Movies like The Ninth Configuration (1980)
The best movies like The Ninth Configuration (1980) are Bloody Hell (2020), Blackwater Lane (2024) and Jacob's Ladder (1990). If The Ninth Configuration hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedShutter Island (2010)8.2/10 from 26,790 votes
- NewestFriendship (2025)Released 2025
Bloody Hell (2020)
A man with a mysterious past flees the country to escape his own personal hell... only to arrive somewhere much worse. In an effort to survive this new horror, he turns to his personified conscience.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlackwater Lane (2024)
An American school teacher in England drives past an abandoned car late one night, unaware that the driver was the victim of a murder. As she comes to terms with the realization, seemingly supernatural events start to affect the gothic manor she lives in with her husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacob's Ladder (1990)
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie, and ex-wife, Sarah, try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer's chiropractor friend, Louis, fails to reach him as he descends into madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStonehearst Asylum (2014)
An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShutter Island (2010)
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRepulsion (1965)
Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBug (2007)
In Oklahoma, Agnes, a lonely waitress living in an isolated and dilapidated roadside motel, meets Peter, a quiet and mysterious man with whom she establishes a peculiar relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Frost (1990)
Frost is arrested and committed for murder after he is apprehended burying his victims in the garden. However, even while under psychiatric care and tight hospital security, it becomes obvious that Mr. Frost is not all he seems to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNeverwas (2005)
Zach Riley is a psychiatrist, who leaves a job at a prestigious university, to take up a job at the privately run mental institution, Millwood. What he doesn't reveal at the time of his appointment is that this was the very place where his novelist father, T.L. Pierson, spent many years of his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear the Night (2023)
During a bachelorette party in a secluded California farmhouse, masked intruders launch a brutal attack, forcing eight women to fight for survival. Led by Tess, a troubled military veteran, they unite to defend themselves throughout a harrowing night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDefendor (2009)
A crooked cop, a mob boss and the young girl they abuse are the denizens of a city's criminal underworld. It's a world that ordinary Arthur Poppington doesn't understand and doesn't belong in, but is committed to fighting when he changes into a vigilante super-hero of his own making, Defendor. With no power other than courage Defendor takes to the streets to protect the city's innocents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse (1985)
A divorced horror novelist coming to terms with the disappearance of his young son inherits an old mansion home to malevolent supernatural residents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCombat Shock (1986)
A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)
Chickie wants to support his friends fighting in Vietnam, so he does something wild—personally bring them American beer. What starts as a well-meaning journey quickly changes Chickie's life and perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisContainment (2015)
Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Number 23 (2007)
Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Were Never Really Here (2017)
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered—leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAccident Man (2018)
Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who actually meant something to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Double (2014)
An awkward office drone becomes increasingly unhinged after a charismatic and confident look-alike takes a job at his workplace and seduces the woman he desires.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloody Crayons (2017)
A group of friends goes to an island for a short film project when they are attacked by a mysterious killer after playing a game of bloody crayons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Psycho (1998)
A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisPresumed Innocent (1990)
Rusty Sabich is a deputy prosecutor engaged in an obsessive affair with a coworker who is murdered. Soon after, he's accused of the crime. And his fight to clear his name becomes a whirlpool of lies and hidden passions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHide and Seek (2005)
David Callaway tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife's suicide and has been left to raise his nine-year-old daughter, Emily on his own. David is at first amused to discover that Emily has created an imaginary friend named 'Charlie', but it isn't long before 'Charlie' develops a sinister and violent side, and as David struggles with his daughter's growing emotional problems, he comes to the frightening realisation that 'Charlie' isn't just a figment of Emily's imagination.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeneath the Surface (TBA)
Beneath the Surface introduces readers to the story of the wealthy Kingsley family of Southern California. At the center of the action are the power-hungry children of an aging billionaire, who prove unprepared for a storm of deceptions and ruthless family ambition, while out on a weekend voyage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Audition (2000)
Seven years after the death of his wife, widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu is enchanted by the quiet Asami. But soon things take a twisted turn as Asami isn’t what she seems to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Omega Man (1971)
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoul Reaper (2024)
A teenager with the ability to enter other people's dreams. When he witnesses a dark spirit taking people's lives in their dreams, he quickly realizes that it's related to the mysterious deaths that are happening in the real world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Friendship (2025)
Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, and his attempts to make an adult male friend threatens to ruin both of their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like The Ninth Configuration and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Ninth Configuration?
The closest matches to The Ninth Configuration are Bloody Hell (2020), Blackwater Lane (2024) and Jacob's Ladder (1990). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Ninth Configuration?
Start with Bloody Hell (2020), the closest match to The Ninth Configuration.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Ninth Configuration?
Shutter Island (2010), rated 8.2/10 by 26,790 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Ninth Configuration?
Friendship (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Ninth Configuration?
Yes: Bloody Hell (2020), Blackwater Lane (2024) and Jacob's Ladder (1990).
How are movies similar to The Ninth Configuration chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Ninth Configuration, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.