Movies like The Black Square (2012)
The best movies like The Black Square (2012) are The Limits of Control (2009), Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023) and The Caller (1987). If The Black Square hooked you with its mystery, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedChildren of the Sea (2019)7.1/10 from 361 votes
- NewestRaging Grace (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseDetective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023)Also in Japanese
The Limits of Control (2009)
A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023)
While visiting Hachijo-jima, Conan sneaks aboard a security boat heading to the Pacific Buoy, an off-shore facility constructed near the coasts built to connect surveillance cameras used by police forces around the world. However, an engineer gets abducted! An eerie sound of a propeller hums underwater as a dark figure begins to creep toward Ai Haibara... When the forbidden Black Box is opened, the sealed-away past will surface above the treacherous waves!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Caller (1987)
One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they're playing a strange mind game and that there's something very wrong about the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisDetective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths (2005)
Fifteen years ago in a barren stretch of the Pacific, a cruise ship collided with an iceberg and was lost at sea. More than a decade later, Hideto Yashiro—a ship engineer—died in a fatal car accident. The unlikely connection between these events only comes to light on the luxury liner St. Aphrodite during her maiden voyage. Aboard it on a much needed vacation, Kogorou Mouri, his daughter Ran, Conan Edogawa, and the Detective Boys enjoy a trip provided by Sonoko Suzuki's family. But their fun is soon cut short when a game of hide-and-seek leads to Sonoko's disappearance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisExte: Hair Extensions (2007)
An aspiring hairdresser becomes the infatuation of a tricophilic man who sells hair extensions to nearby salons. The source is the corpse of a girl whose corpse continues to grow beautiful, voluminous, black hair that comes alive, either driving the extension user insane or killing them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisDetective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (2015)
Conan tries to track down Kaito Kid, who supposedly steals a replica of one of Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings during an auction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGolden Slumber (2010)
When easy-going Aoyagi meets an old friend for a fishing trip, he ends up drugged, framed for the Prime Minister's assassination, and on the run from corrupt cops. It's only the beginning of what quickly becomes the worst, weirdest day of his life. But he'll get by with a little help from his friends, who include a famous pop diva, a rockabilly deliveryman, a crippled old gangster, and the world's most cheerful serial killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnother (2012)
After a chain of deaths at a junior high school, new transfer student Koichi Sakakibara turns to a mysterious girl who holds the key to the dark mystery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisLaplace's Witch (2018)
An environmental analyst is asked by the police to determine if two deaths by hydrogen sulfide poisoning are an accident - or a murder. But when he meets a young woman at both sites, a scientific mystery begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCa$h (2010)
A stroke of good luck turns lethal for Sam Phelan and his wife Leslie when they are faced with a life-changing decision that brings strange and sinister Pyke Kubic to their doorstep. As Pyke leads Sam and Leslie on a tumultuous adventure through the streets of Chicago, each are pulled deeper and deeper into a desperate spiral of deception and violence – all in the name of money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisRiver Wild (2023)
Follows a pair of siblings who love but distrust each other as they embark on a white-water rafting trip with a small group. One of their friends from childhood turns out to be more dangerous than he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lady Vanishes (2013)
Young socialite Iris Carr befriends an older woman while traveling solo by train. When Iris wakes from a nap, the woman is gone and other passengers claim she never existed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCosmos (2019)
Three astronomers accidentally intercept what they believe to be a signal from a distant alien civilization, but the truth is even more incredible than any of them could have imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Train to Lisbon (2013)
Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (2003)
Mouri Kogoro is called to a special case in the ancient capital of Kyoto. There, Conan meets Heiji and they team up once again to solve the case, recover the stolen Healing Buddha statue, and even discover the identity of Heiji's first love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRaging Grace (2023)
An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChildren of the Sea (2019)
Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora's special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys' power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReincarnation (2005)
A Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidsummer's Equation (2013)
Masaharu Fukuyama reprises his role from 2008's "Suspect X," playing the physicist-cum-detective Manabu Yukawa. The scientist-sleuth arrives in an oceanside town to speak on a panel. But when a man turns up dead outside the inn where he's staying, Yukawa begins to unravel the connections that tie the victim to the activist daughter of the innkeepers, and a precocious boy who first appears on a train—and keeps popping up. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery with an environmental twist, and one that should please fans of a classic whodunnit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Black Square?
The closest matches to The Black Square are The Limits of Control (2009), Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023) and The Caller (1987). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Black Square?
Start with The Limits of Control (2009), the closest match to The Black Square.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Black Square?
Children of the Sea (2019), rated 7.1/10 by 361 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Black Square?
Raging Grace (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Black Square?
Yes: Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023), Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths (2005) and Exte: Hair Extensions (2007).
How are movies similar to The Black Square chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Black Square, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















