Movies like Frugal
The best movies like Frugal are Hard Candy (2006), Red (2008) and Natural Born Killers (1994). If Frugal hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Frugal
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRear Window (1954)8.3/10 from 7,496 votes
- NewestTyler Perry's Duplicity (2025)Released 2025
Hard Candy (2006)
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNatural Born Killers (1994)
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisManhattan Night (2016)
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when Caroline, a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband Simon, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But the unexpected return of Sam, after years of absence, deeply disturbs the life of the odd couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHorns (2013)
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTyler Perry's Duplicity (2025)
High-powered attorney Marley faces her most personal case yet when she is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the murder of her best friend Fela’s husband. With the help of her boyfriend – a former cop turned private investigator – Marley’s search for what really happened leads her down a treacherous maze of deception and betrayal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove Suspicion (1995)
Dempsey Cain is an honored cop, a loving husband and father, and mentor to his handsome younger brother. Then a drug dealer's bullet paralyzes him for life and Dempsey's world is shattered. Suddenly, his wife and brother seem to care less about him than for each other, and a million-dollar insurance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Reckless Moment (1949)
After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdulterers (2016)
On a steamy New Orleans afternoon, Sam Deuprey decides to surprise his beautiful wife, Ashley, for their anniversary and comes home early. But Ashley is not alone in the bedroom. She and her lover, Damien are about to learn how far a jealous husband will go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Boy Blue (1998)
Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who look a lot like their brother. The dad harbors a secret, and he goes to murderous lengths to keep it hidden. The young man, Jimmy, who has suspicions, but little comes out until a Yankee woman comes to town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRear Window (1954)
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisActs of Vengeance (2017)
A fast-talking lawyer transforms his body and takes a vow of silence, not to be broken until he finds out who killed his wife and daughter and has his revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream Lover (1994)
Not long after they cross paths at an art gallery, architect Ray Reardon and hypnotically sensual Lena are married with children. But as strange incidents occur, Ray begins to realize he may not really know the woman he married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFourteen Hours (1951)
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNocturnal Animals (2016)
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Brooks (2007)
A psychological thriller about a man who is sometimes controlled by his murder-and-mayhem-loving alter ego.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWakefield (2017)
A man's nervous breakdown causes him to leave his wife and live in his attic for several months.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Thousand and One (2023)
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlow-Up (1966)
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNovember (2004)
Sophie Jacobs is going through the most difficult time of her life. Now, she just has to find out if it's real.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeauty Betrayed (2002)
A gun fires and supermodel Lily Sampson is dead. Two cops, Clark and his new partner Allie, are on the case. Their only clues are a revealing videotape of the victim in a searing game of bondage with a famous fashion photographer, and Lily's high school yearbook which reveals a mysterious twin sister and clues to a lifelong rivalry with another model.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Own Private Idaho (1991)
Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hot Spot (1990)
Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter quickly gets into trouble with the local authorities — and the local women — after he robs a bank.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Morning Sea (TBA)
After the stillbirth of his child, a young photographer Hiroshi, begins to see spirits as he searches for new purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Walls (2020)
A teenage boy named David is afraid of being transparent. When David's best friend, Johnathan, notices his abuse at home, David must overcome his fear of rejection in order to embrace his friend's support.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Intimate Diary of Artists Models (1963)
Naked facts of what goes on and off inside artists' studios.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dreams I Never Had (2018)
A teenage girl is held captive in the home of a wealthy family. She is befriended by the family's young gardener, himself an illegal from Mexico. Their friendship carries both of them through their hopeless, sequestered lives and ultimately inspires them to break free.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Frugal and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Frugal?
The closest matches to Frugal are Hard Candy (2006), Red (2008) and Natural Born Killers (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Frugal?
Start with Hard Candy (2006), the closest match to Frugal.
What is the highest-rated movie like Frugal?
Rear Window (1954), rated 8.3/10 by 7,496 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Frugal?
Tyler Perry's Duplicity (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Frugal?
Yes: Hard Candy (2006), Red (2008) and Natural Born Killers (1994).
How are movies similar to Frugal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Frugal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.