Movies like The Painter (2020)
The best movies like The Painter (2020) are Songbird (2020), Eradication (2022) and The Desperate Hour (2022). If The Painter hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHidden (2015)6.9/10 from 1,297 votes
- NewestLazareth (2024)Released 2024
Songbird (2020)
During a pandemic lockdown, Nico, a young man with rare immunity, must overcome martial law, murderous vigilantes and a powerful family to reunite with his love, Sara.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEradication (2022)
When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Desperate Hour (2022)
A woman desperately races to save her child after police place her hometown on lockdown due to an active shooter incident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoomsday (2008)
The lethal Reaper virus spreads throughout Britain—infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Authorities brutally and successfully quarantine the country but, three decades later, the virus resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Calling (2014)
Detective Hazel Micallef hasn't had much to worry about in the sleepy town of Port Dundas until a string of gruesome murders in the surrounding countryside brings her face to face with a serial killer driven by a higher calling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisYou'll Never Find Me (2024)
Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick’s intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuce (2019)
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to light, putting a strain on family bonds while igniting intense debates on race and identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHidden (2015)
A family takes refuge in a fallout shelter to avoid a dangerous outbreak.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHider in the House (1989)
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous Game: The Legacy Murders (2022)
A family reunion at a remote mansion takes a lethal turn when they are trapped inside and forced to play a deadly survival game where only one will make it out alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ (2019)
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhisper (2007)
Sinister things begin happening to kidnappers who are holding a young boy for ransom in a remote cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
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 thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead of Winter (1987)
A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLazareth (2024)
Lee is an aunt whose life mission is to protect her orphaned nieces, Imogen and Maeve, from a self-destructing world, raising them in isolation until an outsider threatens their peaceful existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTower Block (2012)
A year after witnessing a murder, residents of Tower Block 31 find themselves being picked off by a sniper, pitting those lucky enough to be alive into a battle for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisInfidelity in Suburbia (2017)
With her husband away at work, and her son at school, Laura dreams of a home-renovation project to supplant her restless days. Elliott, her irresistibly hot private contractor, soon fulfills her more forbidden dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlackwood (2014)
Having recovered from a shattering emotional breakdown, college professor Ben Marshall relocates to the countryside with his wife and young son, hoping for a fresh start. He has a teaching job lined up and a new home to move into; things finally look to be going Ben's way. Until, that is, he starts to feel that something isn't quite right in the house. Finding himself plagued by spectral visions, Ben becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a local mystery that appears to be putting the lives of his family in danger
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Widow (1987)
Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But since Catherine is seemingly a master of disguise and has multiple identities, Alexandra can't prove anything with conventional detective work. With no other option, she goes undercover, pursuing the same man as Catherine, and hoping that Catherine will slip up and reveal her true identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNext to You (2023)
Set five years on from the school days of director Stevan Filipovic's previous film Next to Me, a state of emergency exists and politicians are accused of capitalising on public anxiety around Covid-19, which makes the shocking situation that reunites the characters significantly more extreme. The story centres on Ksenija (newcomer Mina Nikolic), a driven young woman striving to move from tabloid hack to a career journalist in a world of click-bait headlines and showbiz scandals cooked up to feed the masses. Ksenija's personal and professional journey is hampered when Vera tests positive for Coronavirus and Ksenija must question how far she will bend to survive in a climate where political pressure is increasingly overt and can be said to capitalise on fear during the pandemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Charon (2021)
A notorious hacker trapped under strict house arrest has her isolated, regimented world turned upside down when her boyfriend mysteriously begins dialing in with dark and unusual requests.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Bull and the Bear (2021)
Rivalling siblings must enlist the help of a remote Hacker to wage financial war against each others' businesses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Nightmare (2020)
A heartbroken young lady battles sinister urges and accidentally attracts Death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
No Tomorrow (2021)
Ben attempts to prove that he is stuck in a time-loop amidst the global pandemic, documenting the banality of this recurring day on his iPhone. But he soon realizes his hypothesis isn’t asking the right questions. With the unwitting help of his friend, Jeremy, Ben discovers that he is shifting through the multiverse and sets out to discover if a return to his previous existence is possible before his alternate realities run out and existence as we know it comes to an end.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Citizen (2021)
A collection of personal anecdotes from those who have navigated through a tumultuous year in America.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Musings of an Uninspired Artist (2022)
In the midst of the coronavirus induced lockdown, an artist muses over his lack of inspiration.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Isolation (2021)
An anthology of nine horror shorts filmed under the social distancing and self-isolation requirements of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
What's Left Inside (2021)
Broken up with on the eve of a global lockdown, a man is pushed to the brink of madness by his isolation... only to discover he may not be as alone as he initially thought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
LOCKDOWN: The Doctor Who Fans' Survival Guide (2021)
During the COVID19 pandemic, a call went out to fans of the BBC TV science fiction series DOCTOR WHO to film personal videos of how they coped with being confined in their homes for months on end. Shot on mobile phones, laptops, tablets and cameras …anything they could lay their hands on … the following film is the result. It's an inspiring tale of the indomitable human spirit - all wrapped up in some utterly unique stories and videos!
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Painter?
The closest matches to The Painter are Songbird (2020), Eradication (2022) and The Desperate Hour (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Painter?
Start with Songbird (2020), the closest match to The Painter.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Painter?
Hidden (2015), rated 6.9/10 by 1,297 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Painter?
Lazareth (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Kannada movies like The Painter?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to The Painter chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Painter, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.