Movies like The Children (2008)
The best movies like The Children (2008) are The Advent Calendar (2021), Silent Night (2012) and Toolbox Murders (2004). If The Children hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Advent Calendar (2021)6.7/10 from 421 votes
- NewestSilent Night, Deadly Night (2025)Released 2025
The Advent Calendar (2021)
Eva, an ex-dancer, is now living in a wheelchair, unable to walk. When her friend Sophie gives her an old wooden antique advent calendar before Christmas, she realizes each window contains a surprise that triggers repercussions in real life: some of them good, but most of them bad... Now Eva will have to choose between getting rid of the calendar or walking again… even if it causes death around her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Night (2012)
As their small Midwestern town prepares for its annual Christmas Eve parade, a sheriff and his deputy discover that a maniac in a Santa suit is murdering those he judges as naughty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisToolbox Murders (2004)
A historic Hollywood hotel houses a supernatural evil. It's been subdued for decades, but when renovations start, a series of murders take place.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBaby Blues (2008)
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisP2 (2007)
A businesswoman finds herself locked with a unhinged security guard in a parking garage after getting stuck working late on Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWind Chill (2007)
Two college students share a ride home for the holidays. When they break down on a deserted stretch of road, they're preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDead End (2003)
On Christmas Eve, while driving to see his in-laws with his family, Frank Harrington decides to try a shortcut for the first time in 20 years. It turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarricade (2012)
A father's quiet retreat to the woods with his two children turns into a fight for survival.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Traveler (2010)
On a dark Christmas Eve in a small town, the lone Sheriffs on the night shift encounter a mysterious man who goes by the name of Mr. Nobody. As the night progresses, the Sheriffs discover that this isn't just a nobody, but a vengeful killer whose past threatens to haunt them all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Christmas (2006)
As the residents of sorority house Pi Kappa Sigma prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins a series of obscene phone calls with dubious intentions...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Christmas Horror Story (2015)
Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, peace and goodwill. But for some folks in the small town of Bailey Downs, it turns into something much less festive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisChristmas Evil (1980)
Garbed in his red suit, Harry, a toy factory worker, decides that the only thing he can do to save the spirit of Christmas is to become Santa Claus himself and make all of the naughty townspeople pay... in blood!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisWake Wood (2011)
The parents of a girl who was killed by a savage dog are granted the opportunity to spend three days with their deceased daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSilent Night, Deadly Night (2025)
After witnessing his parents' brutal murder on Christmas Eve, Billy transforms into a Killer Santa, delivering a yearly spree of calculated, chilling violence. This year, his blood-soaked mission collides with love, as a young woman challenges him to confront his darkness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & 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: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJackals (2017)
Set in the 1980s, an estranged family hires a cult deprogrammer to take back their teenage son from a murderous cult, but find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisAutopsy (2008)
Emily Johnson, her boyfriend Bobby and their friends Clare and Jude are recent college grads driving cross-country, taking a last vacation together before they face the "real" world. An accident leaves them hurt and stranded on a lonely Louisiana road. When the ambulance arrives, it whisks them to Mercy Hospital.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrace (2009)
In the wake of a horrific car accident that kills her husband, Michael, expectant mother Madeline Matheson discovers that her daughter, Grace, has died in the womb. Ignoring her doctor's warnings that the fetus must be removed from her body, a grief-stricken Matheson demands to carry the child to term -- even if it endangers her own life to do so. Curiously, little Grace emerges undead -- and with a craving for human blood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBetter Watch Out (2017)
On a quiet suburban street tucked within a 'safe neighborhood', a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from strangers breaking into the house, only to discover that this is far from a normal home invasion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight of the Reaper (2025)
College student Deena visits home and is roped into babysitting. The local sheriff is mailed a piece of evidence and is led on a scavenger hunt to reveal the killer of another babysitter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloody Birthday (1981)
In 1970, three children are born at the height of a total eclipse. Due to the sun and moon blocking Saturn, which controls emotions, they have become heartless killers ten years later, and are able to escape detection because of their youthful and innocent facades. A boy and his teenage sister become endangered when they stumble onto the bloody truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmerican Gothic (1987)
When six friends fly off on a weekend getaway and are suddenly plagued by engine trouble, they're forced to land on a remote island. Looking for shelter, they're grateful to encounter Ma and Pa and their children - an eccentric family living in the island's backwoods. But what begins as simple hospitality turns into a terrifying race for survival as the friends start disappearing one by one ... and turning up dead.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strangers (2008)
After a 4 a.m. knock at the door and haunting voices, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt’s remote getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as three masked strangers invade. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
After a man dressed as Santa Claus brutally murders Billy Chapman's parents, little Billy then endures the cruelty of a sadistic nun at his orphanage. Years later, when adult Billy has to fill in for an absent in-store Santa, his childhood trauma brings him to the breaking point.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDial Code Santa Claus (1990)
Thomas de Frémont, a precocious child obsessed with action films, sets himself up for a terrifying Christmas Eve after he unwittingly makes contact with a deranged psychopath who claims he's Santa Claus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisFrom Within (2008)
When the citizens of a small evangelical town systematically begin committing suicide, a young girl struggling to reconcile her Christian upbringing with her desire to experience the outside world finds her faith put to the ultimate test.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisCrawlspace (2022)
After witnessing a brutal murder in a cabin, a man hides in a crawlspace while the killers scour the property for a hidden fortune. As they draw nearer, he must decide if the crawlspace will be his tomb or the battleground in his fight for survival.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHush (2008)
A young couple on a motorway journey are drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a truck driver when they see something disturbing in the back of his vehicle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNight of the Hunted (2023)
When an unsuspecting woman stops at a remote gas station in the dead of night, she's made the plaything of a sociopath sniper with a secret vendetta. To survive, she must not only dodge his bullets and fight for her life, but also figure out who wants her dead and why.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Children?
The closest matches to The Children are The Advent Calendar (2021), Silent Night (2012) and Toolbox Murders (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Children?
People who watched The Children most often go on to The Advent Calendar (2021), Silent Night (2012) and Toolbox Murders (2004).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Children?
The Advent Calendar (2021), rated 6.7/10 by 421 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Children?
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Children?
Yes: Silent Night (2012), Toolbox Murders (2004) and Baby Blues (2008).
How are movies similar to The Children chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Children, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.