Movies like Hot Cakes (2025)
The best movies like Hot Cakes (2025) are The Return (2020), Tau (2018) and Dark Light (2019). If Hot Cakes hooked you with its science fiction and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedUpgrade (2018)7.5/10 from 5,374 votes
- NewestBlood and Snow (2023)Released 2023
The Return (2020)
After the death of his father, a brilliant college student returns to his family home where he learns that the horrors from his childhood aren't as dead and gone as he once thought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTau (2018)
Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
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 & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood and Snow (2023)
When researchers rescue a fellow scientist who survived a meteorite strike in the Arctic, they discover she may not be who they think she is. Is she some-how changed?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMargaux (2022)
As a group of seniors celebrate their final college days at a smart house, the house's highly advanced AI system, Margaux, begins to take on a deadly presence of her own. A carefree weekend of partying turns into a dystopian nightmare as they realize Margaux's plans to eliminate her tenants one way or another. Time begins to run out as the group desperately tries to survive and outsmart the smart home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisAbduction (2019)
A man steps out of a park fountain in Ho Chi Minh City with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he wanders through the city, piecing together clues to his past, he is relentlessly pursued by mysterious figures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Signal (2007)
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlien: Alone (2019)
An abandoned crew member aboard a derelict chemical hauler is trying to keep her ship and herself alive. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisContainment (2015)
Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisAssimilate (2019)
Three friends making a web series about their town discover that their neighbors are being killed and replaced by creatures who are perfect copies of their victims.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBooks of Blood (2020)
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChild's Play (2019)
Karen, a single mother, gifts her son Andy a Buddi doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZygote (2017)
The two remaining crew members of a mining operation in the Arctic Circle fight to survive against an alien creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hidden (1987)
When average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher determine the cause.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlash/Back (2022)
In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies 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 horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsters of Man (2020)
A robotics company vying to win a lucrative military contract team up with a corrupt CIA agent to conduct an illegal live field test. They deploy four weaponized prototype robots into a suspected drug manufacturing camp in the Golden Triangle, assuming they'd be killing drug runners that no one would miss. Six doctors on a humanitarian mission witness the brutal slaughter and become prime targets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpgrade (2018)
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAutomata (2014)
Jacq Vaucan, an insurance agent of ROC robotics corporation, routinely investigates the case of manipulating a robot. What he discovers will have profound consequences for the future of humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisUrban Fears (2019)
Most horror stories take place in suburban areas, but these three teenagers are about to realize that those are not the only places where these things happen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)
A maniac on the loose is committing savage acts of slaughter, and one survivor may be the only key to unmasking the serial slayer known as the Half-Moon Killer. The mysterious half-moon lockets he leaves with his victims could be the only key to unraveling his sinister motives, but will that be enough before he completes his ice-cold plot to claim his intended seven victims?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
Ever since killing the Fisherman one year ago, Julie James is still haunted by images of him after her. When her best friend Karla wins free tickets to the Bahamas, Julie finds this a perfect opportunity to finally relax. But someone is waiting for her. Someone who she thought was dead. Someone who is out again for revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisI'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)
Several teenagers in a small-town in Colorado concoct a July 4th prank based on a frightening legend that goes awry when their friend ends up accidentally killed; however, the teens agree to keep their involvement a secret from the authorities, who continue to search for the man who apparently killed their friend. A year later, with the July 4th celebration coming up again, the teenagers realize that they're being stalked by someone who clearly intends on keeping the horrible legend alive by killing them off.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlood Cove (2019)
Young reporter Joanie Craven goes missing in the small town of Beansboro. Now it's up to her father and a skeptical local police detective to thwart the efforts of the villainous Blood Cove killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Stealth (2005)
Deeply ensconced in a top-secret military program, three pilots struggle to bring an artificial intelligence program under control ... before it initiates the next world war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse of Wax (2005)
A group of unwitting teens are stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A psychiatrist, familiar with the knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger, helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlight of the Navigator (1986)
12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hot Cakes?
The closest matches to Hot Cakes are The Return (2020), Tau (2018) and Dark Light (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hot Cakes?
Start with The Return (2020), the closest match to Hot Cakes.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hot Cakes?
Upgrade (2018), rated 7.5/10 by 5,374 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hot Cakes?
Blood and Snow (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hot Cakes?
Yes: The Return (2020), Tau (2018) and Dark Light (2019).
How are movies similar to Hot Cakes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hot Cakes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.