Movies like 8 1/2 (2024)
The best movies like 8 1/2 (2024) are Welcome to Chechnya (2020), Porno (2019) and GirlHouse (2014). If 8 1/2 hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFear (1996)6.7/10 from 1,150 votes
- NewestRicky Gervais: Mortality (2025)Released 2025
Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPorno (2019)
When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirlHouse (2014)
In an attempt to make some extra cash while away at College, Kylie moves into a house that streams content to an X-rated website. After a deranged fan hacks in to determine the house's location, she finds herself in a terrifying fight for her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShades of Desire (2023)
After her twin sister Aubrey goes missing, Jennifer uncovers the scandalous, secret double-life that Aubrey leads - and that has put both of them in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPretty Persuasion (2005)
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisRicky Gervais: Mortality (2025)
Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBill Burr: Drop Dead Years (2025)
In what might be his most personal and introspective hour yet, Bill offers hilarious takes on everything from male sadness to dating advice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987)
In this sequel, Scott Wylde, an American kickboxer, must go to Cambodia to rescue his Vietnamese girlfriend from Russian and Vietnamese troops.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear (1996)
Nicole Walker always dreamed of being swept away by someone special — someone strong, sexy and sensitive who would care for her more than anything else in the world. David is all that and more: a modern-day knight who charms and seduces her, body and soul. But her perfect boyfriend is not all he seems to be. His sweet facade masks a savage, dark side that will soon transform Nicole's dream into a nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPhantasm II (1988)
Mike, after his release from a psychiatric hospital, teams up with his old pal Reggie to hunt down the Tall Man, who is at it again. A mysterious, beautiful girl has also become part of Mike's dreams, and they must find her before the Tall Man does.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier (2007)
Carlton Leach rises from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late '80s and early '90s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs (2023)
In a rowdy stand-up set, Shane Gillis riffs on his girlfriend's Navy SEAL ex, touring George Washington's house and being bullied by an Australian Goth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisIn the Soup (1992)
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAl Capone (1959)
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHold the Fort (2025)
A HOA turns out to be more troublesome than usual in this wildly amusing, FX-heavy freak-out about newly minted suburbanites unexpectedly forced to take part in a struggle against monstrous forces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Revenant (2009)
A horror movie/buddy comedy about Joey and his undead friend Bart who comes back from the dead as a revenant: an articulate zombie that needs to drink blood to arrest the decomposition of his body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
After returning to Los Angeles from a group therapy session, documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife, Carol, find themselves becoming vigilante couples counselors, offering unsolicited advice to their best friends, Ted and Alice Henderson. Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons play along, but some latent sexual tension among the four soon comes bubbling to the surface, and long-buried desires don't stay buried for long.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAccident Man (2018)
Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who actually meant something to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHairy Horndogs #3 (2006)
Grab the lube and get ready to stroke to a super erection eve full of bristled beef cakes and tuffed muscle hunks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Damon and Hunter: Doing It Together (2006)
Comstock Films has created a unique film series that explores sexual relationships among couples. Each film focuses on one couple and begins with an intimate interview that sets up the background of the couple's relationship: how they met, the basis of their intimacy, what attracts them sexually to one another, and how they share their innermost desires and fantasies. The camera then turns to an intimate lovemaking session, recording in detail the passion and eroticism that exists between the two. Coverage is explicit, but not provocative; it allows viewers to share in the couple's healthy, passionate, romantic relationship and to experience first hand the erotic intimacy of their lovemaking. Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together features the first gay relationship in the series. Damon and Hunter are two adult film stars on the rise, but are also real-life lovers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
I'm a Porn Star (2013)
I'm a Porn Star follows the lives of guys in the neighborhood who are likely a lot more famous than you - at least on the Internet. There are an estimated 370 million pornographic websites on-line. Porn is now a thirteen BILLION dollar business. So who's doing all this moonlighting? Turns out -- probably some people you know.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Fluffer (2001)
Self-effacing, boyish Sean moves to LA to pursue a career in movies but finds it tougher than he imagined. He stumbles onto porn star Johnny Rebel - a handsome, muscled dream of men and women alike - who awakens Sean’s deep obsession.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisHustler White (1996)
Reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard, the action is transposed from the silver screen's old backlots to contemporary male prostitution and the pornographic industry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisPiss Off X (2021)
A historic underground gay document. Shocking. Intimate. Taboo. A behind-the-scenes look at the performance art of a millennial artist who travels the world performing in public spaces using the medium of piss, video and the internet to break social norms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Beautiful Beings (2022)
A teenage boy, raised by a mother who considers herself psychic, takes a bullied kid into his group of violent misfits. As the group’s troubles escalate toward life-threatening situations, an inner voice awakens in the boy and, with the help of his mother and his new friend, he manages to find his own path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ages of Lulu (1990)
Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTips (2016)
Mario (Thiago Cazado) is in debt. To pay the bills, he displays the body on a famous porn site.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography (1998)
Every image in The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography comes from gay erotic videos produced in Eastern Europe since the introduction of capitalism. The video provides a glimpse of young men responding to the pressures of an unfamiliar world, one in which money, power and sex are now connected.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like 8 1/2?
The closest matches to 8 1/2 are Welcome to Chechnya (2020), Porno (2019) and GirlHouse (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after 8 1/2?
Start with Welcome to Chechnya (2020), the closest match to 8 1/2.
What is the highest-rated movie like 8 1/2?
Fear (1996), rated 6.7/10 by 1,150 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like 8 1/2?
Ricky Gervais: Mortality (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to 8 1/2 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside 8 1/2, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.