Movies like The Bells (1926)
The best movies like The Bells (1926) are The Face Behind the Mask (1941), Insomnia (2002) and The Night of the Hunter (1955). If The Bells hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Night of the Hunter (1955)7.9/10 from 1,942 votes
- NewestLimbo (2023)Released 2023
The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
A kindly, enthusiastic, newly-arrived American immigrant from Hungary is forced to turn to a life of crime after his face is badly disfigured in a hotel fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsomnia (2002)
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Night of the Hunter (1955)
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: The Disappearing Game (2018)
Crime-solving librarian Aurora Teagarden leaps headfirst into Lawrenceton’s latest murder investigation when her nephew Phillip and his college roommate go missing after the roommate’s girlfriend is found dead. Enlisting the help of her Real Murders pals, and the handsome college professor Nick Miller who just moved in across the street from her, Roe uncovers a kidnapping plot gone awry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarlowe (1969)
Mysterious Orfamay Quest hires Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe to find her missing brother. Though the job seems simple enough, it leads Marlowe into the underbelly of the city, turning up leads who are murdered with ice picks, exotic dancers, blackmailed television stars, and self-preserving gangsters. Soon, Marlowe's life is on the line right along with his case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGourmet Detective: A Healthy Place to Die (2015)
When Henry is invited as a guest speaker at a luxury resort spa, he quickly finds himself at the center of another murder. With Maggie at his side, our favorite duo must not only find the killer but be careful they don't become his latest victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Reunited and It Feels So Deadly (2020)
Aurora's high school reunion turns deadly when a body is found in the hotel pool. Aurora and her Real Murders Club help investigate which classmate was most likely to kill.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoom! (1968)
Secluding herself in an island mansion in the Mediterranean with her servants and nurses, the wealthy Flora "Sissy" Goforth prepares for her impending death -- and she isn't the only one who's waiting. Known for his attraction to the dying rich, poet Chris Flanders ingratiates himself with the wilting Sissy. Although her friend explains Flanders' "Angel of Death" nature to her, Sissy embraces the vulture-like Flanders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bygone (2019)
When a young rancher crosses paths with a Lakota girl from a nearby reservation, her mysterious disappearance sparks a search that uncovers a harrowing past and hints at a dire future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bundle of Trouble: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2017)
Aurora Teagarden and her boyfriend Martin are thrilled when they get an unexpected visit from his niece and her new baby. Their excitement is short lived when his niece disappears and the baby is left behind. Once again, Aurora finds herself drawn into a deadly investigation as she risks it all to help Martin reunite with his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Naked City (1948)
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRiddled with Deceit: A Martha's Vineyard Mystery (2020)
Former detective Jeff Jackson teams up with Dr. Zee Madieras to track down their friend's missing emerald brooch, a thief, and also... a murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLimbo (2023)
Travis, a jaded detective, arrives in the remote outback town of Limbo to investigate the cold case murder of local Indigenous girl Charlotte Hayes 20 years ago. As truths about the murder begin to unfold, the detective gains a new insight into the unsolved case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBerserk! (1967)
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Devil All the Time (2020)
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nightcomers (1972)
Prequel to the Henry James classic "Turn of the Screw" about the events leading up to the deaths of Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel, and the slow corruption of the children in their care.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Interpreter (2005)
After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fifth Cord (1971)
A journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer who's been targeting people around him, while the police are considering him a suspect in their investigation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Skull (1965)
Esoterica collector Dr Maitland buys an unusual skull from his ordinary source; the artifact is what remains of the Marquis De Sade. Much too soon, Maitland discovers that the skull is turning him into a frenzied killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night of the Generals (1967)
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoad to Nowhere (2010)
A passionate filmmaker creating a film based upon a true crime casts an unknown mysterious young woman bearing a disturbing resemblance to the femme fatale in the story. Unsuspectingly, he finds himself drawn into a complex web of haunting intrigue: he becomes obsessed with the woman, the crime, her possibly notorious past, and the disturbing complexity between art and truth. From the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to Verona, Rome, and London, new truths are revealed and clues to other crimes and passions, darker and even more complex, are uncovered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisSilent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! (1989)
Ricky Caldwell, the notorious 'Killer Santa Claus', awakens from a six-year coma after being kept alive on life-support by a slightly crazed doctor experimenting with ESP and other special abilities. Ricky targets a young, clairvoyant blind woman, named Laura, whom is traveling with her brother Chris, and his girlfriend Jerri to their grandmother's house for Christmas Eve, and Ricky decides to go after her, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCircus of Fear (1966)
A circus becomes the location for stolen loot and murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Bells?
The closest matches to The Bells are The Face Behind the Mask (1941), Insomnia (2002) and The Night of the Hunter (1955). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Bells?
Start with The Face Behind the Mask (1941), the closest match to The Bells.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Bells?
The Night of the Hunter (1955), rated 7.9/10 by 1,942 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Bells?
Limbo (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Bells?
Yes: The Face Behind the Mask (1941), Insomnia (2002) and The Night of the Hunter (1955).
How are movies similar to The Bells chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Bells, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.