Movies like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns
The best movies like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns are Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Nightbooks (2021) and Pinocchio: Unstrung (2026). If R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCoraline (2009)7.9/10 from 9,761 votes
- NewestTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)Released 2026
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can two young boys overcome the worst the devil himself can deal out?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightbooks (2021)
Alex, a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by a witch in her modern, magical New York City apartment. His original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping him safe as he desperately tries to find a way out of this twisted place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPinocchio: Unstrung (2026)
Influenced by a sinister Cricket and created by Geppetto, Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James, one piece at a time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMostly Ghostly 3: One Night in Doom House (2016)
Just one enchanted jewel stands between earth and an army of evil spirits led by the devious ghoul, Phears. With the help of his new girlfriend and ghost pals, Max Doyle races to find the crystal and save the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClown in a Cornfield (2025)
Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDC Showcase - Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)
John Constantine wakes up in the eerie House of Mystery with no recollection of how he got there. Fortunately, Zatanna and his friends are all there. Unfortunately, they have a bad habit of turning into demons and ripping him to shreds, over and over again!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus illusionist and con-artist, is whisked from Kansas to the Land of Oz where the inhabitants assume he's the great wizard of prophecy, there to save Oz from the clutches of evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisInkheart (2008)
The adventures of a father and his young daughter, in their search for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLabyrinth (1986)
Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah, a teenager with an active imagination, summons the Goblins to take her baby stepbrother away. When little Toby actually disappears, Sarah must follow him into a fantastical world to rescue him from the Goblin King. Guarding his castle is the labyrinth itself, a twisted maze of deception, populated with outrageous characters and unknown dangers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWelcome to Smelliville (2021)
The Oggly family arrive at the municipal rubbish dump of Smelliville and must look for a new home, but they never feel really welcome anywhere. They stink and are for most humans just a tad too oggly. When Firebottom, the family dragon, crash-lands on the run-down rubbish tip of the small town of Smelliville, the Ogglies at once feel at home. And it's here they want to stay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Play (2020)
Oliver, a lonely autistic boy, seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy's devices against him, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParanormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)
Margot is a documentary filmmaker looking to meet her long-lost mother and extended family in a secluded Amish community. She and her film crew soon realize the family that welcomes them into their home might be hiding a sinister secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtraordinary Tales (2015)
Five tales by Edgar Allan Poe come to life thanks to a pictorical style animation, five tales that exude madness, pestilence, murder and torture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWish Upon a Unicorn (2020)
Two children discover that their mother is gone. The youngest of the pair, adventurer and upcomming singer, Long Johnson forces his older sister, Lily Johnson, to hunt down a unicorn with magical blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoraline (2009)
Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & horror
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisWeapons (2025)
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (2022)
Mystery Inc. has cracked the case to top all cases! They’ve tracked down Coco Diablo, the head of a notorious costume crime syndicate. With Coco and her kitty in prison, Mystery Inc. thinks that they can finally enjoy a break. Wrong! Suddenly, menacing doppelgänger ghosts of the Scooby crew and favorite classic foes show up in Coolsville to threaten Halloween. Now it’s up to the meddling kids to unmask the latest scoundrel and save Halloween!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
A concise adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" about Mr. Toad's motor mania, followed by a short retelling of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" concerning schoolmaster Ichabod Crane.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPippi Longstocking (1997)
Pippi Longstocking is an extraordinary little girl who lives alone in her house, while her father sails the seven seas. Pippi's irrepressibly fun nature makes her easy to befriend, as neighbors Tommy and Annika find, but can also earn ire, especially from social worker Mrs. Prysselius.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Vanishing (1988)
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation when they stop at a busy service station. Saskia is abducted in broad daylight and three years pass with no answers or closure surrounding her disappearance. Rex has nearly given up all hope when he suddenly begins receiving letters from her abductor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiller Clown (2010)
A serial killer dressed in a clown mask and a long black robe terrorizes a small town and murders people randomly and for no apparent reason. A man whose girlfriend gets killed by the clown seeks revenge and enacts his own brand of vigilante justice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
DVD 2 (2019)
Frank is determined to investigate the first DVD. He wants to own the DVD that has killed all those people, and he wants to visit all the places on the first DVD and find out if it's all real.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Dracula III: Legacy (2005)
Dracula leads vampire hunters Father Uffizi and Luke back to Eastern Europe, and a country plagued by civil war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
An ambitious director sets out to revive a faded slasher franchise, but her meeting with the film’s reclusive original star spirals into a terrifying maze of obsession, fear, and blood-soaked delusion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImposters (2026)
After a couple's baby is taken, the desperate mother learns of a way to "get their baby back." However, the husband begins to suspect that what she brought back isn't their son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Keane (2004)
William Keane is barely able to cope. It has been six months since his six-year-old daughter was abducted from New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal while traveling with him. Repeatedly drawn to the site of the abduction, Keane wanders the bus station, compulsively replaying the events of that fateful day, as if hoping to change the outcome.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBruges-La-Morte (1978)
The story of Paul who one day meets a young dancer who is the double of the dead wife he worships. Their meeting triggers a nightmare that takes him on a midnight journey through dark canals, memories, to a theater performance in a graveyard where he learns darker truths. Filmed on location in historic Bruges.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns?
The closest matches to R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns are Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Nightbooks (2021) and Pinocchio: Unstrung (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns?
Start with Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), the closest match to R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns.
What is the highest-rated movie like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns?
Coraline (2009), rated 7.9/10 by 9,761 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns?
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns?
Yes: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Nightbooks (2021) and Pinocchio: Unstrung (2026).
How are movies similar to R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.