Movies like Vacation (1971)
The best movies like Vacation (1971) are Shock Corridor (1963), The Unforgivable (2021) and Fathers and Daughters (2015). If Vacation hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGirl, Interrupted (1999)7.6/10 from 4,337 votes
- NewestNight Always Comes (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianThe Raffle (1991)Also in Italian
Shock Corridor (1963)
With the help of his girlfriend Cathy and Dr. Fong, a psychiatrist, ambitious journalist Johnny Barrett poses as a madman in order to be admitted to a mental institution where a bloody murder has been committed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Always Comes (2025)
Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Raffle (1991)
Struggling with a financial crisis, a good-looking widow decides to put herself up for grabs. However, going through with it becomes almost impossible with a new love and the legal system thrown into the mix.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNothing Personal (2009)
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome (2021)
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bill of Divorcement (1932)
A World War I veteran returns home after fifteen years in an asylum and finds that everything has changed — his daughter is grown and about to marry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl, Interrupted (1999)
Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond Reason (1970)
Nuclear war breaks out and the staff and patients of a mental hospital take refuge in an underground bunker and accidentally get locked in. Disciple soon disintegrates and the patients, led by Richard, start to resist authority. Richard devises a scheme for a new social order where the sane will take no part. The doctors try to resist but are ultimately overcome.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Romulus, My Father (2007)
The story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is a story of impossible love that ultimately celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLa Forêt de mon père (2020)
Gina, 15, lives in a city on the edge of the forest. She admires her father, unpredictable and whimsical, able to take his children at night in the woods, even to forget them. Jimmy's more and more frequent skids end up alarming his wife Carole. Soon, the fragile family balance is broken when Jimmy is interned in a psychiatric hospital. When Gina meets Nico, a boy from her neighborhood, she awakens to love and sees a chance to escape her father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
After being released from a mental hospital, a troubled young man tracks down an actress he once had sex with and forces her into captivity, determined to make her part of his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 (2010)
A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble behind closed doors on the lives of other men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNeo Ned (2005)
Like most kids, Ned idolized his father and dreamed of following in his footsteps. Unfortunately, his father was a two-bit crook who spent most of his life in jail. Without a family of his own, Ned falls in with the Aryan Brotherhood. Soon after, Ned is placed in a mental hospital where he is mesmerized by a young black girl who believes Adolf Hitler was reincarnated in her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Snake Pit (1948)
Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Unlikely Romance (2013)
Luisa and Erika are prototypes of young women who plunge into relationships with the "wrong" men. Luisa wants to become an actress, which upsets her husband Igor to no end. Erika is trying to work as much as possible so that she can afford to study and thereby achieve a better outlook on life, but she unfortunately runs up against a boss who doesn't have the best intentions with her. Ultimately Luisa's husband demonstratively commits suicide. Erika accidentally kills her boss in self-defense... The women blame themselves for all these failures, and that has got to change. Both have to grow up and start living again. Perhaps even together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Times Square (1980)
When a 13-year-old girl befriends a defiant antisocial child of the streets, the mismatched runaways set off to the Big Apple to find their own adventure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPsychout for Murder (1969)
Mario consigns his girlfriend Licia to a whorehouse for an evening in order to get the photographic goods to blackmail her father with. To get her out of the way, Licia is then consigned to a mental hospital by her father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Vacation?
The closest matches to Vacation are Shock Corridor (1963), The Unforgivable (2021) and Fathers and Daughters (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Vacation?
Start with Shock Corridor (1963), the closest match to Vacation.
What is the highest-rated movie like Vacation?
Girl, Interrupted (1999), rated 7.6/10 by 4,337 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Vacation?
Night Always Comes (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Vacation?
Yes: The Raffle (1991) and Psychout for Murder (1969).
How are movies similar to Vacation chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Vacation, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.