Movies like In Lieu of Longing
The best movies like In Lieu of Longing are Darby and the Dead (2022), Haunted Mansion (2023) and Afterlife of the Party (2021). If In Lieu of Longing hooked you with its comedy and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)7.5/10 from 1,236 votes
- NewestHaunted Mansion (2023)Released 2023
Darby and the Dead (2022)
After Darby Harper suffered a near-death experience as a child, she gained the ability to see ghosts. To combat the existential boredom of high school, she runs a side business counseling local spirits in her spare time. When an unexpected occurrence happens between Darby and Capri, the most popular girl at her high school, Darby reluctantly agrees to help her and in the process learns how to fit in with the living world again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisHaunted Mansion (2023)
A woman and her son enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAfterlife of the Party (2021)
A social butterfly who dies during her birthday week is given a second chance to right her wrongs on Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks back on his life. Drifting off into memories of his troubled childhood, Jo Jo revisits his youth, recalling his eventual rise to fame and the decadence that followed. As he considers his existence, he must decide if he wants to go on living or not.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwitches (2005)
Twins separated at birth, Camryn and Alex meet by chance for the first time on their 21st birthday and discover they're witches with the power to save their homeland of Coventry from the evil that threatens it. But when Camryn leaves Alex to face the darkness alone, will Coventry be doomed? Or will the sisters multiply their magic by standing together?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeggy Sue Got Married (1986)
At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the choices that shaped her life or embrace the past that made her who she is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScrooged (1988)
Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPleasantville (1998)
Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Scream Team (2002)
Eccentric Frank Carlyle ran a horror shop in small-town Steeple Falls, which takes pride in and profit from its Halloween traditions. Frank's widower grandson Richard grudgingly returns there from Boston with his own kids, bright Ian and bratty Claire, to settle the inheritance. Ian discovers great-grandpa's house is really haunted, and not just, as legend holds, by historic owner Zachariah Kull, who was burned on the stake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlumberland (2022)
A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShrek 3-D (2004)
Lord Farquaad was eaten by the dragon, but his ghost has returned, and he's still evil. With the help of his henchman, Thelonious, he kidnaps Fiona. Shrek and the donkey set out to save her, with help from the dragon, before she goes over a waterfall on a raft.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCasper Meets Wendy (1998)
When a warlock threatens Wendy the Good Little Witch, she and her aunts hide out at a resort where Casper the Ghost is vacationing with his uncles. Although Casper and Wendy are told ghosts and witches don't get along, the two are kindred spirits! This spooky family-friendly adventure finds Casper and Wendy bridging the ghost-witch divide to battle the warlock who is intent on destroying Wendy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Good Witch (2008)
A mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Canterville Ghost (1996)
When a teenaged girl moves to England, with her brothers and parents into the ancient Canterville Hall, she's not at all happy. Especially as there's a ghost and a mysterious re-appearing bloodstain on the hearth. She campaigns to go back home, and her dad, believing the ghost's pranks are Ginny's, is ready to send her back. But then Ginny actually meets the elusive 17th-century Sir Simon de Canterville (not to mention the cute teenaged duke next door), and she sets her hand to the task of freeing Sir Simon from his curse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorthfork (2003)
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Addams Family (1991)
When a man claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester reappears after 25 years lost, the family plans a celebration to wake the dead. But the kids barely have time to warm up the electric chair before Morticia begins to suspect Fester is fraud when he can't recall any of the details of Fester's life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gnome-Mobile (1967)
An eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes! He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Brothers Grimm (2005)
Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. However, they are put to the test when they encounter a real magical curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, requiring genuine courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisTopper Returns (1941)
Topper is once again tormented by a fun-loving spirit. This time, it's Gail Richards, accidentally murdered while vacationing at the home of her wealthy friend, Ann Carrington, the intended victim. With Topper's help, Gail sets out to find her killer with the expected zany results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
A retelling of the classic Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire. He is held accountable for his dastardly ways during nighttime visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCasper (1995)
Casper is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhostbusters (1984)
After losing their university jobs, three parapsychologists start a ghost-catching business in New York City and uncover a supernatural threat that could destroy the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Haunted Mansion (2003)
Workaholic Jim Evers and his wife/business partner Sara get a call one night from a mansion owner, Edward Gracey, who wants to sell his house. Once the Evers family arrive at the mansion, a torrential thunderstorm of mysterious origin strands them with the brooding, eccentric Gracey, his mysterious butler, and a variety of residents both seen and unseen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhost Dad (1990)
Elliot Hopper, a widower with three children, is working on a business deal to get his family out of financial straits when he is suddenly killed in a taxi accident. With the aid of a paranormal researcher, Elliott attempts to complete the deal from the beyond, ensuring his family will be taken care of.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlways (1989)
The spirit of a recently deceased expert pilot mentors a newer pilot while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend that he left behind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeart and Souls (1993)
A fateful night in 1959, four people die when the bus they are riding crashes. They continue as ghosts; their souls become eternally entwined to the life of a child born at the moment of their deaths as his guardians. Baby Thomas grows up to be a businessman who has memories of his playmates, but assumes they are products of his youthful imagination. When the ghosts realize they need Thomas' help to move on to the afterlife, they decide to make an appearance once more.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Christmas Carol (1984)
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDemi-Haunted (2002)
Wan Fei (Joey Yung) is a promising Chinese Opera singer who is secretly in love with Ho Fung (Nicholas Tse). She plans to sing for him from the stage, but, in a tragic accident, dies mid-song. Years later, Wan Fei's ghost returns, and finds that part of her spirit has been reincarnated in the form of Chor-bat (Eason Chan). Wan Fei still longs to sing her song for her lover, and, after much humorous confusion, her dream is fulfilled.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & fantasy
The Parallel (2014)
Pregnant Emmy is drugged by her boyfriend and taken to an illegal abortion clinic, but the ordeal makes her sterile. One day she decides to adopt an orphan girl who always keeps a doll which turns out to be possessed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Lieu of Longing?
The closest matches to In Lieu of Longing are Darby and the Dead (2022), Haunted Mansion (2023) and Afterlife of the Party (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Lieu of Longing?
Start with Darby and the Dead (2022), the closest match to In Lieu of Longing.
What is the highest-rated movie like In Lieu of Longing?
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), rated 7.5/10 by 1,236 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Lieu of Longing?
Haunted Mansion (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like In Lieu of Longing?
Yes: Darby and the Dead (2022), Haunted Mansion (2023) and Afterlife of the Party (2021).
How are movies similar to In Lieu of Longing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Lieu of Longing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.