Movies like The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
The best movies like The Shadow of the Cat (1961) are Play Dead (2022), Sleepwalkers (1992) and Creep (2014). If The Shadow of the Cat hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedScooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)7.7/10 from 896 votes
- NewestThe Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026)Released 2026
Play Dead (2022)
Criminology student Chloe fakes her own death to break into a morgue, in order to retrieve a piece of evidence that ties her younger brother to a crime gone wrong. Once inside, she discovers that a sadistic coroner is using the corpses for his sick and twisted business, and when he realises that Chloe still has a pulse, a terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleepwalkers (1992)
Charles Brady and his mother, Mary, are the last of a dying breed whose needs are not of this world. They are Sleepwalkers - able to stay alive only by feeding on the life-force of the innocent, but destined to roam the earth, avoiding discovery while searching for their next victim. That search takes them to the sleepy little town of Travis, Indiana, where beautiful teenager Tanya Robertson is about to become an unwilling pawn in their nightmarish fight for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCreep (2014)
Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: "$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated." Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBen (1972)
A lonely boy becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCat's Eye (1985)
Three short stories linked by a stray cat that roams from one tale to the next, in this creepy triptych that begins as Dick tries to quit smoking by any means necessary. Next, we meet Johnny, an adulterous man who's forced by his lover's husband onto a building's hazardous ledge. Finally, Amanda is threatened by an evil gnome who throws suspicion on the family cat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrawl (2019)
When a huge hurricane hits her hometown in Florida, Haley ignores evacuation orders to look for her father. After finding him badly wounded, both are trapped by the flood. With virtually no time to escape the storm, they discover that rising water levels are the least of their problems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Collector (2009)
Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHunted (2021)
A woman flees two serial killers who are hot on her heels in a forest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHush (2016)
A deaf woman is stalked by a psychotic killer in her secluded home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026)
Tethered by a frightening conclusion, Maya and the Strangers are locked on an unavoidable, unforgiving collision course — a showdown that proves they’re far from strangers now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisStrays (1991)
A young married couple and their daughter are terrorized by a pride of ferocious feral felines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Gun for Hire (1942)
Sadistic killer-for-hire Philip Raven becomes enraged when his latest job is paid off in marked bills. Vowing to track down his double-crossing boss, nightclub executive Gates, Raven sits beside Gates' lovely new employee, Ellen, on a train out of town. Although Ellen is engaged to marry the police lieutenant who's hunting down Raven, she decides to try and set the misguided hit man straight as he hides from the cops and plots his revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAssassins (1995)
Assassin Robert Rath arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun complete the job for him -- with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target and becomes a marked man himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Uncanny (1977)
Wilbur Gray, a horror writer, has stumbled upon a terrible secret, that cats are supernatural creatures who really call the shots. In a desperate attempt to get others to believe him, Wilbur spews three tales of feline horror.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCat People (1982)
After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat – and zoo curator Oliver to her. Soon, Paul will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they revert into predatory jungle cats.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ring (2002)
Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPet Sematary (1989)
After the Creed family's cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSinister 2 (2015)
A young mother and her twin sons move into a rural house that's marked for death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisScooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
After going their separate ways, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred reunite to investigate the ghost of Moonscar the pirate on a haunted bayou island, but it turns out the swashbuckler's spirit isn't the only creepy character on the island. The sleuths also meet up with cat creatures and zombies... and it looks like for the first time in their lives, these ghouls might actually be real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFunny Games (2008)
When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scarehouse (2014)
When two friends open a Halloween fun house on Devil's Night it is all fun and games until their former sorority sisters begin to arrive. These six sisters are confronted by their past as the night spins out of control.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisLowlife (2017)
The sordid lives of an addict, an ex-con, and a luchador collide when an organ harvesting caper goes very, very wrong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
Beautiful Mandy Lane isn't a party girl but, when classmate Chloe invites the Texas high school student to a bash in the countryside, she reluctantly accepts. After hitching a ride with a vaguely scary older man, the teens arrive at their destination. Partying ensues, and Mandy's close pal, Emmet, keeps a watchful eye on the young males making a play for Mandy. Then two of the students are murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisFelidae (1994)
A domestic house cat named Francis investigates the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntisocial Behaviour (2007)
Jakob Kelser is a lonely man living in a run-down house on the edge of a council estate. After enduring weeks of aggrevation and torment from local youths , Jacob, in a last-ditch attempt to once again lead a normal life, plots his revenge on his unsuspecting tormentors. One by one, they're be taught a lesson. One by one, they meet their deaths.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The 6th Day (2000)
A world of the very near future in which cattle, fish, and even the family pet can be cloned. But cloning humans is illegal - that is until family man Adam Gibson comes home from work one day to find a clone has replaced him. Taken from his family and plunged into a sinister world he doesn't understand, Gibson must not only save himself from the assassins who must destroy him to protect their secret, but uncover who and what is behind the horrible things happening to him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohn Q (2002)
John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDevil in a Blue Dress (1995)
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Widow (2014)
Laurie and Hugh are a successful young couple who have just closed on a weekend home away from the city. Unbeknownst to them, the neighboring property contains the crumbling remains of a boarding school that was shuttered in the wake of an unspeakable massacre. The sole survivor of that massacre still resides in the ruins of the school, hiding from the world and wanting only to be left alone. When Laurie and Hugh's friends explore the property, they have no idea that they disturbed an emotionally-broken killing machine: The Blood Widow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Shadow of the Cat?
The closest matches to The Shadow of the Cat are Play Dead (2022), Sleepwalkers (1992) and Creep (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Shadow of the Cat?
Start with Play Dead (2022), the closest match to The Shadow of the Cat.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Shadow of the Cat?
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), rated 7.7/10 by 896 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Shadow of the Cat?
The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Shadow of the Cat?
Yes: Play Dead (2022), Sleepwalkers (1992) and Creep (2014).
How are movies similar to The Shadow of the Cat chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Shadow of the Cat, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.