Movies like The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
The best movies like The Manchurian Candidate (2004) are The Guest (2014), Unknown (2006) and The Ninth Configuration (1980). If The Manchurian Candidate hooked you with its thriller and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Manchurian Candidate (1962)7.5/10 from 865 votes
- NewestBeast of War (2025)Released 2025
The Guest (2014)
A soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnknown (2006)
Five men wake up in a locked-down warehouse with no memory of who they are. They are forced to figure out who is good and who is bad to stay alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ninth Configuration (1980)
Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusions, allowing them free rein to express their fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore I Go to Sleep (2014)
A woman wakes up every day, remembering nothing as a result of a traumatic accident in her past. One day, new terrifying truths emerge that force her to question everyone around her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDreamscape (1984)
In order to diagnose the psychic traumas suffered by his patients, Dr. Paul Novotny gets young Alex Gardner to enter their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacob's Ladder (1990)
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie, and ex-wife, Sarah, try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer's chiropractor friend, Louis, fails to reach him as he descends into madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRolling Thunder (1977)
A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalloween (2018)
Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMan Down (2016)
When a U.S. Marine returns home from Afghanistan, he finds that the place he once called home is no better than the battlefields he fought on overseas. Accompanied by his best friend, he searches desperately for the whereabouts of his estranged son and wife. In their search, the two intercept a man carrying vital information about his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Line of Fire (1993)
Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvent Horizon (1997)
In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlind Horizon (2003)
Left for dead in the remote Southwest, Frank is found clinging to life and in a state of amnesia. As he recovers, ominous memories begin to flash back...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeast of War (2025)
When their boat sinks while crossing the Timor Sea during World War II, a troop of young Australian soldiers must find a way to survive the harsh seas on a quickly shrinking raft. Hundreds of miles from anywhere, they must confront interpersonal conflicts, enemy attacks, and the advances of one very large, very hungry great white shark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUniversal Soldier (1992)
An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier's memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Were Never Really Here (2017)
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunray: Fallen Soldier (2025)
Forced to confront the death of his daughter following a fatal encounter with drugs, ex-military soldier Andy becomes hell-bent on finding those responsible. With nothing to lose, a violent criminal underworld unravels in his wake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cell (2000)
A psychotherapist journeys inside the mind of a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Reckoning (1946)
War heroes Rip Murdock and Johnny Drake are sent to Washington, D.C, to receive top honors for their service. Johnny, seemingly terrified by the publicity that awaits him, jumps off the train and later turns up dead. Suspecting foul play, Rip begins digging into his pal's past. He encounters cover-ups, threats to his own life and deadly femme fatale Coral Chandler.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vanishing (1993)
The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grudge (2004)
An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisJacob's Ladder (2019)
After losing his brother in combat, Jacob Singer returns home from Afghanistan -- only to be pulled into a mind-twisting state of paranoia. Singer soon realizes that his sibling is alive but life is not what it seems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe General's Daughter (1999)
When the body of Army Capt. Elisabeth Campbell is found on a Georgia military base, two investigators, Warrant Officers Paul Brenner and Sara Sunhill, are ordered to solve her murder. What they uncover is anything but clear-cut. Unseemly details emerge about Campbell's life, leading to allegations of a possible military coverup of her death and the involvement of her father, Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlurr (2022)
With progressive blindness setting in, Gayatri has to find answers to her twin sister's unlikely death. As the lines of reality keep getting blurred, is she ready to look the truth in the eye?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
The Truth About Charlie (2002)
Regina meets charming Joshua while vacationing in Martinique, as she contemplates ending her whirlwind marriage to enigmatic Charlie. Upon her return to Paris, she finds that both her apartment and her bank account have been emptied, and her husband has been murdered. Stuck in ever-increasing danger and with four men pursuing her, another stranger offers assistance - but who can she trust?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisShaft (2000)
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanilla Sky (2001)
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCape Fear (1991)
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoneycomb (1969)
Teresa and Peter settle down in their new home after the wedding. Things are going well until her childhood furniture arrives, sending Teresa into horrible flashbacks of turmoil from memories of her youth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Like The Manchurian Candidate and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Manchurian Candidate?
The closest matches to The Manchurian Candidate are The Guest (2014), Unknown (2006) and The Ninth Configuration (1980). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Manchurian Candidate?
Start with The Guest (2014), the closest match to The Manchurian Candidate.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Manchurian Candidate?
The Manchurian Candidate (1962), rated 7.5/10 by 865 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Manchurian Candidate?
Beast of War (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Manchurian Candidate?
Yes: The Guest (2014), Unknown (2006) and The Ninth Configuration (1980).
How are movies similar to The Manchurian Candidate chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Manchurian Candidate, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.