Movies like The Instinct (2025)
The best movies like The Instinct (2025) are Mexican Psycho (2026), Daddy's Little Girl (2014) and The Shed (2019). If The Instinct hooked you with its thriller and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSightless (2020)6.7/10 from 434 votes
- NewestMexican Psycho (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishMexican Psycho (2026)Also in Spanish
Mexican Psycho (2026)
Follows an "ultra-violent and intelligent" psychopath who challenges the police by leaving a white paper rabbit at each crime scene, connecting them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy's Little Girl (2014)
After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shed (2019)
The story of Stan, an orphaned teenager stuck living with his abusive grandfather and tasked with routinely protecting his best friend from high school bullies. When Stan discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside the tool shed in his backyard, he tries to secretly battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers the creature and has a far more sinister plan in mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Snails (2021)
A writer secludes himself in the mountains and falls in lust with local Berta. After realizing the oddities of the rural community the author starts to question the lines between reality and fiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisEradication (2022)
When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rule of Jenny Pen (2025)
Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, a former Judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child's puppet to abuse the home's residents with deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Awful Dr. Orlof (1962)
Dr. Orlof, a former prison doctor, abducts beautiful women from nightclubs to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face. He is assisted by Morpho, a deformed monstrosity who delights in biting his victims. Orlof had better hurry, though -- a young police inspector and his ballerina girlfriend are onto his sadistic practices.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Other (2025)
Unable to conceive, a couple seeks to build a family with a young orphan, survivor of tragic childhood. But their act of love turns to horror when they realize the violence in their foster's past has returned to destroy the new family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAndrea: La Venganza del Espíritu (2005)
A young girl named Andrea unleashes a spirit after removing a cross on a sacred holy ground cemetery. The spirit starts terrorizing Andrea and her family. Andrea's family, witch doctors, and spiritual healers battle the spirit in attempts to return to a normal life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Dead (2022)
Criminology student Chloe fakes her own death to break into a morgue, in order to retrieve a piece of evidence that ties her younger brother to a crime gone wrong. Once inside, she discovers that a sadistic coroner is using the corpses for his sick and twisted business, and when he realises that Chloe still has a pulse, a terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSightless (2020)
After an attack renders her blind, Ellen withdraws from the world to recover. But soon she plunges into paranoia, unable to convince anyone that her assailant has returned to terrorize her by hiding in plain sight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFunny Games (2008)
When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSee No Evil (1971)
In the English countryside, Sarah Rexton, recently blinded in a horse riding accident, moves in with her uncle's family and gallantly adjusts to her new condition, unaware that a killer stalks them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackwood (2014)
Having recovered from a shattering emotional breakdown, college professor Ben Marshall relocates to the countryside with his wife and young son, hoping for a fresh start. He has a teaching job lined up and a new home to move into; things finally look to be going Ben's way. Until, that is, he starts to feel that something isn't quite right in the house. Finding himself plagued by spectral visions, Ben becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a local mystery that appears to be putting the lives of his family in danger
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Virgin of the Quarry Lake (2026)
On the eve of the 2001 outbreak, a young woman falls for her lifelong friend but turns to incantations and curses with her grandmother's help when a more experienced rival threatens their romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisUnseen (2023)
Sam receives a call from Emily, a near blind woman who is running from her murderous ex in the woods. Can she survive using Sam as her eyes via video call?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKimi (2022)
A tech worker with agoraphobia discovers recorded evidence of a violent crime but is met with resistance when she tries to report it. Seeking justice, she must do the thing she fears the most: leave her apartment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHider in the House (1989)
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucy (2025)
Plagued by OCD and agoraphobia, Lucy hasn't left her apartment in years. But as therapy shows promise, a dark, hostile force emerges from her subconscious into reality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Visitation (2006)
In Antioch, the former Father Travis Jordan lost his faith on God three years ago when his beloved wife was murdered and the criminals never found. Suddenly, miracles happen in the little town: the son of the newcomer and veterinary Morgan Elliot survives a car accident without a single scratch; Travis's dog Max revives after being buried; a paraplegic walks; a wounded woman and her father with b
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Ghost Train (1941)
Mismatched travellers are stranded overnight at a lonely rural railway station. They soon learn of local superstition about a phantom train which is said to travel these parts at dead of night, carrying ghosts from a long-ago train wreck in the area.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Premature Burial (1962)
An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational fear of premature burial consumes him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vourdalak (2023)
The Marquis d’Urfé finds refuge in the home of a strange family after becoming lost in a hostile forest while working as an emissary for the King of France.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Taking an ill-advised detour en-route to California, the Carter family soon run into trouble when their RV breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, they find themselves at the mercy of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed (2008)
Avery, a reclusive older man, has a best friend in his dog, Red. When three teens kill Red without reason, Avery sets out for justice and redemption, attempting to follow the letter of the law. But when the law fails him, and the boys' father clearly defines right and wrong in his own way, Avery must avenge himself by any means possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIllusive Tracks (2003)
Christmas 1945. In a train from Stockholm to Berlin are a motley collection. It is the failure of the author Gunnar who wants to leave his old life and make a contribution in Berlin; physician Henry who plan to marry Marie and likewise Henry's current wife Karin, who he plans to kill during the journey, the middle-aged gay couple Pompe and Sixten, a soldier going to Uppsala but is on the wrong train: the cheerful and cynical old Margaret, and a dressed elf and a surly conductor. With the train are also a number of Baltic refugees accompanied by two nuns to be sent to Germany.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
scratch (2024)
A nonverbal voodooist hunts unmannerly commuters while concocting an ill-fated plan to ease an unscratchable itch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhqIvQmLSlg
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Long Night (2025)
When her brother disappears, Anna enlists a violent man from her past to extract the truth and drags her partner into a night of brutality that may cost them more than just their conscience.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Like The Instinct and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Instinct?
The closest matches to The Instinct are Mexican Psycho (2026), Daddy's Little Girl (2014) and The Shed (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Instinct?
Start with Mexican Psycho (2026), the closest match to The Instinct.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Instinct?
Sightless (2020), rated 6.7/10 by 434 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Instinct?
Mexican Psycho (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Instinct?
Yes: Mexican Psycho (2026), The House of Snails (2021) and The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962).
How are movies similar to The Instinct chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Instinct, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.