Movies like Children of Happiness (2024)
The best movies like Children of Happiness (2024) are Frank and Penelope (2022), Strange Darling (2024) and The Jester 2 (2025). If Children of Happiness 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 ratedKiss Me Deadly (1955)7.2/10 from 434 votes
- NewestThe Moddey Dhoo (2025)Released 2025
Frank 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 thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Jester 2 (2025)
When teen magician Max crosses paths with the sinister Jester on Halloween night, she must outsmart a supernatural killer whose magic is all too real and whose tricks always end up in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)
Broke, and in desperate need to update her portfolio, New York City model Katie calls a number from a tear-off flyer offering free photos. But this innocent attempt quickly turns into an unthinkable kidnapping nightmare where she's ripped away from everyone and everything she knows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisCheat (2023)
On the surface it's believed to be another urban legend - a supernatural being from the afterlife is violently killing anyone who cheats on their significant other in the small college town of Silvercreek, Pennsylvania. But the town's unusually high suicide rate is finally convincing both locals and college students that everything is not as it seems. When Maeve - a female college student - sleeps with Charlie, the married man of the host family she is staying with, both sense the deadly curse is closing in on them. Unable to get anyone to believe them, Maeve and Charlie seek out a local history student to help find answers and figure out a way to defend themselves. It all comes undone, however, as several people are horrifically killed by the savage being - one-by-one at a rapid pace. Eventually, Maeve, Charlie and the few survivors band together in an attempt to defeat the monster once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMurphy's Law (1986)
A tough police detective escapes from custody after being framed and arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, and must now find the real killer and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouthbound (2015)
On a desolate stretch of desert highway, weary travelers — two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation — are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Resurrected (1991)
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Children (2008)
A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeartless (2010)
Jamie Morgan is a troubled young man with a facial birthmark, which has left him isolated and fearful, hiding from the world outside. He lives in the East End, notorious for its violent hooded gangs. According to news reports, the gangs are now wearing demon masks. But, one night, after the murder of his mother, Jamie discovers the terrifying truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeath Machine (1995)
Chaank Armaments is experimenting with the ultimate fighting machine which is part human - part machine. So far, the Hardman project has been unreliable and has killed a number of innocent people. The genius behind this project is Jack who lives in a world of models, toys and magazines. When he is fired by Cale for killing a few corporate officers, he unleashes the ultimate killing machine called the 'Warbeast' against Cale and those who would help her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Final (2010)
A group of high school outcasts get revenge on the students that torment them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRisqué (2025)
Fired from a strip club, a vengeful dancer masterminds a high-stakes heist with fellow strippers to take down the corrupt boss and the men who underestimate them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHobo with a Shotgun (2011)
A vigilante homeless man pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in urban chaos, a city where crime rules and where the city's crime boss reigns. Seeing an urban landscape filled with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused prostitutes and even a pedophile Santa, the Hobo goes about bringing justice to the city the best way he knows how - with a 20-gauge shotgun. Mayhem ensues when he tries to make things better for the future generation. Street justice will indeed prevail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNarrow Margin (1990)
An L.A. District Attorney attempts to take an unwilling murder witness back to the United States to testify against a top-level mob boss. Frantically attempting to escape two deadly hitmen sent to silence her, they board a Vancouver-bound train only to discover that the killers are onboard with them. For the next 20 hours, as the train hurls through the beautiful but isolated Canadian wilderness, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues in which their ability to tell friend from foe is a matter of life and death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiss Me Deadly (1955)
One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he hears Christina being tortured until she dies. Hammer, both for vengeance and in hopes that "something big" is behind it all, decides to pursue the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisJohn Doe: Vigilante (2014)
When John Doe is convicted of being a vigilante serial killer, a vigilante group named 'Speak for the Dead' emerges in support of John's cause—elevating the debate about justice versus vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisValencia - Chapter I (2016)
One December night, Alice works as a babysitter while the baby's parents go out for the night. As time passes and the night deepens, she begins to receive chilling threats from a man who seems to be watching her from every blind spot in the darkness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Papa-Figo (2018)
A child's play turns out to be a nightmare when they set out to challenge an urban legend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
BEYOND SIGHT (2025)
In Beyond Sight, Dália is a teenager desperate to belong, even if it means adopting the cruel prejudices of her toxic group of friends. But when an unexpected accident leaves her blind, Dália finds herself on the other side of the judgment she once inflicted. Struggling to adapt, she crosses paths with a mysterious doctor who offers her a chance to regain her sight—through an experimental substance that promises not just vision, but a transformation into her best self: Zoe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The First Wave (2014)
Following the outbreak of an aggressive virus, a young woman awakes in a hospital bed. As the horrifying events that led her there are revealed, it becomes clear that the cure is just the beginning. This short film is a prequel for the feature film, The Third Wave, which was written at the Binger FilmLab 2012. The project also won the Best Story Pitch award at the Edinburgh Film Festival, June 2012.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Last Light (2017)
A girl finds a boy tied up in an abandoned house on her family's land.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Snuff: A Director's Cut (2008)
An intense and disturbing horror short film made in 2008 for the "CUT!" competition. British channel Zone Horror. The work explores the sinister atmosphere behind the production of a snuff film from the director's point of view. It was selected among the 10 finalists of the competition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Daughters of Darkness, revised and corrected (1987)
The daughters of Pandora on a special mission ...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Refused (1980)
Frieda Liappa in this short film casts an alternative gaze on the notion of historicity. Loukia is a teenager currently staying at her cousin’s house in Athens. Unlike her cousin she is timid and quite stressed for the school exam. She studies history. Between the lines of her book the historical events sprung up in a multidimensional way. Liappa transverses the dimensions of the real the imaginary and the symbolic. She invites the viewer to consider the construction of the filmic as well as the historical text. She succeeds in making a film with an open end and to leave room for our own contingent constructions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Moddey Dhoo (2025)
Past and present collide when a mythical beast is reawakened by a couple exploring a historic castle on the Isle of Man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Children of Happiness?
The closest matches to Children of Happiness are Frank and Penelope (2022), Strange Darling (2024) and The Jester 2 (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Children of Happiness?
Start with Frank and Penelope (2022), the closest match to Children of Happiness.
What is the highest-rated movie like Children of Happiness?
Kiss Me Deadly (1955), rated 7.2/10 by 434 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Children of Happiness?
The Moddey Dhoo (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Children of Happiness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Children of Happiness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.