Movies like Nyctophobia (2024)
The best movies like Nyctophobia (2024) are Before I Wake (2016), No Such Thing (2002) and Celia (1989). If Nyctophobia 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 ratedBlack Swan (2010)7.7/10 from 16,051 votes
- NewestDust Bunny (2025)Released 2025
Before I Wake (2016)
An orphaned child's dreams—and nightmares—manifest physically as he sleeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Such Thing (2002)
A young journalist journeys to Iceland to find her missing fiancé only to encounter a mythical creature who longs to die.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCelia (1989)
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A psychiatrist, familiar with the knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger, helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Look Like People (2016)
Suspecting that people are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisRepulsion (1965)
Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLet's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return (2006)
Joanna Mills has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father, and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unhealer (2021)
A botched faith healing bestows supernatural Shaman powers on a bullied teenager. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that kills someone he loves, he uses his powers for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
SnoozefestMovies 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 fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Swan (2010)
A committed dancer struggles to maintain her sanity after winning the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaperhouse (1988)
A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Go On (2016)
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Eyes of My Mother (2016)
A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacob's Ladder (1990)
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie, and ex-wife, Sarah, try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer's chiropractor friend, Louis, fails to reach him as he descends into madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Knight's War (2025)
A fearless knight braves a deadly realm to save the Chosen One’s soul. Facing witches, demons, and brutal foes, he discovers her return could ignite chaos and doom humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Transfiguration (2016)
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Haunting (1999)
Dr. David Marrow invites three distinct individuals to the eerie and isolated Hill House to be subjects for a sleep disorder study. The unfortunate guests discover that Marrow is far more interested in the sinister mansion itself — and they soon see the true nature of its horror.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisSoul Reaper (2024)
A teenager with the ability to enter other people's dreams. When he witnesses a dark spirit taking people's lives in their dreams, he quickly realizes that it's related to the mysterious deaths that are happening in the real world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & fantasy
Vivid (2022)
Kaleb Allen is plagued by recurring nightmares, where a dark presence watches him every night. Fearing sleep, he's unable to escape these vivid dreams that blur the line between reality and fantasy. As the dreams intensify, Kaleb begins to suspect that they are more than mere nightmares—they might be something far more sinister.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Another Alice (2024)
Alice leaves a party with her best friend, who tries to kiss her. She pushes him away, and he becomes violent... Alice then flees into a dreamlike world, revisiting a wonderland that resembles a nightmare.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Static (TBA)
A young woman comes face to face with her sleep-paralysis demon, defeating it once and for all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Doctor Sleep (2002)
While treating a policewoman for smoking, hypnotherapist Michael Strother has a telepathic vision of a young girl floating beneath the surface of a stream. The escaped victim of a ritualistic serial killer, the girl has become mute, and Michael is called upon by Scotland Yard to unlock the secrets she holds in order to catch a man who believes he has discovered the key to immortality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisObhyesh (2022)
Somewhere in North Kolkata, OBHYESH is an unfurling of a 28 years old boy's life, through his struggle to fall asleep during a whole night. The boy seems to be terribly tired and tries hard to get some sleep but various thoughts perpetually come and go keeping him awake where rest is dreamlike and comes to him eventually at dawn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Zu Warriors (2001)
King Sky, the sole disciple of the Kun Lun Sect, falls in love with his master Dawn. Dawn is killed when Insomnia destroys the Kin Lun Mountain. King Sky waits for two hundred years and meets Enigma, who is the reincarnation of Dawn, and in love with her again. However, Insomnia's Blood Clouds is ready to destroy Zu.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisLimbo (2025)
Trapped in a recurring cycle of sleep paralysis, a man desperately searches for a way to break free.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Driller Killer (1979)
An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nyctophobia?
The closest matches to Nyctophobia are Before I Wake (2016), No Such Thing (2002) and Celia (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nyctophobia?
Start with Before I Wake (2016), the closest match to Nyctophobia.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nyctophobia?
Black Swan (2010), rated 7.7/10 by 16,051 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nyctophobia?
Dust Bunny (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Nyctophobia?
Yes: Before I Wake (2016), No Such Thing (2002) and Celia (1989).
How are movies similar to Nyctophobia chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nyctophobia, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.