whether a life free from heartbreak is worth the cost of losing genuine human emotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rainbow Boys (2008)
The film tells the bittersweet love life of a group of young men who could not be more different from each other: Ryuji is a teenager passionate about rugby, Akira is a beautiful and popular kabuki actor, and Yutaro is the son of a yakuza leader. Their paths come across after they fall in love with the aspiring actor Makoto Hayakawa
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Anomalisa Effect?
The closest matches to The Anomalisa Effect are Whirlpool (1950), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) and Reality (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Anomalisa Effect?
Start with Whirlpool (1950), the closest match to The Anomalisa Effect.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Anomalisa Effect?
Spellbound (1945), rated 7.4/10 by 1,044 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Anomalisa Effect?
Luciano's Successor (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Anomalisa Effect?
Yes: Revolver (1973), The Most Beautiful Wife (1970) and The Body (2024).
How are movies similar to The Anomalisa Effect chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Anomalisa Effect, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.




























