Movies like Case 39 (2009)
The best movies like Case 39 (2009) are Barbarian (2022), The Children (2008) and Fragile (2005). If Case 39 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 ratedThe Black Phone (2022)7.5/10 from 6,217 votes
- NewestThe Home (2025)Released 2025
Barbarian (2022)
In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Children (2008)
A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFragile (2005)
Haunted by memories of a patient's death, a nurse takes a job at an antiquated hospital for children. Soon she learns that the kids fear a ghost that prowls the floors and will not allow anyone to leave. Amy tries to protect them and convince the other staffers of the evil that lurks there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Entity (1982)
A single mom is raped by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist believes the experience stems from childhood trauma, while she knows something supernatural is at play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Harvest (2015)
After becoming orphaned, a lonely girl moves in with her grandparents and tries to befriend a sick, bed-ridden boy next door, despite his mother’s strong objections. Her persistence leads to a friendship, but during secret visits, she uncovers dark secrets in the boy's home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Home (2025)
A troubled man starts working at a retirement home and realizes its residents and caretakers harbor sinister secrets. As he investigates the building and its forbidden fourth floor, he starts to uncover connections to his own past and upbringing as a foster child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlease Don't Feed the Children (2025)
After a viral outbreak ravaged the country’s adult population, a group of orphans heads south in search of a new life, only to find themselves at the mercy of a deranged woman harboring a dangerous secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Hill (2006)
Rose, a desperate mother, takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose embarks on a horrific journey to get her back and begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisButcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)
Rejected by her lover, the only man left in Cheryl's life is the orphaned nephew she has raised as her own son. She'll stop at nothing to keep Billy with her. When her plans misfire, she is swept up into an insane frenzy that means death to anyone who comes between her and her obsession. But the investigating detective is convinced that Billy is the real killer - and determined to prove it. Madness and fanaticism work together to drag all concerned into a terrifying vortex of blood-letting that adds a nightmarish twist to the classic Oedipus story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Nights at Freddy's (2023)
Recently fired and desperate for work, a troubled young man named Mike agrees to take a position as a night security guard at an abandoned theme restaurant: Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. But he soon discovers that nothing at Freddy's is what it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Deliverance (2024)
Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her personal demons, moves her family into a new home for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & 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 thisFright (1971)
Young babysitter Amanda arrives at the Lloyd residence to spend the evening looking after their young son. Soon after the Lloyds leave, a series of frightening occurrences in the gloomy old house have Amanda's nerves on edge. The real terror begins, however, when the child's biological father appears after recently escaping from a nearby mental institution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMercy Black (2019)
A woman is sent to a mental institution after stabbing her classmate in an attempt to conjure an evil spirit called, Mercy Black. Fifteen years later she's released, and must save her nephew, who has become obsessed with the phenomenon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret in Their Eyes (2015)
A tight-knit team of FBI investigators, along with their District Attorney supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrphan (2009)
After losing their baby, a married couple adopt 9-year old Esther, who may not be as innocent as she seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSplit (2017)
Though Kevin has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher, there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him — as well as everyone around him — as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Black Phone (2022)
Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmile (2022)
After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarrie (1976)
Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
Terror grips a small mountain town as bodies are discovered after each full moon. Losing sleep, raising a teenage daughter, and caring for his ailing father, officer Marshall struggles to remind himself there's no such thing as werewolves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Corruption of Chris Miller (1973)
Chris Miller, living with her stepmother in a large secluded mansion, finds her isolation interrupted by the arrival of an unknown scythe-wielding killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Pathology (2008)
Medical student Ted Grey graduates at the top of his class and quickly joins an elite pathology program, whose top students invite him into their circle. There he uncovers a gruesome secret: They play a game in which one tries to commit the perfect, undetectable murder, then the others compete to determine the victim's cause of death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisEdge of Darkness (2010)
As a seasoned homicide detective, Thomas Craven has seen the bleakest side of humanity. But nothing prepares him for the toughest investigation of his life: the search for his only daughter Emma's killer. Now, he is on a personal mission to uncover the disturbing secrets surrounding her murder, including corporate corruption, government collusion and Emma's own mysterious life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUrban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
The making of a horror movie takes on a terrifying reality for students at the most prestigious film school in the country. At Alpine University, someone is determined to win the best film award at any cost - even if it means eliminating the competition. No one is safe and everyone is a suspect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisSin piedad (2025)
Under the relentless sun, a killer stalks through the mountains, where the innocence of a young couple becomes prey. With no shadows to hide their fate, the hunt is a macabre game in broad daylight, where fear is not hidden in the darkness, but burns with the rawness of the unperturbed noon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Unfriended (2014)
While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself exactly one year ago. At first they think it's a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends' darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something out of this world, something that wants them dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Man in the Orange Jacket (2015)
A business executive lays off hundreds of harbor workers after they go on strike. He and his wife plan to escape the stress by taking an Italian vacation. On the evening before the trip, one of the fired workers, dressed in an orange harbor worker safety jacket, slips into their home. Although his immediate actions reveal a murderous intent, revenge is only the initial step.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Instinct (1999)
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven by ambition and a hunger for the truth, Caulder will eventually risk everything—even put his very life on the line—in a harrowing attempt to understand the bizarre actions of this madman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlone in the Dark (2005)
Edward Carnby is a private investigator specializing in unexplainable supernatural phenomena. His cases delve into the dark corners of the world, searching for truth in the occult remnants of ancient civilizations. Now, the greatest mystery of his past is about to become the most dangerous case he has ever faced.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Case 39?
The closest matches to Case 39 are Barbarian (2022), The Children (2008) and Fragile (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Case 39?
Start with Barbarian (2022), the closest match to Case 39.
What is the highest-rated movie like Case 39?
The Black Phone (2022), rated 7.5/10 by 6,217 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Case 39?
The Home (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Case 39?
Yes: Barbarian (2022), The Children (2008) and Fragile (2005).
How are movies similar to Case 39 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Case 39, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.