Movies like What Waits Below (1984)
The best movies like What Waits Below (1984) are Resident Evil (2026), The Descent: Part 2 (2009) and The Descent (2005). If What Waits Below hooked you with its horror and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedResident Evil (2026)7.5/10 from 2,002 votes
- NewestResident Evil (2026)Released 2026
Resident Evil (2026)
Medical courier Bryan unwittingly finds himself fighting for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Descent: Part 2 (2009)
Distraught, confused, and half-wild with fear, Sarah Carter emerges alone from the Appalachian cave system where she encountered unspeakable terrors. Unable to plausibly explain to the authorities what happened - or why she's covered in her friends' blood - Sarah is forced back to the subterranean depths to help locate her five missing companions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Descent (2005)
After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYear 10 (2024)
After the fall of civilization, the few survivors have been driven to cannibalism. A young man must confront a violent tribe that has murdered his father and stolen the medicine that keeps his girlfriend alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Resurrected (1991)
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrimitive War (2025)
During the Vietnam War, a recon unit ventures to an isolated jungle valley to uncover the fate of a missing platoon. They soon find themselves in a fight for their lives against an unexpected enemy — prehistoric dinosaurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie Alone (2024)
Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, Ethan, a young man with amnesia navigates the dangerous landscape in search of his lost love Emma. His journey takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Mae, a hardened and eccentric survivor. Together, Ethan and Mae face threats both human and otherwise before a fateful encounter with Kai unravels a secret that lies just beyond Ethan's fractured memory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisContainment (2015)
Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisPrometheus (2012)
A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtinction (2015)
And suddenly, overnight, the world came to a halt. Two men, two survivors, one kid, and hatred that separates them. A place forgotten by everyone, including the creatures that inhabit the Earth... until now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBooks of Blood (2020)
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhosts of War (2020)
A group of World War II American soldiers encounter a supernatural enemy as they occupy a French castle previously under Nazi control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbduction (2019)
A man steps out of a park fountain in Ho Chi Minh City with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he wanders through the city, piecing together clues to his past, he is relentlessly pursued by mysterious figures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing (2011)
When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlligator (1980)
A baby alligator is flushed down a toilet and survives by eating discarded lab animals that have been injected with growth hormones. The now gigantic animal escapes the city sewers and goes on a rampage, pursued by a cop and a big-game hunter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Light (2019)
A woman returns to her family home and discovers it to be inhabited by monsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this28 Years Later (2025)
Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaylight's End (2016)
Years after a mysterious plague has devastated the planet and turned most of humanity into blood-hungry creatures, a rogue drifter on a vengeful hunt stumbles across a band of survivors in an abandoned police station and reluctantly agrees to try to help them defend themselves and escape to the sanctuary they so desperately need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Abyss (1989)
A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEden Log (2007)
A man wakes up deep inside a cave. Suffering amnesia, he has no recollection of how he came to be here or of what happened to the man whose body he finds beside him. Tailed by a mysterious creature, he must continue through this strange and fantastic world. Enclosed, Tolbiac has no other option to reach the surface than to use REZO ZERO, secret observing cells in this cemetery-like abandoned mine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMysterious Island (1961)
During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals. They must use their ingenuity to survive the dangers, and to devise a way to return home. Sequel to '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' .
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnknown World (1951)
With the cyclotram, an atomic-powered rock-boring vehicle, Dr. Jerimiah Morley leads an expedition into a subterranean world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & science fiction
Zombie Death House (1988)
A renegade federal agent uses a new drug to create an army of unbeatable warriors.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
The Signal Beneath (2026)
In a stormy coastal Florida radio station, weary late-night DJ Cameron Deep hosts "Moonlit Waves," a call-in show for wild conspiracy theories. Absurd tales pour in, from mind-controlling self-driving cars to interdimensional clown aliens in smart fridges. When a mysterious static signal interrupts, revealing a chilling message from ancient "Subterraneans" claiming humanity was engineered as surface slaves, excitement turns to terror...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Demonwarp (1988)
A man and his daughter are attacked in the woods by what they believe is a Bigfoot-type creature. However, they soon begin to suspect that they may have stumbled onto a nest of aliens in a hidden spacecraft.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Alien from L.A. (1988)
When her archaeologist father disappears on an expedition, Wanda sets out to look for him. What she finds is a secret underground world, where no one believes in life on the surface and where she and her father are taken for spies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisAt the Earth's Core (1976)
A huge burrowing machine tunnels out of control at ferocious speed, cutting clean through to the center of the earth, to the twilight world of pellucidar. Once there, Dr. Perry and David Innes are threatened by half human creatures, lizard-like birds, and man-eating plants.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrooker (2026)
Marshall Brooker is a relic hunter for hire. On his latest job, he discovers an ancient mask that seems to possess supernatural powers. Instead of turning it over to his employers, he attempts to hold it hostage until the price is raised. Unfortunately for him, the man paying for his treks into the jungle is Roman Stalnik, a heartless collector of relics, and a man who already knows their power. Now, Brooker must find a way to protect his family and get out alive, before the occult cabal funding Roman gets their hands on the relic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
The Blade Master (1983)
Muscle-bound Ator and his mute Asian sidekick travel from the ends of the Earth to save his aged mentor from the evil mustachioed Zor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What Waits Below?
The closest matches to What Waits Below are Resident Evil (2026), The Descent: Part 2 (2009) and The Descent (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What Waits Below?
Start with Resident Evil (2026), the closest match to What Waits Below.
What is the highest-rated movie like What Waits Below?
Resident Evil (2026), rated 7.5/10 by 2,002 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What Waits Below?
Resident Evil (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like What Waits Below?
Yes: Resident Evil (2026), The Descent: Part 2 (2009) and The Descent (2005).
How are movies similar to What Waits Below chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Waits Below, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.