Movies like The Mad Magician (1954)
The best movies like The Mad Magician (1954) are Carnival of Souls (1962), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and The Bat (1959). If The Mad Magician hooked you with its thriller and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)7.9/10 from 1,853 votes
- NewestCult Killer (2024)Released 2024
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Bat (1959)
Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder has rented a country house called "The Oaks", which not long ago was the scene of some murders committed by a strange and violent criminal known as "The Bat". Meanwhile, the house's owner, bank president John Fleming, has recently embezzled one million dollars in securities and has hidden the proceeds in the house, but is killed before he can retrieve it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse of Wax (1953)
A sculptor opens a wax museum to showcase the likenesses of famous historical figures, but quickly runs into trouble when his business partner demands the exhibits become more extreme in order to increase profits.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead of Night (1945)
An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Spiral Staircase (1946)
On a stormy night, the mute servant to an ailing matriarch is stalked by a serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Sardonicus (1961)
In 1880, Sir Robert Cargrave, a London physician known for his experimental work in paralysis treatment, is summoned to Gorslava by the mysterious Baron Sardonicus—who is now married to Cargrave's former wife, Maude—to treat his disfigurement. When Cargrave arrives, he finds the masked baron is a cruel sadist who has threatened to harm Maude if he is not successfully cured.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Shriek in the Night (1933)
Rival newspaper reporters Pat Morgan and Ted Rand find themselves unraveling the mystery behind the death of a millionaire philanthropist who fell from his penthouse balcony. When it is discovered that the plunge was not an accident, the building's residents come under suspicion. Soon, the body count begins to mount as three more murders occur by strangulation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)
When several women are found mutilated and murdered, the Paris police are baffled as to who the killer may be. All evidence points to Dupin, but soon it becomes apparent that it is someone (or something) stronger and deadlier than a human.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Nightmare (1964)
A young woman is plagued by nightmares of her asylum-patient mother. Upon returning to her family home, the nightmares become real when she sees a strange woman pacing the halls.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes Without a Face (1960)
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Warning (1928)
A story about a haunted old theater where an old Broadway play is being brought back despite threats from the ghost of a dead actor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
The Premature Burial (1962)
An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational fear of premature burial consumes him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Black Cat (1934)
After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Horrors (1946)
An unsuccessful sculptor saves a madman named "The Creeper" from drowning. Seeing an opportunity for revenge, he tricks the psycho into murdering his critics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hands of Orlac (1924)
A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse on Haunted Hill (1959)
Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDiabolique (1955)
The cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delassalle, is murdered by an unlikely duo -- his meek wife and the mistress he brazenly flaunts. The women become increasingly unhinged by a series of odd occurrences after Delassalle's corpse mysteriously disappears.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994)
James Earl Jones hosts this film based on two stories by the late Rod Serling, who wrote the stories of the original 'The Twilight Zone' (1959) series. In "The Theatre," a young woman attends a movie only to find that her life story is being revealed on the screen. In "Where the Dead Are," a Boston surgeon in 1868 searches for a scientist who may have the answer to a medical mystery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Nightmare (1956)
Clarinetist Stan has a nightmare about killing a man in a mirrored room. But when he wakes up and finds blood marks on himself and a key from the dream, he suspects that it may have truly happened.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
White Zombie (1932)
A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…as a zombie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Snake Pit (1948)
Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCult Killer (2024)
A private investigator is forced into a dangerous alliance with a killer in order to uncover a quiet town’s grisly criminal underbelly and clear the name of her mentor, who is implicated in the crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManiac (1963)
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pale Blue Eye (2022)
West Point, New York, 1830. When a cadet at the burgeoning military academy is found hanged with his heart cut out, the top brass summons former New York City constable Augustus Landor to investigate. While attempting to solve this grisly mystery, the reluctant detective engages the help of one of the cadets: a strange but brilliant young fellow by the name of Edgar Allan Poe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCleaner (2007)
Single father and former cop Tom Cutler has an unusual occupation: he cleans up death scenes. But when he's called in to sterilize a wealthy suburban residence after a brutal shooting, Cutler is shocked to learn he may have unknowingly erased crucial evidence, entangling himself in a dirty criminal cover-up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSisters (1973)
Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton, violently murder a man. Panicking, she calls the police. But when the detective arrives at the scene and finds nothing amiss, Grace is forced to take matters into her own hands. Her first move is to recruit private investigator Joseph Larch, who helps her to uncover a secret about Danielle's past that has them both seeing double.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Mad Magician?
The closest matches to The Mad Magician are Carnival of Souls (1962), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and The Bat (1959). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Mad Magician?
People who watched The Mad Magician most often go on to Carnival of Souls (1962), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and The Bat (1959).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Mad Magician?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), rated 7.9/10 by 1,853 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Mad Magician?
Cult Killer (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Mad Magician?
Yes: Carnival of Souls (1962), The Bat (1959) and House of Wax (1953).
How are movies similar to The Mad Magician chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Mad Magician, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.