Movies like Nightmare (2012)
The best movies like Nightmare (2012) are The Dogs (2025), The Inhabitant (2022) and The Bridge Curse (2020). If Nightmare 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 Name of the Rose (1986)7.5/10 from 3,453 votes
- NewestDust Bunny (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseThe Bridge Curse (2020)Also in Chinese
The 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 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 horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Bridge Curse (2020)
Four years after five students mysteriously committed suicide after taking part in a courage test on the ghost bridge in Donghu university, a reporter and a cinematographer are back to that place and try to get everything clear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Cam (2020)
As a police officer investigates the gruesome murder of her colleague, she discovers that a mysterious supernatural force is behind it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNocebo (2022)
A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino caregiver who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Watch (1973)
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLegend of the Mountain (1979)
A traveling scholar is intent on translating a Buddhist sutra that is said to have power over the creatures of the afterlife. He slowly finds himself entangled in a mysterious plot involving witchcraft, demons, and a battle to preserve his own soul from the attacks of the supernatural underworld.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHome Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025)
When a city is overrun with a demonically-possessed crowd, a cop must find the source of evil to save his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
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 thisThe Vigil (2020)
A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisOlder Gods (2023)
After the disappearance of his troubled friend, American Chris Rivers travels to the remote Welsh countryside to investigate what happened – leading him to a dark apocalyptic cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in White (1988)
Locked in a school closet during Halloween 1962, young Frank witnesses the ghost of a young girl and the man who murdered her years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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 thisFrank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Devils Are Here (2025)
After a heist, four criminals lay low in a remote safehouse, waiting for orders. As paranoia builds, one thing becomes clear — the real threat may not be outside, but among them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDust Bunny (2025)
Ten-year-old Aurora asks her hitman neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she claims ate her family. To protect her, he must battle an onslaught of assassins while accepting that some monsters are real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Seven-Ups (1973)
A tough detective who is part of an elite New York City unit is trying to find out who killed his partner, but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaw (2004)
Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
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: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSaw II (2005)
The chilling and relentless Jigsaw killer returns to terrorize the city once again. When a gruesome murder victim emerges with unmistakable traces of Jigsaw's sinister methods, Detective Eric Matthews is thrust into a high-stakes investigation. To his surprise, apprehending Jigsaw seems almost too easy, but what he doesn't realize is that being caught is merely another piece of Jigsaw's intricate puzzle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaw III (2006)
Jigsaw has disappeared. Along with his new apprentice Amanda, the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon and Jeff Reinhart are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSacred 2 (2022)
A group of young people from Jakarta left for Cirebon with different destinations. Arla, Jojo, and Maura want to do research on their final assignment, which is assisted by a documentary filmmaker named Umay. Meanwhile, Ajil and Keanu are horror YouTubers who create content to maintain their existence. Their journey becomes wild and uncontrollable after meeting Ute, an indigo who has a secret agenda.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Alguien mató algo (1999)
In this silent style short, filmed in black and white with intertitles instead of spoken dialog, a precocious little girl surrounded by Tv violence and bloody church images of Catholicism, yearns to stay alive forever, as a vampire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Reggie (2019)
When mild-mannered slasher Reggie is recognized while on the job, his entire way of life is changed forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Cube (1998)
A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nightmare?
The closest matches to Nightmare are The Dogs (2025), The Inhabitant (2022) and The Bridge Curse (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nightmare?
Start with The Dogs (2025), the closest match to Nightmare.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nightmare?
The Name of the Rose (1986), rated 7.5/10 by 3,453 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nightmare?
Dust Bunny (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Nightmare?
Yes: The Bridge Curse (2020) and Legend of the Mountain (1979).
How are movies similar to Nightmare chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nightmare, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.