Movies like April Fool's Day (1986)
The best movies like April Fool's Day (1986) are Happy Birthday to Me (1981), Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Urban Legend (1998). If April Fool's Day hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEyes Wide Shut (1999)7.5/10 from 7,467 votes
- NewestBone Lake (2025)Released 2025
Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a gruesome set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJeepers Creepers (2001)
On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUrban Legend (1998)
A college campus is plagued by a vicious serial killer murdering students in ways that correspond to various urban legends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScream (1996)
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDisturbing Behavior (1998)
Steve Clark is a newcomer in the town of Cradle Bay, and he quickly realizes that there's something odd about his high school classmates. The clique known as the "Blue Ribbons" are the eerie embodiment of academic excellence and clean living. But, like the rest of the town, they're a little too perfect. When Steve's rebellious friend Gavin mysteriously joins their ranks, Steve searches for the truth with fellow misfit Rachel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThanksgiving (2023)
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBone Lake (2025)
A couple’s romantic vacation at a secluded lakeside estate is upended when they are forced to share the mansion with a mysterious and attractive couple. In this darkly hilarious and seductive horror story, a dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, bringing terrifying secrets to light and triggering a bloody battle for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrahms: The Boy II (2020)
After a family moves into the Heelshire Mansion, their young son soon makes friends with a life-like doll called Brahms.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisMessiah of Evil (1975)
A young woman searching for her missing artist father finds herself in the strange seaside town of Point Dune, which seems to be under the influence of a mysterious undead cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)
A group of cold case investigators stay at the Carmichael Manor, site of the grisly and unsolved murders of the Carmichael family back in the eighties. After four nights, the group was never heard from again. What is discovered on their footage is even more disturbing than anything found on the Hell House tapes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScream 2 (1997)
Two years after the Woodsboro murders, Sidney Prescott acclimates to college life while someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Gothic (1987)
When six friends fly off on a weekend getaway and are suddenly plagued by engine trouble, they're forced to land on a remote island. Looking for shelter, they're grateful to encounter Ma and Pa and their children - an eccentric family living in the island's backwoods. But what begins as simple hospitality turns into a terrifying race for survival as the friends start disappearing one by one ... and turning up dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
Mary Lou Maloney, Hamilton High's Prom Queen of 1957, is killed during her coronation ceremony due to a prank gone wrong by her jilted boyfriend, Billy Nordham. Thirty years later, teen Vicki Carpenter is in the running for Prom Queen, but accidentally unleashes the vengeful spirit of Mary Lou, who will stop at nothing to be rightfully crowned, even if it means taking Vicki's poor body for a cruise!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGinger Snaps (2000)
The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger's wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right. Now Brigitte must save her sister and save herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
After his revival in a hospital morgue, Jason fixes his vengeful attention on the Jarvis family and a group of hitherto carefree teenagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th Part III (1982)
An idyllic summer turns into a nightmare of unspeakable terror for yet another group of naïve friends. Ignoring Camp Crystal Lake's bloody legacy, one by one they fall victim to the maniacal Jason, who stalks them at every turn...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Amityville Horror (2005)
George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Dutch colonial mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScream VI (2023)
Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerrifier 3 (2024)
Five years after surviving Art the Clown's Halloween massacre, Sienna and Jonathan are still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they're safe, Art returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Omen (2006)
A diplomatic couple adopts the son of the devil without knowing it. A remake of the classic horror film of the same name from 1976.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCube Zero (2004)
A young programmer whose job is to watch over the reality-warping Cube defies orders to rescue an innocent mother trapped in one of its rooms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChopper (2023)
CHOPPER is a modern-day re-imagining of the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow. After taking a strange new drug with supernatural side effects at a Daytona Bike Week party, a troubled young bartender and her biker friends start seeing ghosts. They are stalked by the Reaper, a headless ghost on a motorcycle who collects the souls of sinners in the afterlife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Cube (1998)
A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSorority Row 2 (TBA)
Sequel to Sorority Row (2009).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Hole (2001)
Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes Wide Shut (1999)
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScoop (2006)
An American journalism student in London scoops a big story, and begins an affair with an aristocrat as the incident unfurls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like April Fool's Day?
The closest matches to April Fool's Day are Happy Birthday to Me (1981), Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Urban Legend (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after April Fool's Day?
Start with Happy Birthday to Me (1981), the closest match to April Fool's Day.
What is the highest-rated movie like April Fool's Day?
Eyes Wide Shut (1999), rated 7.5/10 by 7,467 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like April Fool's Day?
Bone Lake (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like April Fool's Day?
Yes: Happy Birthday to Me (1981), Jeepers Creepers (2001) and Urban Legend (1998).
How are movies similar to April Fool's Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside April Fool's Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.