Movies like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life (1993)
The best movies like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life (1993) are Books of Blood (2020), Dust Bunny (2025) and The Vampire Doll (1970). If A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life hooked you with its horror, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDust Bunny (2025)6.7/10 from 441 votes
- NewestMonkey’s Magic Merry Go Round (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseThe Vampire Doll (1970)Also in Japanese
Books of Blood (2020)
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time. A desperate woman, a skeptical professor, and a ruthless killer face unspeakable forces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vampire Doll (1970)
A young man goes missing after visiting his girlfriend's isolated country home. His sister and her boyfriend trace him to a creepy mansion, but their search becomes perilous when they uncover a gruesome family history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReincarnation (2005)
A Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Let Go (2024)
As an evil takes over the world beyond their front doorstep, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and their family’s protective bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisTomie: Rebirth (2001)
Young art student Hideo paints an unnerving portrait of Tomie, who whispers that she loves him. Inexplicably, he reacts by stabbing her to death with a painting trowel. Two friends, Takumi and Shunichi, arrive on the scene and help him dispose of the body. To cheer him up, the boys take the unwitting murderer to the nearest bar for a party... but a mysterious girl named Tomie shows up, bearing a few odd physical resemblances to the dead girl in the ground.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNightmare Cinema (2018)
A series of down-on-their-luck individuals enter the decrepit and spine-chilling Rialto theater, only to have their deepest and darkest fears brought to life on the silver screen by The Projectionist – a mysterious, ghostly figure who holds the nightmarish futures of all who attend his screenings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMonkey’s Magic Merry Go Round (2026)
After a mysterious bout of amnesia, a beloved children’s television host struggles to piece together his fractured memories, only to find his once-cheerful puppet co-stars behaving with sinister intent. As reality unravels, the line between performance and nightmare begins to blur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrilogy of Terror (1975)
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by one of her students; a prudish brunette determines that her free-spirited blonde sister is evil; and a woman's night turns upside down after she purchases an ancient Zuni fetish doll.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Signal (2007)
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Evil (1978)
Shortly after moving into a dark, brooding mansion, a psychologist and his co-workers are terrorized by a horrible evil being.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPlay Dead (2025)
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fair Haired Child (2006)
A creepy couple kidnaps a teenage outcast and locks her in their basement with their seemingly kindhearted adolescent son - who harbors a terrifying secret involving the forces of evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmerican Horror House (2012)
On Halloween night, a sorority house is overrun with ghosts, while a vengeful housemother goes on a killing spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisReborn (2018)
A stillborn baby girl is abducted by a deranged morgue attendant and brought back to life by electro-kinetic power. On her sixteenth birthday, traumatized Tess escapes captivity and sets out to find her birth mother leaving a trail of horrifying violent destruction and chilling chaos behind her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ (2019)
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Bags (1993)
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college student working a graveyard shift is terrorized by a serial killer; a hair transplant goes horribly wrong; and a baseball player loses an eye and gets a new one from a recently executed murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhisper (2007)
Sinister things begin happening to kidnappers who are holding a young boy for ransom in a remote cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boogeyman (2023)
Still reeling from the tragic death of their mother, a teenage girl and her younger sister find themselves plagued by a sadistic presence in their house and struggle to get their grieving father to pay attention before it’s too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life?
The closest matches to A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life are Books of Blood (2020), Dust Bunny (2025) and The Vampire Doll (1970). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life?
Start with Books of Blood (2020), the closest match to A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life?
Dust Bunny (2025), rated 6.7/10 by 441 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life?
Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life?
Yes: The Vampire Doll (1970), Reincarnation (2005) and Tomie: Rebirth (2001).
How are movies similar to A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Gruesome and Terrifying Story that Happened in Real Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.