Movies like They Wait (2007)
The best movies like They Wait (2007) are The Children (2008), Barbarian (2022) and Goodnight Mommy (2022). If They Wait 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 Sixth Sense (1999)8.0/10 from 13,592 votes
- NewestBone Lake (2025)Released 2025
The Children (2008)
A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarbarian (2022)
In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & 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 horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost Ship (2002)
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBone Lake (2025)
A couple’s romantic vacation at a secluded lakeside estate is upended when they are forced to share the mansion with a mysterious and attractive couple. In this darkly hilarious and seductive horror story, a dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, bringing terrifying secrets to light and triggering a bloody battle for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dogs (2025)
After fleeing his psychotic father, a young teen and his mom seek refuge in a remote farmhouse, only to face a pack of ferocious dogs and the sinister spirits that haunt the property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheat (2023)
On the surface it's believed to be another urban legend - a supernatural being from the afterlife is violently killing anyone who cheats on their significant other in the small college town of Silvercreek, Pennsylvania. But the town's unusually high suicide rate is finally convincing both locals and college students that everything is not as it seems. When Maeve - a female college student - sleeps with Charlie, the married man of the host family she is staying with, both sense the deadly curse is closing in on them. Unable to get anyone to believe them, Maeve and Charlie seek out a local history student to help find answers and figure out a way to defend themselves. It all comes undone, however, as several people are horrifically killed by the savage being - one-by-one at a rapid pace. Eventually, Maeve, Charlie and the few survivors band together in an attempt to defeat the monster once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy's Little Girl (2014)
After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Light (2019)
A woman returns to her family home and discovers it to be inhabited by monsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouthbound (2015)
On a desolate stretch of desert highway, weary travelers — two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation — are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBloodline (2019)
Evan values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Resurrected (1991)
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHellraiser (1987)
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMirrors (2008)
An ex-cop and his family are the target of an evil force that is using mirrors as a gateway into their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod Is a Bullet (2023)
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShades of Desire (2023)
After her twin sister Aubrey goes missing, Jennifer uncovers the scandalous, secret double-life that Aubrey leads - and that has put both of them in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrick (2019)
A detective tries to track down a masked killer who reappears every Halloween to wreak bloody havoc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDemon House (2019)
Mass hysteria breaks-out over an alleged demonic possession in an Indiana home. Zak Bagans then buys the house, sight unseen, over the phone. He and his crew soon become the next victims of the most documented case of demonic possession in US history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisEfreet (2022)
Sophia, who recently turned 10, is haunted by mysterious nightmares. In her nightmares, a girl named Selinka keeps appearing, showing her things about her mother Tina's past that she shouldn't know anything about. Tina thinks that her ex-husband Markus is secretly seeing Sophia, although he is not allowed to have any contact with her. But when one evening Sophia mentions the name "Efreet", Dana (a close friend of the little family) knows that they are dealing with evil forces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Demoniac Flash (2005)
Two young men who always dream of joining the show biz meet a frivolous young actress in an old house during shooting of a movie. The three also befriended a couple living next door whose son died of traffic accident years ago. They also come to know a freakish cartoonist in the neighborhood. But the two young men have never expected that people around them are suffering from nightmares, and their own nightmares are about to begin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & horror
SEDALIA (2021)
Newly retired costume designer, Helen Rowan moves into a small farmhouse in the Massachusetts countryside; all is quiet until a string of paranormal events prompts Helen to research the home's history. Connecting the dots between her research and two vivid nightmares, Helen discovers the fifty-three-year-old remains of a previous tenant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Dead Birds (2005)
Towards the end of the Civil War, a group of Confederate soldiers hole up on an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank, and find themselves at the mercy of supernatural forces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse of Voices (2004)
In 1958, in the French Alp, the young servant Anna Jurin arrives in Saint Ange Orphanage to work with Helena while the orphans moved to new families. Anna, who is secretly pregnant, meets the last orphan, Judith, left behind because of her mental problems, and they become closer when Anna find that Judith also hear voices and footsteps of children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisOut of the Dark (2014)
A couple and their daughter moves to Colombia to take over a family manufacturing plant, only to realize their new home is haunted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Sixth Sense (1999)
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like this3 A.M. Part 2 (2014)
Three supernatural tales of horror after dark. A motorcycle leader comes back for vengeance. A ghostly haunting at an all-girls school. A shop for the dead to return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Boney Island Reality Show (2024)
When four student filmmakers are paid half-a-million dollars to look for ghosts on Boney Island, they assume it'll be the easiest weekend of their lives. All except Madeleine, whose belief in ghosts puts her in direct conflict with the other skeptical slackers. It doesn't take long for the others wonder if it'd be easier (and more lucrative) to oust her out of the project. But as tensions and temptations of greed boil over, a paranormal presence, unseen and unnoticed, begins to grow stronger and stronger, forcing the group to violently and brutally confront their own disbelief, one way or the other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like They Wait?
The closest matches to They Wait are The Children (2008), Barbarian (2022) and Goodnight Mommy (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after They Wait?
Start with The Children (2008), the closest match to They Wait.
What is the highest-rated movie like They Wait?
The Sixth Sense (1999), rated 8.0/10 by 13,592 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like They Wait?
Bone Lake (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like They Wait?
Yes: The Children (2008), Barbarian (2022) and Goodnight Mommy (2022).
How are movies similar to They Wait chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside They Wait, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.