Movies like The Murder Secret (1988)
The best movies like The Murder Secret (1988) are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) and Nightmare Cinema (2018). If The Murder Secret hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDawn of the Dead (1978)7.5/10 from 2,425 votes
- NewestPlay Dead (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianDeath Smiles on a Murderer (1973)Also in Italian
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath Smiles on a Murderer (1973)
Greta is a beautiful young woman abused by her brother Franz and left to die in childbirth by her illicit lover, the aristocrat Dr. von Ravensbrück. Bereft with grief, Franz reanimates his dead sister using a formula engraved on an ancient Incan medallion. Greta then returns as an undead avenging angel, reaping revenge on the Ravensbrück family and her manically possessive brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNightmare Cinema (2018)
A series of down-on-their-luck individuals enter the decrepit and spine-chilling Rialto theater, only to have their deepest and darkest fears brought to life on the silver screen by The Projectionist – a mysterious, ghostly figure who holds the nightmarish futures of all who attend his screenings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlanet Terror (2007)
Two doctors find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by sores. Among the wounded is Cherry Darling, a dancer whose leg was ripped from her body. As the invalids quickly become enraged aggressors, Cherry and her ex-boyfriend El Wray lead a team of accidental warriors into the night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)
Retired military commander Colonel Dale Murphy hosts the simulated post-apocalyptic reality show where participants are challenged to survive a remote West Virginia wasteland. But the show turns into a nightmarish showdown when each realizes they are being hunted by an inbred family of cannibals determined to make them all dinner!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlay Dead (2025)
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
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 thisThe House by the Cemetery (1981)
After a doctor kills his mistress and himself while researching the mysterious previous owner of his Boston home, his colleague, Dr. Norman Boyle, takes over his studies and moves his family into the Boston mansion. Soon after, Boyle's young son Bob becomes plagued by visions of a young girl, who warns him of the danger within the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShock (1977)
A couple is terrorized in their new house haunted by the vengeful ghost of the woman's former husband who possesses her young son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJeepers Creepers (2001)
On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bay of Blood (1971)
An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecky (2020)
A teenager's weekend at a lake house with her father takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts wreaks havoc on their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStranger in the Woods (2024)
Olivia and her friends go on a vacation. After Olivia nearly drowns with a slit wrist in her bathtub after her fiancé's funeral, her friends suspect that she tried to kill herself, but she believes someone attacked her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hunt (2020)
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are—or how they got there. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt humans for sport. But their master plan is about to be derailed when one of the hunted turns the tables on her pursuers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Based on Wes Craven's 1977 suspenseful cult classic, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carter family soon realizes the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family...and they are the prey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleepaway Camp (1983)
Years after a terrible boating accident, Angela is sent to Camp Arawak where a series of bizarre and violent "accidents" begin to claim the lives of various campers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMother's Day (2010)
Crazed members of a sadistic family return to their childhood home to terrorize the new owners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Mountain Side (2016)
A group of archaeologists working in Northern Canada uncover a strange structure dating over ten thousand years before the present. The team soon finds themselves isolated when their communication systems fail and they begin to feel the effects of solitude.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlood: The Last Vampire (2000)
In Japan, the vampire-hunter Saya, who is a powerful original, is sent by her liaison with the government, David, posed as a teenage student to the Yokota High School on the eve of Halloween to hunt down vampires. Saya asks David to give a new katana to her. Soon she saves the school nurse Makiho Amano from two vampires disguised of classmates and Makiho witnesses her fight against the powerful demon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDawn of the Dead (1978)
During an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDawn of the Dead (2004)
A group of survivors take refuge in a shopping mall after the world is taken over by aggressive, flesh-eating zombies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGremlins (1984)
After receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous creatures on a small town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVideodrome (1983)
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirty Love (2009)
"Three tales of sex and violence presented by TORO LOCO, a blood thirsty, perverted killer cowboy seeking and killing people that starred in some exploitation movie. He is showing his victims the movies before torturing and killing them with a cow skull. The first story deals with two inspectors hunting a cannibal serial killer called "The Tiger". The second is about a 'not-so-devoted' husband interested in having a night of perverted sex with a prostitute in a motel room. The third is a tragical love story between a poor, little man oppressed by his wife and an handsome boy with self-destruction tendencies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Dead in 3 Days (2006)
When Nina and her high school friends receive eerie text messages declaring that they will all die within three days, they dismiss it as a hokey prank - until one by one, the pals start turning up dead in the alpine countryside. With the cops stymied, Nina and her remaining friends must scour their past for clues to identify the madman before he kills them all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBegotten (1991)
Begotten is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLos cómplices del infierno (1995)
Sandra and Deborah are two women trying to escape from a tragic recent event. They go for a vacation on a beach house but are then followed by an evil cult.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Like The Murder Secret and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Murder Secret?
The closest matches to The Murder Secret are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) and Nightmare Cinema (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Murder Secret?
Start with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), the closest match to The Murder Secret.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Murder Secret?
Dawn of the Dead (1978), rated 7.5/10 by 2,425 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Murder Secret?
Play Dead (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Murder Secret?
Yes: Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973), The House by the Cemetery (1981) and Shock (1977).
How are movies similar to The Murder Secret chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Murder Secret, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.