Movies like Smallpox Tale (1976)
The best movies like Smallpox Tale (1976) are The Fog (1980), The Neon Demon (2016) and Antichrist (2009). If Smallpox Tale hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKoyaanisqatsi (1983)7.9/10 from 813 votes
- NewestBeau Is Afraid (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseLove & Pop (1998)Also in Japanese
The Fog (1980)
Strange things begin to occur as a tiny California coastal town prepares to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone stumbles upon a dark secret about the town's founding; radio announcer Stevie witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Neon Demon (2016)
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntichrist (2009)
A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKoyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHobo with a Shotgun (2011)
A vigilante homeless man pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in urban chaos, a city where crime rules and where the city's crime boss reigns. Seeing an urban landscape filled with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused prostitutes and even a pedophile Santa, the Hobo goes about bringing justice to the city the best way he knows how - with a 20-gauge shotgun. Mayhem ensues when he tries to make things better for the future generation. Street justice will indeed prevail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOld (2021)
A group of families on a tropical holiday discover that the secluded beach where they are staying is somehow causing them to age rapidly – reducing their entire lives into a single day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsters (2010)
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an infected zone. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures," while a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Pop (1998)
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMandy (2018)
The Shadow Mountains, 1983. Red and Mandy lead a loving and peaceful existence; but when their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Doors (1991)
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Andromeda Strain (1971)
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Snake of June (2003)
Rinko, a woman in a sexless marriage, is blackmailed by a stalker with intimate photos, forcing her into a series of erotic acts that disrupt her mundane life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fountain (2006)
Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)
Two teenagers trapped in an endless time loop set out to find all the tiny things that make that one day perfect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPalm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
Seventeen-year-old Lea spends her summer break tanning in her backyard, and drifting between tiptoeing around her needy mother, and aimlessly trailing her best friend and boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom, a seductive man twice her age who promises an alternative to Lea's unsatisfying adolescent life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReminiscence (2021)
Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas, is an expert in a dangerous occupation: he offers clients the chance to relive any memory they desire. His life changes when he meets a mysterious young woman named Mae. What begins as a simple matter of lost and found becomes a passionate love affair. But when a different client's memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, Bannister must delve through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeau Is Afraid (2023)
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fallout (2021)
In the wake of a school tragedy, Vada, Mia and Quinton form a unique and dynamic bond as they navigate the never linear, often confusing journey to heal in a world that feels forever changed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEquals (2015)
A futuristic love story set in a world where emotions have been eradicated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPerfect World (1990)
A take it or leave it auteur-experimental fiction exercise: two women are monitoring their dreams, dreams that may of course also be stark naked reality, at least to the dreamers, as they come and they go like bubbles, rising, floating, bursting. A man appears out of nowhere. Poet Peter Laugesen co-wrote the script with Tom Elling, who was Lars von Trier's director of photography on "The Element of Crime".
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Five Obstructions (2003)
In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAi Rotoli (1996)
A visit to the Rotoli cemetery in Palermo, while film director Carmelo Bene reads a fragment of Antonio Pizzuto's book "Signorina Rosina".
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Tuesday Darkness (2016)
Evolution and change are usually observed within a positive sphere, nevertheless and according to the history of humanity, we are stubborn beings reluctant to change and the unknown. I wrote this short with that thought in my mind. Mardi Darkness shows a small glance in the life of a recent graduate that resists to change, the possibility of happiness and above all the acceptance of his new life. Far away from his family, from what he once called home and his youth. The short film was made in an experimental fashion. It was initially framed as a sequence shot but it was just evoking melancholy and the chaos went too unperceived. For this reason, I decided to use a split screen technique to tell the story in a more chaotic and voyeuristic manner. It is as though it was seen through monitors that loop the life of a man who refuses to change, remaining so until it merges with the darkness of the screen and the unexplored.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Dropout (1970)
Disillusioned English banker's wife Mary meets troubled Italian immigrant Bruno, with whom she is captivated by and they set off on a voyage on which they meet a variety of society's dropouts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Gondora (1997)
A short movie about a guy living in his own world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Visit (2010)
Visit He visits a city. The city already forgot him. The city is still sinking in his dream. The flicking segments of real life and illusion. Only the lighthouse has his memory. But the memory will may be vanished.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Blockbuster Where a Giant Monster Destroys a Town (2019)
In a village of Cuba devastated after trying to imitate the north american suburb model, a sound recorder tries to tape sounds for an incoming blockbuster about a giant monster that destroys a whole town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Trace of Emotion (2008)
The emotion of people easily changes. It is not easy to define what emotion is. We just feel it. To feel emotion is like to observe nature because nature always changes by time, sun, and wind. When we observe nature, the nature tries to say what our emotion is because the nature leaves the trace of emotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)
A Japanese salaryman finds his body transforming into a weapon through sheer rage after his son is kidnapped by a gang of violent thugs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Smallpox Tale?
The closest matches to Smallpox Tale are The Fog (1980), The Neon Demon (2016) and Antichrist (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Smallpox Tale?
Start with The Fog (1980), the closest match to Smallpox Tale.
What is the highest-rated movie like Smallpox Tale?
Koyaanisqatsi (1983), rated 7.9/10 by 813 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Smallpox Tale?
Beau Is Afraid (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Smallpox Tale?
Yes: Love & Pop (1998), A Snake of June (2003) and Gondora (1997).
How are movies similar to Smallpox Tale chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Smallpox Tale, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.