Movies like When Shadows Lay Darkest (2024)
The best movies like When Shadows Lay Darkest (2024) are Baby Blues (2008), The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) and Bloodline (2019). If When Shadows Lay Darkest hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hate U Give (2018)8.1/10 from 2,266 votes
- NewestThe Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026)Released 2026
Baby Blues (2008)
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026)
Tethered by a frightening conclusion, Maya and the Strangers are locked on an unavoidable, unforgiving collision course — a showdown that proves they’re far from strangers now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBloodline (2019)
Evan values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisF (2010)
A group of teachers must defend themselves from a gang of murderous kids when their school comes under siege after hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerrifier (2011)
After witnessing a brutal murder on Halloween night, a young woman becomes the next target of a maniacal entity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTotally Killer (2023)
When the infamous "Sweet Sixteen Killer" returns 35 years after his first murder spree to claim another victim, 17-year-old Jamie accidentally travels back in time to 1987, determined to stop the killer before he can start.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisR.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls (2015)
Teenage friends must resist the spell of an evil showman staging a house of horrors show in their small town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWake Up (2024)
A group of young activists set out to make an environmental statement by vandalizing a home superstore as it closes. But their plan goes terribly wrong when they become trapped inside and must face a deranged security guard with a gruesome passion for primitive hunting. As the night fills with violence and terror, the teenagers find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoing to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006)
This historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, begins with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal wanes. Then, Nightmare on Elm Street revives the genre. Jump to the late 90s, when Scream brings humor and TV stars into the mix.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisMaXXXine (2024)
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhen a Stranger Calls Back (1993)
Jill Johnson, now a crisis center counselor, reunites with retired detective John Clifford to hunt a killer stalking a coed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDracula (1958)
After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Saw What You Did (1965)
Teenage friends Kit and Libby make prank phone calls for fun but then find themselves involved in a brutal double murder committed by one of their targets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deliverance (2024)
Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her personal demons, moves her family into a new home for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear Street: 1978 (2021)
In 1978, two rival groups at Camp Nightwing must band together to solve a terrifying mystery when horrors from their towns' history come alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHostile (2018)
Juliette, a lone survivor of an apocalyptic era, fights to survive against hunger, thirst, a broken leg and strange disturbing creatures that only come out at nighttime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Specialist (1994)
May Munro is a woman obsessed with getting revenge on the people who murdered her parents when she was still a girl. She hires Ray Quick, a retired explosives expert, to kill her parents' killers. When Ned Trent, embittered ex-partner of Quick's, is assigned to protect one of Quick's potential victims, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear Street: 1994 (2021)
After a series of brutal slayings, a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hate U Give (2018)
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
Like When Shadows Lay Darkest and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When Shadows Lay Darkest?
The closest matches to When Shadows Lay Darkest are Baby Blues (2008), The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) and Bloodline (2019). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When Shadows Lay Darkest?
Start with Baby Blues (2008), the closest match to When Shadows Lay Darkest.
What is the highest-rated movie like When Shadows Lay Darkest?
The Hate U Give (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,266 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When Shadows Lay Darkest?
The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like When Shadows Lay Darkest?
Yes: Baby Blues (2008), The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) and Bloodline (2019).
How are movies similar to When Shadows Lay Darkest chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When Shadows Lay Darkest, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.