Movies like Shaala (2004)
The best movies like Shaala (2004) are After the Dark (2013), Fortress (1985) and Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013). If Shaala hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Shaala
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Holdovers (2023)7.7/10 from 2,772 votes
- NewestThis Is Not a Test (2026)Released 2026
After the Dark (2013)
At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to choose which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFortress (1985)
After being kidnapped by four masked men, a teacher and her students rebel by plotting against the criminals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRhymes for Young Ghouls (2013)
In 1976, a Mi'gMaq teenager plots revenge against the sadistic Indian agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are common.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDutch (1991)
To get to know his girlfriend's son, a man volunteers to pick him up from a prep school... only to learn that her son's not the nicest kid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sandpiper (1965)
A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the wedded headmaster of an Episcopalian boarding school in Monterey, California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Super (1991)
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThis Is Not a Test (2026)
Sloane and four classmates take cover in Cortege High to escape a world plagued by the infected. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of those who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wailer (2006)
On their way to Mexico, six students are stranded in a small town where years before a tragedy took place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBustin' Loose (1981)
After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation, he is given a second chance. All he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeyond the Blackboard (2011)
Inspired by a true story, “Beyond the Blackboard” is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelter’s makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Egg and I (1947)
World War II veteran Bob MacDonald surprises his new wife, Betty, by quitting his city job and moving them to a dilapidated farm in the country. While Betty gamely struggles with managing the crumbling house and holding off nosy neighbors and a recalcitrant pig, Bob makes plans for crops and livestock. The couple's bliss is shaken by a visit from a beautiful farm owner, who seems to want more from Bob than just managing her property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChild's Play (1972)
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLevel 16 (2018)
The teenage girls of Vestalis Academy are meticulously trained in the art of being “clean girls,” practicing the virtues of perfect femininity. But what exactly are they being trained for? Vivien intends to find out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWise Blood (1979)
A Southerner--young, poor, ambitious but uneducated--determines to become something in the world. He decides that the best way to do that is to become a preacher and start up his own church.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe First Grader (2010)
The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Wagon (1956)
When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd, a white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiddle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)
A quiet teenage artist Rafe Katchadorian has a wild imagination and is sick of middle school and the rules that have been put before him. Rafe and his best friend Leo have come up with a plan: break every rule in the school hand book and as you expect trouble follows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Holdovers (2023)
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow I Live Now (2013)
An American girl, sent to the English countryside to stay with relatives, finds love and purpose while fighting for her survival as war envelops the world around her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shaala?
The closest matches to Shaala are After the Dark (2013), Fortress (1985) and Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shaala?
Start with After the Dark (2013), the closest match to Shaala.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shaala?
The Holdovers (2023), rated 7.7/10 by 2,772 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shaala?
This Is Not a Test (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Shaala?
Yes: After the Dark (2013), Fortress (1985) and Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013).
How are movies similar to Shaala chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shaala, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.