Movies like Black Narcissus (1947)
The best movies like Black Narcissus (1947) are Stealing Heaven (1988), The Song of Bernadette (1943) and The Nun's Story (1959). If Black Narcissus hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedOrdet (1955)7.9/10 from 437 votes
- NewestSaint Philip Neri: I Prefer Heaven (2010)Released 2010
Stealing Heaven (1988)
Abelard, a famous teacher of philosophy at the cathedral school of Notre Dame, falls in love with one of his students, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. A sixteen-year old girl raised in a convent, Héloïse has an intellectual curiosity and rebels against the status of women in 12th century Europe. When others begin to suspect their relationship, Heloise's uncle Fulbert and the bishop of Paris work together to put a stop to it. Héloïse becomes pregnant with Abelard's child, and they are married in secret. Abelard struggles for acting against the will of God, yet is unable to escape his love for Heloise.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
In 1858 Lourdes, France, adolescent peasant Bernadette has a vision of "a beautiful lady" in the Massabielle grotto - the townspeople assume this lady to be the Virgin Mary. Pompous government officials think the girl is insane, doing their best to suppress her and her followers, while the church wants nothing to do with the matter. But as Bernadette attracts wider and wider attention, the phenomenon overtakes everyone in the town, ultimately transforming their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nun's Story (1959)
After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nun (1967)
In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAngels of Sin (1943)
A well-off young woman decides to become a nun, joining a convent that rehabilitates female prisoners. Through their program, she meets a woman named Thérèse who refuses any help because she says she was innocent of the crime she was convicted for. After being released from prison, Thérèse murders the actual perpetrator of the crime and comes to seek sanctuary in the convent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Go-Between (1971)
British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConvent of Sinners (1986)
Convent of Sinners is the story of Susanna, a young girl who is raped by her own father and sent to a convent for her sins, where she falls in love with a priest. The other nuns, however, are jealous and angry, they want Susanna for themselves, and accuse her of being possessed by the Devil.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
An inexperienced, sickly priest shows up in the rural French community of Ambricourt, where he joins the community's clergy. But the locals don't take kindly to the priest, and his ascetic ways and unsociable demeanor make him an outcast. During Bible studies at the nearby girls school, he is continually mocked by his students. Then his attempt to intervene in a family feud backfires into a scandal. His failures, compounded with his declining health, begin to erode his faith.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThérèse (1986)
The life of little St. Therese of Lisieux, depicted in minimalist vignettes. Therese and her sisters are all nuns in a Carmelite convent. Her devotion to Jesus and her concept of "the little way" to God are shown clearly, using plain modern language. A sense of angelic simplicity comes across without fancy lights, choirs, or showy miracles.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Story of a Cloistered Nun (1973)
Refusing an arranged marriage, young aristocrat Carmela is sent to a convent. Her arrival intensifies the power struggle between the debauched nun Elizabeth and the stern Mother Superior, as both are smitten by Carmela's beauty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Saint Philip Neri: I Prefer Heaven (2010)
One of the most popular saints of all time, St. Philip Neri was widely known for his great charity, deep prayer life, and tremendous humor. Hoping to join St. Ignatius of Loyola's new order of Jesuits and be a missionary to India, Philip was instead guided by Providence to seek out the poor and abandoned youth of Rome to catechize them in the faith and help them find a better life. He became the founder of the religious congregation, the Oratory, that worked with the youth and also labored to re-evangelize a decadent Rome.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTorment (1944)
Jan-Erik Widgren meets the lonely Bertha Olsson, a woman struggling with alcoholism. Though Bertha is already linked to Caligula, Jan-Erik's heartless teacher, she begins a relationship with the boy anyway. When Caligula learns that Jan-Erik is having an affair with Bertha, he begins to torture his student psychologically. He reserves his cruelest behavior for Bertha, however, which results in a tragic turn of events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOrdet (1955)
The three sons of devout Danish farmer Morten have widely disparate religious beliefs. Youngest son Anders shares his father's religion, but eldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while middle child Johannes has become delusional and proclaims that he is Jesus Christ himself. When Mikkel's wife, Inger goes into a difficult childbirth, everyone's beliefs are put to the test.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Crucible (1996)
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Virgin Spring (1960)
Devout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their way through the woods, the girls encounter a group of savage goat herders who brutally rape and murder Karin as Ingeri remains hidden. When the killers unwittingly seek refuge in the farmhouse of Töre and Märeta, Töre plots a fitting revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNazarín (1959)
A Catholic priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but others do not return the favor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisQuills (2000)
In early 19th-century France, the Marquis de Sade is confined to an asylum where his forbidden writings continue to circulate beyond its walls. As the authorities tighten control, a clash unfolds between the Marquis’ unyielding imagination, the reformist ideals of the Abbé in charge, and the repressive measures of a doctor sent to silence him. Desire, power, and censorship collide in a battle over freedom of expression.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAgnes of God (1985)
When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the bedroom wastebasket of a young novice, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCries and Whispers (1972)
As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12-year-old charges with her over-romanticized worldview.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Name of the Rose (1986)
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbsolution (1978)
At a Catholic boys' school, domineering disciplinarian Father Goddard rules over his pupils with an iron hand. When one of his teenage charges confesses to murder, the dogmatic but deeply repressed Goddard finds his faith challenged and his life spiralling dangerously out of control.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMother Joan of the Angels (1961)
A Polish priest arrives at a convent hoping to save the Mother Superior who is supposedly possessed by eight demons.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLéon Morin, Priest (1961)
Barny, although a Marxist, is intrigued by the mysteries of religion. In confession, she teases a priest, Léon Morin, but he is a young and intelligent man and ready to discuss anything.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Miracle of Marcelino (1955)
Left on the doorstep of a monastery as an infant, Marcelino was raised by the monks. He was well-cared for but lonely and missed having a mother. One day he found a special friend in the forbidden attic, hanging on a cross. A friend that would repay Marcelino's kindness by granting him one heart-felt wish.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYoung Törless (1966)
At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPicnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLilith (1964)
Vincent Bruce, a war veteran, begins working as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a private psychiatric facility for wealthy people where he meets Lilith Arthur, a charming young woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose fragile beauty captivates all who meet her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Black Narcissus?
The closest matches to Black Narcissus are Stealing Heaven (1988), The Song of Bernadette (1943) and The Nun's Story (1959). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Black Narcissus?
People who watched Black Narcissus most often go on to Stealing Heaven (1988), The Song of Bernadette (1943) and The Nun's Story (1959).
What is the highest-rated movie like Black Narcissus?
Ordet (1955), rated 7.9/10 by 437 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Black Narcissus?
Saint Philip Neri: I Prefer Heaven (2010) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Black Narcissus?
Yes: Stealing Heaven (1988), The Song of Bernadette (1943) and The Nun's Story (1959).
How are movies similar to Black Narcissus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Black Narcissus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.