Movies like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964)
The best movies like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964) are The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Signal (2007). If The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse hooked you with its thriller and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTwelve Monkeys (1995)7.6/10 from 9,556 votes
- Newest28 Years Later (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanDecoder (1984)Also in German
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisTwelve Monkeys (1995)
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son of a famous virus expert who may hold the key to the Army of the 12 Monkeys; thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Signal (2007)
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDie Alone (2024)
Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, Ethan, a young man with amnesia navigates the dangerous landscape in search of his lost love Emma. His journey takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Mae, a hardened and eccentric survivor. Together, Ethan and Mae face threats both human and otherwise before a fateful encounter with Kai unravels a secret that lies just beyond Ethan's fractured memory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisExtinction (2015)
And suddenly, overnight, the world came to a halt. Two men, two survivors, one kid, and hatred that separates them. A place forgotten by everyone, including the creatures that inhabit the Earth... until now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRight at Your Door (2006)
A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this28 Years Later (2025)
Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDecoder (1984)
F.M. discovers that different sonic frequencies induce different patterns of behaviour in listeners, first in his own studio but later in the local "H-Burger" restaurant where the passive muzak appears to be wiping people's emotions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProdigy (2017)
Jimmy is a committed child psychologist who uses his own playbook, but when he is brought in to work with Ellie, he is completely unprepared for his subject—a 9-year-old psychopathic genius with nothing to lose. As he begins to understand the extent of her capabilities and the fate that has been planned for her, he struggles to overcome her defenses before it is too late for them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Resurrected (1991)
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mandela Effect (2019)
A man becomes obsessed with facts and events that have been collectively misremembered by thousands of people. Believing the phenomena to be the symptom of something larger, his obsession eventually leads him to question reality itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022)
A young woman with psychokinetic powers breaks out of a Louisiana asylum and makes her way to New Orleans, where she falls into the city’s netherworld of misfits and miscreants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
After a catastrophic car crash, a young woman wakes up in a survivalist's underground bunker, where he claims to have saved her from an apocalyptic attack that has left the outside world uninhabitable.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTau (2018)
Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Man Down (2021)
After civilization succumbs to a deadly pandemic and his wife is murdered, a special forces soldier abandons his duty and becomes a hermit in the Nordic wilderness. Years later, a wounded woman appears on his doorstep. She's escaped from a lab and her pursuers believe her blood is the key to a worldwide cure. He's hesitant to get involved, but all doubts are cast aside when he discovers her pursuer is none other than Commander Stone, the man that murdered his wife some years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPatrick (1978)
A comatose hospital patient harasses and kills through his powers of telekinesis to claim his private nurse as his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cloud (2006)
DIE WOLKE (The Cloud) is about a breakdown of a nuclear power station in Germany and the story of two teenager-lovers Hannah and Elmar who take refuge. 38.000 people die and Hannah unfortunately becomes contaminated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoboCop 2 (1990)
After a successful deployment of the RoboCop Law Enforcement unit, OCP sees its goal of urban pacification come closer and closer, but as this develops, a new narcotic known as "Nuke" invades the streets led by God-delirious leader Cane. As this menace grows, it may prove to be too much for Murphy to handle. OCP tries to replicate the success of the first unit, but ends up with failed prototypes with suicidal issues... until Dr. Faxx, a scientist straying away from OCP's path, uses Cane as the new subject for the RoboCop 2 project, a living God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961)
The supposedly dead and buried Mabuse returns to his criminal activities, as his longtime foe Police Inspector Lohmann, a dauntless girl reporter, and an American - who may be an FBI agent, or maybe a Chicago mobster - investigate a series of gruesome murders connected to a maximum security prison and involving a minister who has written a book called "The Anatomy Of The Devil".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & science fiction
Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse (1963)
The spirit of the evil Dr. Mabuse takes over the body of a famous professor. The professor/Dr. Mabuse then begins a new crime wave that terrorizes the city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
A reporter is murdered while driving to his job. The Police are contacted by a clairvoyant who saw the death in a vision, but some dark force is preventing him from seeing the man behind the crime...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisX: The Unknown (1956)
Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village. An American research scientist at a nearby nuclear plant joins with a British investigator to discover why the victims were radioactively burned and why, shortly thereafter, a series of radiation-related incidents are occurring in an ever-growing straight line away from the fissure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Noah's Ark Principle (1984)
The year is 1997, and World Peace seems to have come, with most classic weapons of mass destruction having been abandoned. However, orbiting the Earth there is the European/American space station FLORIDA ARKLAB, capable of controlling the weather at any location on the planet underneath. A civil project by nature, it might be abused as an offensive weapon, since it could deliver devastation to any potential adversary simply by creating natural disasters such as storms and floods. No wonder the space station soon becomes the central point in rising political tensions between East and West, next stop World War 3 (as indicated by the tagline "The end of our future has already begun"). We follow the main protagonist Billy Hayes, an astronaut aboard the station, as he wades through a plot of secrecy and sabotage trying to tell friend from foe in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & thriller
S.N.U.B! (2010)
Following a nuclear attack by terrorists on London, a mixed bag of survivors are trapped in a Government bunker cut off from the outside world. As they come to terms with their predicament they find that their security and safety are not as assured as they originally hoped…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Lightspeed (2006)
Government agent Daniel Leight has his radiation treatments sabotaged. He soon finds that he can now move at super speeds but only by risking metabolic damage which could prove to be fatal. 'Lightspeed' must now use his powers to go after old friend turned terrorist who is now a mutant half-snake called Python.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster a Go-Go! (1965)
A space capsule crash-lands on Earth, and the astronaut aboard disappears. Is there a connection between the missing man and the monster roaming the area?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisIkarie XB 1 (1963)
The year is 2163. Starship Ikaria XB-1 embarks on a mission deep into space in search of alien life. During their perilous journey the crew confront the effects of a malignant dark star, the destructive legacy of the 20th century and, ultimately, the limits of their own sanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse?
The closest matches to The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse are The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Signal (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse?
Start with The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), the closest match to The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse?
Twelve Monkeys (1995), rated 7.6/10 by 9,556 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse?
28 Years Later (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse?
Yes: Decoder (1984), The Cloud (2006) and The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961).
How are movies similar to The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.