Movies like Staring Contest (2025)
The best movies like Staring Contest (2025) are Mr. Destiny (1990), Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012) and 40 Acres (2025). If Staring Contest hooked you with its fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMortal Kombat II (2026)7.7/10 from 2,780 votes
- NewestMortal Kombat II (2026)Released 2026
Mr. Destiny (1990)
Larry Burrows is unhappy and feels powerless over his life. He believes his entire life could have turned out differently had he not missed that shot in a baseball game when was a kid. One night he meets this mysterious man, who could change his fate by offering him that alternative life he always dreamed of. But as Burrows embarks on this journey of self discovery he realises that even this new life has its problems and drawbacks..
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)
An original story featuring performances by Cirque du Soleil. A young woman is entranced by an Aerialist. When they fall into the dreamlike world of Cirque du Soleil and are separated, they travel through the different tent worlds trying to find each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDr. Strange (1978)
A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDragon Knight (2022)
Many years after the war has been lost, and all the dragons slain, a lone knight travels the lands of Agonos seeking to raise an army against the demon lord Abaddon. When a healer's vision reveals that one dragon still lives, and together with an eager young squire, the knight sets off in search of the fabled creature. As the armies of Abaddon descend on the human kingdoms, the dragon is their last hope of fending off the horde, before it lays waste to the lands of men. But does the creature even exist? And if it does, will it fight for them once more?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPizza Movie (2026)
A group of college students go downstairs to their dorm lobby to get a delivery pizza. There's only one issue: They're insanely high on a homemade drug, turning their simple journey down two sets of stairs into a mind-bendingly transformative quest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeathstalker (2025)
A powerful swordsman known as Deathstalker recovers a cursed amulet from a corpse-strewn battlefield. Marked by dark magic and hunted by monstrous assassins, he must face the rising evil and break the curse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisMortal Kombat II (2026)
The fan favorite champions—now joined by Johnny Cage himself—are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArmy of Darkness (1992)
Ash, a handsome, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed department store clerk, is time warped backwards into England's Dark Ages, where he romances a beauty and faces legions of the undead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)
Escaping from poverty to become a witcher, Vesemir slays monsters for coin and glory, but when a new menace rises, he must face the demons of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnderworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
A prequel to the first two Underworld films, this fantasy explains the origins of the feud between the Vampires and the Lycans. Aided by his secret love, Sonja, courageous Lucian leads the Lycans in battle against brutal Vampire king Viktor. Determined to break the king's enslavement of his people, Lucian faces off against the Death Dealer army in a bid for Lycan independence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQueen of the Damned (2002)
Vampire Lestat awakens from his slumber and becomes a rock star. But chaos strikes when his music awakens Akasha, the vampire queen, who may not rest until she makes Lestat her new king.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Boxer Joe Pendleton, flying to his next fight, crashes...because a Heavenly Messenger, new on the job, snatched Joe's spirit prematurely from his body. Before the matter can be rectified, Joe's body is cremated; so the celestial Mr. Jordan grants him the use of the body of wealthy Bruce Farnsworth, who's just been murdered by his wife. Joe tries to remake Farnsworth's unworthy life in his own clean-cut image, but then falls in love; and what about that murderous wife?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)
The vicious, power-mad Kano is determined to take over Earthrealm, one soul at a time. Assisted by a trio of cold Black Dragon mercenaries, he embarks on a brutal assault from town to defenseless town. The choice is simple: kneel or be annihilated. Kenshi, a rebel warrior, calls on Kuai Liang, the only one powerful enough to challenge the malevolent Kano. But Kuai Liang has given up the ways of the warrior, and Kenshi is too undisciplined to defeat Kano himself. If Kuai Liang cannot break through the glacier of doubt that holds him back, Earthrealm will fall.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInjustice (2021)
When Lois Lane is killed, an unhinged Superman decides to take control of the Earth. Determined to stop him, Batman creates a team of freedom-fighting heroes. But when superheroes go to war, can the world survive?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNine Days (2021)
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Lost Lands (2025)
A queen sends the powerful and feared sorceress Gray Alys to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where she and her guide, the drifter Boyce, must outwit and outfight both man and demon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (2025)
When human sailors are attacked by mysterious creatures of the deep, only one person can stop the war between land and sea: the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExcalibur (1981)
Arthur fulfills his fate by bringing together the Knights of the Round Table at Camelot and unifying the country. However, this flawed monarch faces greater tests ahead in pursuit of love, the Holy Grail, and his nation's survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2011)
Amber, a mean popular girl who gets electrocuted and dies, is not allowed to enter into heaven unless she helps the least popular girl in school become Prom Queen within a week, but things do not go as planned.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisJoe's Apartment (1996)
A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhostbusters (1984)
After losing their university jobs, three parapsychologists start a ghost-catching business in New York City and uncover a supernatural threat that could destroy the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLadyhawke (1985)
Captain Etienne Navarre is a man on whose shoulders lies a cruel curse. Punished for loving each other, Navarre must become a wolf by night whilst his lover, Lady Isabeau, takes the form of a hawk by day. Together, with the thief Philippe Gaston, they must try to overthrow the corrupt Bishop and in doing so break the spell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKing Kong (1933)
Adventurous filmmaker Carl Denham sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darrow and his first mate Jack Driscoll, they arrive on an island and discover a legendary creature said to be neither beast nor man. Denham captures the monster to be displayed on Broadway as King Kong, the eighth wonder of the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFantasia (1940)
Walt Disney's timeless masterpiece is an extravaganza of sight and sound! See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Fantasia over and over again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Cars fly, trees fight back, and a mysterious house-elf comes to warn Harry Potter at the start of his second year at Hogwarts. Adventure and danger await when bloody writing on a wall announces: The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. To save Hogwarts will require all of Harry, Ron and Hermione's magical abilities and courage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpice World (1997)
World-famous pop group the Spice Girls zip around London in their luxurious double-decker tour bus having various adventures and performing for their fans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisPractical Magic (1998)
Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian's vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov -- and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreaky Friday (2003)
Mother and daughter bicker over everything -- what Anna wears, whom she likes and what she wants to do when she's older. In turn, Anna detests Tess's fiancé. When a magical fortune cookie switches their personalities, they each get a peek at how the other person feels, thinks and lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiracle on 34th Street (1994)
Six-year-old Susan Walker has doubts about childhood's most enduring miracle—Santa Claus. Her mother told her the secret about Santa a long time ago, but, after meeting a special department store Santa who's convinced he's the real thing, Susan is given the most precious gift of all—something to believe in.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Staring Contest?
The closest matches to Staring Contest are Mr. Destiny (1990), Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012) and 40 Acres (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Staring Contest?
Start with Mr. Destiny (1990), the closest match to Staring Contest.
What is the highest-rated movie like Staring Contest?
Mortal Kombat II (2026), rated 7.7/10 by 2,780 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Staring Contest?
Mortal Kombat II (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Staring Contest?
Yes: Mr. Destiny (1990), Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012) and 40 Acres (2025).
How are movies similar to Staring Contest chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Staring Contest, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.