Movies like Absent (2025)
The best movies like Absent (2025) are The Jester (2016), I Bury the Living (1958) and Brand Upon the Brain! (2007). If Absent hooked you with its horror and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMy Name Is Khan (2010)8.0/10 from 1,527 votes
- NewestThe Moonlight Detective (2026)Released 2026
The Jester (2016)
The Jester is the titular main antagonist of the horror/thriller analogy short films of the same name. He is an enigmatic and malevolent being who enjoys inducing suffering to individuals he comes across who don't appreciate his own tricks or break the rules of Halloween.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Bury the Living (1958)
The new manager of a small-town cemetery becomes convinced that he triggered the untimely deaths of several plot owners by tampering with a certain map. When nobody believes him, he risks his sanity to play God once again and prove his point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Stalker (1972)
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFramed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017)
In the small resort town of Lighthouse Cove, everyone knows that the best man for the job is a woman. And that woman is Shannon Hughes, owner of a construction company and an expert in Victorian home restoration and renovation. Through her renovations she will find clues to uncover the house’s secret past and in turn become an unlikely sleuth to help crack these unsolved mysteries
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bundle of Trouble: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
Aurora Teagarden and her boyfriend Martin are thrilled when they get an unexpected visit from his niece and her new baby. Their excitement is short lived when his niece disappears and the baby is left behind. Once again, Aurora finds herself drawn into a deadly investigation as she risks it all to help Martin reunite with his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Night Strangler (1973)
After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
Librarian and real crime buff Aurora “Roe” Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead. When his body is found outside of Aurora’s home, she then becomes the main suspect. Determined to find the killer and clear her name, Aurora can't help but to get involved once again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLast Scene Alive: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2018)
There is excitement in the air when a Hollywood crew comes to Lawrenceton to film a movie about the town’s sleuthy librarian, Aurora Teagarden. However, when the film’s leading lady is found murdered in her dressing room, Aurora enlists her Real Murders Club members to help gather clues. At the same time, she experiences mounting concern that Aida is becoming attracted to the film’s director who, like everyone else working on the set that day, is considered a suspect. And this time around Martin is especially worried about Aurora’s safety after learning that the film’s screenwriter, who has a romantic history with her, emerges as the prime suspect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2016)
Aurora Teagarden is a beautiful young librarian with a passion for solving murders. After an exhaustive search for the perfect home, Aurora finally purchases her dream house, unaware of its murky history. As she prepares to move in, Aurora discovers that the family who once lived there mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSite Unseen: An Emma Fielding Mystery (2017)
Brilliant, dedicated, and driven, archaeologist Emma Fielding is trying to unearth evidence of a 17th century coastal Maine settlement that predates Jamestown, one of the most significant archaeological finds in years. But the dead body that accompanies it has embroiled Emma and her students in a different kind of exploration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpellbound (1945)
When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDonovan's Echo (2011)
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Sale Mystery: A Case Of Murder (2017)
Jenn buys an old reel-to-reel recorder at a garage sale only to find that it includes the sound of a man pleading for his life. When the former owner of the recorder, a retired therapist, is found murdered in a patient’s apartment, Jenn’s investigation leads to other patients whose love lives are more entangled than she was first led to believe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight of the Demon (1957)
American professor John Holden arrives in London for a conference on parapsychology only to discover that the colleague he was supposed to meet was killed in a freak accident the day before. It turns out that the deceased had been investigating a cult lead by Dr. Julian Karswell. Though a skeptic, Holden is suspicious of the devil-worshiping Karswell. Following a trail of mysterious manuscripts, Holden enters a world that makes him question his faith in science.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2018)
Internet sensation and old family friend of Aurora Teagarden, Poppy Wilson, has returned to Lawrenceton to start her new embroidery business. But not everyone is happy with Poppy's success when she turns up dead. To find the killer, Roe must follow the unsettling truths that lead her—into the path of the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarnival of Souls (1962)
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder in Three Acts (1986)
In Acapulco, Hercule Poirot attends a dinner party in which one of the guests clutches his throat and suddenly dies. The causes seem to be natural until another party with most of the same guests produces another corpse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Look Back (2021)
The plot of the film takes place in a foreign company located in southern Serbia. The warehouse manager enjoys his free weekend, which is interrupted by a warehouse worker who invites him to come to the warehouse in order to have a serious conversation with a new client from London. The manager had no idea what had happened there and what is yet to happen in the warehouse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Girl Upstairs (2022)
A successful but isolated artist, struggling with agoraphobia, has her life turned upside down when one of her works of art comes to life. At first, she joyfully accepts this reprieve from her self-imposed exile, but her new friends are not all they seem, and her small world starts to come apart as her fear of the outside comes into conflict with her new creations and their need for freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & mystery
Meurtre du tableau (2025)
An artist, surrounded by the mess in her studio, struggles with frustration as she tries to find inspiration for her new painting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Terrorise (2024)
Quaid and Kurk escape from prison and kidnap a pretty woman to ensure their protection. Kurk dislikes the way Quaid treats her, and the two begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game with two corrupt police officers Doug & Charles hot on their trail. Terrorise is the ultimate & Final Cut of the cult exploitation film Tortured. It has been remastered from the original camera tapes, re-cut, re-graded, re-scored, new and alternate footage all to create the directors closest vision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Moonlight Detective (2026)
A grieving sister reaches out to a mysterious detective to investigate her brother's strange disappearance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Mama Minta Hotspot (2024)
A documentary filmmaker team is haunted by a series of supernatural events while working on a documentary about the urban legend "Mama Minta Hotspot".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Classmate (2024)
At her best friend’s burial, a young woman bumps into an old classmate she used to bully, unaware that she’s changed radically over the last ten years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Akechi Kogoro vs. Kindaichi Kosuke (2005)
The two most famous Japanese mystery characters have come together to solve a crime. A year ago, a man was trying to commit suicide by jumping off a police station building. He was rescued by two men who happened to be the well known Akechi Kogoro and Kosuke Kindaichi. The famous duo were asked to be witnesses and provide information for the police record. From the surface, it was a simple case of suicide. However, soon after the incident, the police lieutenant committed suicide in his office. Slowly from the gathered evidence, the two most unlikely cases are being linked.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Alfred Hitchcat Presents Banquo's Chair (2025)
Another Purradise Ranch production with “talking cat actors,” featuring Detective Purrlock Holmes investigating a murder in a mansion haunted by feline ghosts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
My Name Is Khan (2010)
Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, has Asperger's syndrome. He marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who treat him as a terrorist because of his condition and his race.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Absent?
The closest matches to Absent are The Jester (2016), I Bury the Living (1958) and Brand Upon the Brain! (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Absent?
Start with The Jester (2016), the closest match to Absent.
What is the highest-rated movie like Absent?
My Name Is Khan (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 1,527 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Absent?
The Moonlight Detective (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Absent?
Yes: The Jester (2016), I Bury the Living (1958) and Brand Upon the Brain! (2007).
How are movies similar to Absent chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Absent, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.