Movies like By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2005)
The best movies like By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2005) are Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), The Thursday Murder Club (2025) and Crime Is Our Business (2008). If By the Pricking of My Thumbs hooked you with its comedy and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKnives Out (2019)7.8/10 from 14,794 votes
- NewestBack to the Past (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchCrime Is Our Business (2008)Also in French
Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
A middle-aged couple suspects foul play when their neighbor's wife suddenly drops dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thursday Murder Club (2025)
A group of senior sleuths passionate about solving cold cases get plunged into a real-life murder mystery in this comic crime caper.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime Is Our Business (2008)
Loosely based on "4.50 from Paddington" by Agatha Christie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Thin Man Goes Home (1944)
Hoping for a peaceful visit with his parents in the small town of Sycamore Springs, Nick Charles and his wife Nora soon find themselves surrounded by old rivalries, family tensions, and a mysterious murder. Nick’s father, a respected retired doctor, would much rather see his son give up detective work, but a suspicious shooting quickly draws Nick back into action. As Nick and Nora investigate, they uncover jealousy, deception, hidden motives, and a dangerous secret involving the town’s prominent citizens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnives Out (2019)
When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnother Thin Man (1939)
Nick and Nora Charles are back - and this time, they have a baby, a wealthy new client, and another murder to solve! Retired detective Nick is enjoying family life with Nora and their young son, Nick Jr., when eccentric industrialist Colonel MacFay asks for protection after receiving threatening messages. When MacFay is found dead at his isolated estate, Nick and Nora spring into action, questioning a houseful of suspicious guests and uncovering greed, blackmail, family secrets, and a dangerous inheritance plot. With their trademark wit and sophistication, the glamorous couple balances parenthood, parties, and peril as they race to expose the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaggie Moore(s) (2023)
Bizarre back-to-back murders in an otherwise quiet Arizona desert town has rattled local Police Chief Jordan Sanders. The two dead women have no connection to each other – except they’re both named Maggie Moore. While unravelling a web of small-town lies and mysteries, the investigation gets even more complicated when Sanders begins a romantic relationship with one of the murdered women's neighbor, Rita.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisShadow of the Thin Man (1941)
While attending a major horse race with their young son, Nick Jr., Nick and Nora Charles witnesse a shocking murder from the crowded grandstand. What first appears to be an isolated killing soon leads to a maze of corruption, blackmail, gambling scandals, and criminal intrigue. As Nick investigates, he encounters suspicious bookmakers, dishonest officials, rival gangsters, and a mysterious killer determined to stay ahead of the law. Nora, as always, is never far from the action, bringing her quick wit and fearless curiosity to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMade in U.S.A (1967)
Paula Nelson goes to Atlantic City to meet her lover, Richard Politzer, but finds him dead and decides to investigate his death. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, whom she ends up knocking out. His corpse is later found in the apartment of David Goodis, a writer. Paula is arrested and interrogated. From then on, she encounters many gangsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Cloned Tyrone (2023)
A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy lurking directly beneath their neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisD.O.A. (1988)
Dexter Cornell, an English Professor becomes embroiled in a series of murders involving people around him. Dexter has good reason to want to find the murderer but hasn't much time. He finds help and comfort from one of his student, Sydney Fuller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big Sleep (1946)
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
Nancy Drew, a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Number 23 (2007)
Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrooked House (2017)
A private investigator helps a former flame solve the murder of her wealthy grandfather, who lived in a sprawling estate surrounded by his idiosyncratic family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington (1987)
Travelling on the 4.50 from Paddington, Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on a passing train - but where is the body?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDuplex (2003)
When a young couple buys their dream home, they have no idea what the sweet little old lady upstairs is going to put them through!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen at Dinner (1985)
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound at the base of his neck. It will take the precise Poirot to sort out the lies from the alibis - and find the criminal before another victim dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisSphere (1998)
A spacecraft is discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, presumed to be at least 300 years old and of alien origin. A crack team of scientists and experts is assembled and taken to the ocean floor to investigate. However, the ship is not as it seems and when a giant perfect sphere is discovered in the cargo bay, things begin to fall apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPolice Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985)
Officer Carey Mahoney and his cohorts have finally graduated from the Police Academy and are about to hit the streets on their first assignment. Question is, are they ready to do battle with a band of graffiti-tagging terrorists? Time will tell, but don't sell short this cheerful band of doltish boys in blue.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBack to the Past (2025)
In the Qin Dynasty, time-traveller Hong Siu-lung has lived in seclusion with his family for twenty years. Yet every step he takes remains under the watchful eye of his former disciple, now the Qin Emperor. On the brink of ultimate power after conquering the six warring states, the emperor is suddenly ambushed by a mysterious team wielding advanced weapons clearly originating from Hong’s time. Drawn together by fate again, Hong and Qin Emperor are forced to confront the long-buried conflict between them, because the future now depends on how they settle their past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Phantom of the Opera (1998)
A series of terrifying accidents and brutal murders leave a bloody trail into the subterranean caverns of an Opera house. Below the theatre stalks a man raised by creatures of the underworld.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisPinocchio (2002)
Roberto Benigni adapts the classic children's tale by Carlo Collodi for the big-budget family-oriented comedy Pinocchio.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisDie Musterknaben 2 (1999)
A new case for "The Model Boys": The two Cologne commissioners Docker and Dretzke to take the next 14 days a journalist to their missions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
The turbulent personal and professional life of actor Peter Sellers (1925-1980), from his beginnings as a comic performer on BBC Radio to his huge success as one of the greatest film comedians of all time; an obsessive artist so dedicated to his work that neglected his loved ones and sacrificed part of his own personality to convincingly create that of his many memorable characters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrantic (1988)
The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappiness (1998)
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Watcher (2000)
FBI agent Joel Campbell, burnt-out and shell-shocked after years spent chasing serial killers, flees L.A. to begin a new life for himself in Chicago. But five months later, Joel's best laid plans are abruptly cut short when his new hometown becomes the setting for some particularly gruesome murders--murders that could only have been committed by one man: David Allen Griffin. One of Joel's most elusive and cunning nemeses, Griffin has followed his former pursuer to Chicago in order to play a sadistic game of cat and mouse. Taunting Joel with photographs of his intended victims and leaving his crime scenes meticulously free of clues in order to keep the police at bay, Griffin derives as much pleasure out of watching Joel react to every movement as watching his victims die. But when Griffin moves into Joel's inner circle, Joel must quickly find some way to stop him before someone close to him becomes the next one to die.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like By the Pricking of My Thumbs?
The closest matches to By the Pricking of My Thumbs are Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), The Thursday Murder Club (2025) and Crime Is Our Business (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after By the Pricking of My Thumbs?
Start with Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), the closest match to By the Pricking of My Thumbs.
What is the highest-rated movie like By the Pricking of My Thumbs?
Knives Out (2019), rated 7.8/10 by 14,794 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like By the Pricking of My Thumbs?
Back to the Past (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like By the Pricking of My Thumbs?
Yes: Crime Is Our Business (2008) and Made in U.S.A (1967).
How are movies similar to By the Pricking of My Thumbs chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside By the Pricking of My Thumbs, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.