Movies like When a Stranger Comes (1986)
The best movies like When a Stranger Comes (1986) are The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010), The Overnight (2015) and My Favorite Brunette (1947). If When a Stranger Comes hooked you with its mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMemento (2000)8.2/10 from 17,018 votes
- NewestThe Inhabitant (2022)Released 2022
The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010)
When the mystery-solving musician Foxxy Love notices she and her fellow housemates can curse without being bleeped—something they've never been able to do before—she realizes their show has been canceled. Determined to get back on the air, the gang travels to Make-A-Point-Land in order to get a point (and get back on the air).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Overnight (2015)
Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, are new to Los Angeles. A chance meeting at the park introduces them to the mysterious Kurt, Charlotte, and Max. A family “playdate” becomes increasingly interesting as the night goes on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Favorite Brunette (1947)
Ronnie Jackson is a lowly baby photographer who secretly fantasizes about being a private detective. When a lovely baroness actually mistakes him for one and asks him to help locate her missing husband, Baron Montay, Ronnie finds himself agreeing. Several days later he is on death row whiling away the hours until his execution by recounting to a group of reporters the bizarre tale of how he ended up there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
After spending decades living in the shadow of his more famous and successful sibling, Consulting Detective Sigerson Holmes is called upon to help solve a crucial case that leads him on a hilarious trail of false identities, stolen documents, secret codes... and exposed backsides.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caller (2011)
Troubled divorcee Mary Kee is tormented by a series of sinister phone calls from a mysterious woman. When the stranger reveals she's calling from the past, Mary tries to break off contact. But the caller doesn't like being ignored, and looks for revenge in a unique and terrifying way...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMystery Team (2009)
A group of former Encyclopedia Brown-style child-detectives struggle to solve an adult mystery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cheap Detective (1978)
A spoof of the entire 1940s detective genre. San Francisco private detective, Lou Pekinpaugh is accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress—his partner's wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbicon (2017)
In the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisDead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
In an isolated family mansion, a group of rich 20-somethings decides to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, a game where one of them is secretly a "killer" while the rest tries to "escape". Things take a turn for the worse when real bodies start turning up, setting off a paranoid and dangerous chain of events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDressed to Kill (1980)
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisSociety (1990)
Bill Whitney is worried that he is different to his sister and parents. They mix with other upper-class people while Bill is more down to earth. Even his girlfriend seems a bit odd. All is revealed when Bill returns home to find a party in full swing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vast of Night (2019)
At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire (2003)
The Yowie Yahoo starts kidnapping musicians at a concert attended by Scooby and the gang in Vampire Rock, Australia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Christmas (1974)
As the residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to harass them with a series of obscene phone calls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodnight Mommy (2022)
When twin brothers arrive home to find their mother’s demeanor altered and face covered in surgical bandages, they begin to suspect the woman beneath the gauze might not be their mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caller (1987)
One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they're playing a strange mind game and that there's something very wrong about the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisSorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Leona Stevenson is confined to bed and uses her telephone to keep in contact with the outside world. One day she overhears a murder plot on the telephone and is desperate to find out who is the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCurse of the Blair Witch (1999)
A mockumentary exploring the legend of the Blair Witch and the case of the three missing student filmmakers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemento (2000)
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCaché (2005)
As the host of a literary TV show, Georges begins receiving anonymously filmed videos of his family alongside cryptic, disturbing drawings, but as the tapes become increasingly intimate, they reveal a stalker who has known him for a very long time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnife+Heart (2018)
In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisChasing Sleep (2001)
A college professor wakes up to find his wife has not returned home, then struggles to understand her disappearance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Listener (2006)
In the midst of his crumbling relationship, a radio show host begins speaking to his biggest fan—a young boy—via the telephone. But when questions about the boy's identity come up, the host's life is thrown into chaos.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisScream 3 (2000)
As bodies begin dropping around the Hollywood set of STAB 3, the third film based on the gruesome Woodsboro killings, Sidney and other survivors are once again terrorized by another Ghostface killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Eye (2005)
An overnight flight to Miami quickly becomes a battle for survival when Lisa realizes her seatmate plans to use her as part of a chilling assassination plot against the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. If she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed. As the miles tick by, she's in a race against time to find a way to warn the potential victims before it's too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCLEAN (TBA)
"Have you ever answered the wrong call—only to change a life? When a middle-aged sanitation worker picks up a ringing helpline phone, she becomes an unexpected lifeline to a young woman in despair, revealing the quiet power of empathy from society’s most overlooked."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScream 4 (2011)
Fifteen years after the original Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott returns home to promote her new book about surviving trauma, only for a new Ghostface killer to emerge, targeting a new group of teens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When a Stranger Comes?
The closest matches to When a Stranger Comes are The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010), The Overnight (2015) and My Favorite Brunette (1947). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When a Stranger Comes?
Start with The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010), the closest match to When a Stranger Comes.
What is the highest-rated movie like When a Stranger Comes?
Memento (2000), rated 8.2/10 by 17,018 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When a Stranger Comes?
The Inhabitant (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like When a Stranger Comes?
Yes: The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010), The Overnight (2015) and My Favorite Brunette (1947).
How are movies similar to When a Stranger Comes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When a Stranger Comes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.