Movies like Phantom of the Big Tent (1954)
The best movies like Phantom of the Big Tent (1954) are Circus of Horrors (1960), Murders in the Zoo (1933) and Frank and Penelope (2022). If Phantom of the Big Tent hooked you with its horror and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedZombieland (2009)7.3/10 from 13,674 votes
- NewestThe Jester 2 (2025)Released 2025
Circus of Horrors (1960)
A plastic surgeon and his nurse join a bizarre circus to escape from the police. Here he befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisMurders in the Zoo (1933)
Dr. Gorman is a millionaire adventurer, traveling the world in search of dangerous game. His bored, beautiful, much younger wife entertains herself in the arms of other men. In turn, Gorman uses his animals to kill these men. When a New York City zoo suggests a fundraising gala, Gorman sees a prime opportunity to dispatch the dashing Roger and anyone else who might cross him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisFrank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Jester 2 (2025)
When teen magician Max crosses paths with the sinister Jester on Halloween night, she must outsmart a supernatural killer whose magic is all too real and whose tricks always end up in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Raven (1935)
A brilliant but deranged neurosurgeon becomes obsessively fixated on a judge's daughter. With the help of an escaped criminal whose face he has surgically deformed, the mad man lures her, her father, and her fiancé to his isolated, castle-like home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hitcher (2007)
While driving through the New Mexico Desert during a rainy night, college students Jim Halsey and his girlfriend Grace Andrews give a ride to a hitchhiker. While in their car, the stranger proves to be a psychopath threatening the young couple with a knife, but Jim successfully throws him out of the car. This sets off a chain of events that will change all of their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisClown (2014)
A loving father finds a clown suit for his son's birthday party, only to realize the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its wearer into a killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Jack in the Box Rises (2024)
When a creepy Jack-in-the-Box is discovered and opened on the grounds of an exclusive girls' school, six brave students soon enter a fight to the finish against the unleashed demon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSudden Impact (1983)
When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClown in a Cornfield (2025)
Quinn and her father have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTerrifier (2018)
A mute maniac named Art the Clown terrorizes two friends on Halloween and everyone else who gets in his way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Ten years after his original massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens on Halloween Eve and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hand (1981)
Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPet (2016)
A man bumps into an old crush and becomes obsessed. After several failed attempts at winning her over, he kidnaps her and holds her captive underneath the animal shelter where he works.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisWire Room (2022)
New recruit Justin Rosa must monitor arms-smuggling cartel member Eddie Flynn — and keep him alive at all costs. When a SWAT team descends on Flynn’s home, Rosa breaks protocol and contacts the gangster directly to save his life. As gunmen break into the Wire Room and chaos erupts, Mueller and Rosa make a final, desperate stand against the corrupt agents and officials who seek to destroy evidence and kill them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNick of Time (1995)
An ordinary man is suddenly forced into a plot to kill a politician in exchange for his kidnapped daughter's freedom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStitches (2012)
The clumsy and unfunny clown Richard "Stitches" Grindle entertains at the 10th birthday party of little Tom, but the boy and his friends play a prank with Stitches, tying his shoelaces. Stitches slips, falls and dies. Six years later, Tom gives a birthday party for his friends at home, but Stitches revives to haunt the teenagers and revenge his death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlay 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomething Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can two young boys overcome the worst the devil himself can deal out?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello My Name Is Gacy (2025)
John Gacy was a notorious serial killer who was on death row for 14 years. After lethal injection was administered, it took him far too long to actually pass away. This film takes place during those last moments, as he tries to justify what he may or may not have done.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & crime
Hack! (2007)
Seven college students are picked to travel to a private island owned by the reclusive Vincent King and his film-obsessed wife Mary Shelley to study island wildlife. But is isn't long when a mysterious killer begins killing the students one-by-one, and modeling them after gory murder scenes from numerous horror films.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Minced (2018)
20 years on the run, a killer clown ghastly finally been caught……. or has he.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Santa Sangre (1989)
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like this31 (2016)
Five carnival workers are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned, Hell-like compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game, the goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCircus of the Dead (2014)
A sadistic group of clowns kidnap an unsuspecting man and his daughters, forcing him to play a deadly game in order to save his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Zombieland (2009)
Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCamp Blood 666 Part 2: Exorcism of the Clown (2023)
Camp Blood is under new ownership as the updated "Camp Blackwood". Locals hope to bury the infamous clown killer's past, and release the victims from their torment. But when a pastor with ties to the previous grounds takes his church group out to make contact with restless spirits, wrath is all they are doomed to find. The clown killer is back, and this time he has an enemy of equal evil. His former cult followers have turned, as well as a vengeful witch, who will stop at nothing to see these titans of terror collide, and destroy anyone in their path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Lease (2018)
A family moves into a haunted villa where all kinds of supernatural events start to occur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Lair of the Killer Clowns (2023)
A paranormal researcher discovers a hellish no man's land in a forgotten desert that serves as a purgatory to evil clowns awaiting their fates.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Phantom of the Big Tent?
The closest matches to Phantom of the Big Tent are Circus of Horrors (1960), Murders in the Zoo (1933) and Frank and Penelope (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Phantom of the Big Tent?
Start with Circus of Horrors (1960), the closest match to Phantom of the Big Tent.
What is the highest-rated movie like Phantom of the Big Tent?
Zombieland (2009), rated 7.3/10 by 13,674 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Phantom of the Big Tent?
The Jester 2 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Phantom of the Big Tent?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Phantom of the Big Tent chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Phantom of the Big Tent, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.