Movies like Moonlight (1985)
The best movies like Moonlight (1985) are The Survivalist (2015), Tom at the Farm (2014) and Luckiest Girl Alive (2022). If Moonlight hooked you with its science fiction and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMississippi Burning (1988)7.7/10 from 2,061 votes
- NewestDRAWN OUT (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchTom at the Farm (2014)Also in French
The Survivalist (2015)
In a time of starvation, a survivalist lives off a small plot of land hidden deep in forest. When two women seeking food and shelter discover his farm, he finds his existence threatened.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTom at the Farm (2014)
A young man travels to an isolated farm for his lover's funeral where he's quickly drawn into a twisted, sexually charged game by his lover's aggressive brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuckiest Girl Alive (2022)
A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (2021)
Based on the true story of the events that led to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder, who was killed during a conflict with police officers who were dispatched to check on him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAres (2016)
In a near future, the world order has changed. With its 10 millions of unemployed citizens, France has now become a poor country. Its people wavers between rebellion and resignation and find an outlet in the shape of TV broadcast ultra brutal fights in which the players are legally doped and unscrupulous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFarewell, My Lovely (1975)
Private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by ex-con Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend, a former lounge dancer. While also investigating the murder of a client and the theft of a jade necklace, Marlowe becomes entangled with seductress Helen Grayle and discovers a web of dark secrets that are better left hidden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pariah (1972)
For more than 15 years, two Marseille friends and criminals battle the law, rival gangs, prison authorities and even mined beaches in order to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tenant (1976)
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Return (1980)
Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children are reunited as adults in the same town which is now beset by strange cattle mutilations. Matters become worse when the cattle mutilations are joined by human murders and mutilations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisLost Highway (1997)
A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Gigolo (1980)
Julian makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle, a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's being framed. Meanwhile Michelle begins to fall in love with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMississippi Burning (1988)
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRed Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)
Yorkshire, 1974. Fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions. When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions that draw them into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMulholland Falls (1996)
In 1950s Los Angeles, a special crime squad of the LAPD investigates the murder of a young woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCop (1988)
An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Salton Sea (2002)
After the murder of his beloved wife, a man in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy "The Finn", becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDolores Claiborne (1995)
Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWonderland (2003)
On the afternoon of July 1, 1981, Los Angeles police responded to a distress call on Wonderland Avenue and discovered a grisly quadruple homicide. The police investigation that followed uncovered two versions of the events leading up to the brutal murders - both involving legendary porn actor John Holmes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUltraman Connection Presents: Tamashii Nations Special Streaming featuring Ultraman Trigger (2022)
Ultraman Connection Presents: Tamashii Nations Special Streaming featuring Ultraman Trigger is a special filmed stage show based on various Ultraman characters and released on YouTube as a part of the eponymous stream.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Demain la veille (2006)
Bob is a normal guy who lives in a world where everything moves in reverse: Death is birth, people grow young, knowledge is erased from your mind as the clock ticks backward. It's just business as usual... until the day Bob suddenly finds himself moving FORWARD in time! Mercenaries from another reality arrive on the scene to remove him from the "forward" world, but they're too late: Bob now understands that the life he had was very, very wrong. He fights back, mounting an action-packed escape through insane, topsy-turvy corridors of time and counter-clockwise dimension. Will Bob save himself and humanity? Or is he destined for a life of lies and control, forced on the world from a power beyond the future?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Anthony (2014)
Christmas Eve. An enormous explosion tears through Lapland. Santa and his elf, Anthony, have crash-landed in the middle of nowhere on their busiest night.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jemima + Johnny (1966)
A white boy and a black Jamaican girl have a day out in a city where racial hostility prevails.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Procession (2023)
Ieva is facing the day of her grandmother's funeral, but her goal of saying goodbye to her grandmother is complicated by the domestic problems of such processions and the growing distance between Ieva and her mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Talking To My Mother (2014)
A young Asian American man struggles for both personal happiness and the love of his mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
DRAWN OUT (2025)
On the eve of leaving for college, Randy discovers that the childhood drawings she's long forgotten are not quite ready to let her go. When her imaginary friends come to life, they pull her into a surreal final adventure through her own home, one that forces her to confront buried memories, unresolved guilt, and the fear she's been avoiding. As fantasy and reality collide, Randy must decide whether to run from her past or face it head-on, learning that growing up doesn't mean leaving every part of yourself behind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Last Interview (2012)
Mr. Baek, a job seeker, is vulnerable to sunlight. Despite his unusual illness, he is eager to get a job. Finally, today is Mr. Baek's last interview.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
on the other side of you (2012)
It is youth that consists of many failures and many happy ends, and makes you break into tears in one moment and then smile when you think about it. Definitely everybody has their youth in the course of their life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
You Have To Change (2011)
Eun-mo and Sung-Kyung are friends who go to dance classes together. Eun-mo advises Sung-kyung to be honest about love and life. Sung-kyung decides to end a relationship with Eun-mo.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Moonlight and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Moonlight?
The closest matches to Moonlight are The Survivalist (2015), Tom at the Farm (2014) and Luckiest Girl Alive (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Moonlight?
Start with The Survivalist (2015), the closest match to Moonlight.
What is the highest-rated movie like Moonlight?
Mississippi Burning (1988), rated 7.7/10 by 2,061 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Moonlight?
DRAWN OUT (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Moonlight?
Yes: Tom at the Farm (2014), Ares (2016) and The Pariah (1972).
How are movies similar to Moonlight chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Moonlight, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.