Movies like Day of the Cicada
The best movies like Day of the Cicada are Phase IV (1974), The Return (2020) and The Bay (2012). If Day of the Cicada hooked you with its science fiction and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Fly (1986)7.5/10 from 5,261 votes
- NewestOsiris (2025)Released 2025
Phase IV (1974)
Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return (2020)
After the death of his father, a brilliant college student returns to his family home where he learns that the horrors from his childhood aren't as dead and gone as he once thought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bay (2012)
Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisDark Light (2019)
A woman returns to her family home and discovers it to be inhabited by monsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBooks of Blood (2020)
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Island Earth (1955)
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn of the Fly (1959)
Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Asphyx (1972)
Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hidden (1987)
When average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher determine the cause.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOsiris (2025)
Special Forces commandos on a mission are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft. Upon waking aboard, they find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonster Hunters (2020)
When an alien prison ship crash lands and unleashes creature after creature in the California desert, they make quick work of the army that tries to stop them. Now, the only hope of stopping the aliens rests with a secret branch of the government specializing in alien weaponry. But with the team untested in actual combat, the battle for Earth will be brutal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThem! (1954)
As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fly (1986)
When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYear 10 (2024)
After the fall of civilization, the few survivors have been driven to cannibalism. A young man must confront a violent tribe that has murdered his father and stolen the medicine that keeps his girlfriend alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtinction (2015)
And suddenly, overnight, the world came to a halt. Two men, two survivors, one kid, and hatred that separates them. A place forgotten by everyone, including the creatures that inhabit the Earth... until now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Kill It (2016)
Demon hunter Jebediah Huntley teams up with an FBI agent to battle a supernatural force in the southern state of Mississippi.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crazies (2010)
Four friends find themselves trapped in their small hometown after they discover their friends and neighbors going quickly and horrifically insane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien³ (1992)
After escaping with Newt and Hicks from the alien planet, Ripley crash lands on Fiorina 161, a prison planet and host to a correctional facility. Unfortunately, although Newt and Hicks do not survive the crash, a more unwelcome visitor does. The prison does not allow weapons of any kind, and with aid being a long time away, the prisoners must simply survive in any way they can.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Monkey (1987)
A man pricks his finger while tending to an exotic plant and is rushed to the ER, where he is diagnosed with a bacterial infection before a worm-like parasite emerges from his mouth. As the infection spreads throughout the ER, the parasite is exposed to a genetic growth stimulant, which causes it grow to monstrous proportions and terrorize the hospital.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Millennium Bug (2011)
When the Haskin family seeks refuge from Y2K hysteria in the isolated forests of the Sierra Diablos mountains, madness and terror find them there. Abducted by a vicious hillbilly clan, the Haskins fight for survival, but neither they nor the hillbilly Crawfords can comprehend the monstrous nightmare about to erupt from the bowels of the earth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
24 Hours to Live (2017)
An assassin seeks redemption after being given a second chance at life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSauna (2008)
It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in an age with no use for such men. They find themselves in the swampy interior, demarcating the new border with a unit of sadistic Russians.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)
After ex-con Jimmy and his girlfriend are brutally murdered by a biker gang, he is resurrected by the power of The Crow to avenge their deaths and reunite with her in the afterlife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSlice (2024)
A shocking story at a sobriety meeting leads to several tales of men who have given up their manhood for fame or drugs
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
During a shootout in a saloon, Sheriff Hunt injures a suspicious stranger. The doctor's assistant, wife of the local foreman, tends to him in prison. That night, the town is attacked and they both disappear—only the arrow of a cannibal tribe is found. Hunt and a few of his men go in search of the prisoner and the foreman's wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hitcher (1986)
On a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has appeared out of nowhere, thinking that a good conversation will help him not to fall asleep. He will have enough time to deeply regret such an unmeditated decision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShadows on the Glass (2025)
In the stillness of a dark, lonely house, Lucas struggles to cope with the recent death of his partner, Bethany Clark. As he returns home after an emotionally exhausting day, he is confronted by memories and supernatural occurrences that blur the line between reality and grief.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Day of the Cicada?
The closest matches to Day of the Cicada are Phase IV (1974), The Return (2020) and The Bay (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Day of the Cicada?
Start with Phase IV (1974), the closest match to Day of the Cicada.
What is the highest-rated movie like Day of the Cicada?
The Fly (1986), rated 7.5/10 by 5,261 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Day of the Cicada?
Osiris (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Day of the Cicada?
Yes: Phase IV (1974), The Return (2020) and The Bay (2012).
How are movies similar to Day of the Cicada chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Day of the Cicada, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.