Movies like The Hunger (1986)
The best movies like The Hunger (1986) are The Young One (1960), The Truth About Emanuel (2013) and Girl in the Box (2016). If The Hunger hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Good Neighbor (2022)6.7/10 from 215 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
The Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Still Hide to Smoke (2017)
Α tragi-comedy about 9 women of different ages and various backgrounds that gather in an Algerian hammam to talk about their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoor Cow (1967)
Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungleland (2020)
Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shepherd and the Women (1991)
The widowed Wafaa lives with her teenage daughter Salma and her sister-in-law Azza in her late husband Kamel's remote house. When Kamel's former cellmate comes to offer his help, the three women are hesitant to accept at first, but they end up falling for him and competing for his affection.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nagham Fi Hayaty (1975)
(Hanan) is an attractive and beautiful young girl. She works as a secretary for the singer (Mamdouh). She is attached to Mohsen’s heart and emotionally attached to him. As a result of that connection, she falls victim when she surrenders herself to Mohsen. The result of that connection becomes a pregnancy, and here the situation becomes more serious. Mohsen has to leave Beirut for Brazil. To search for a job opportunity, he must leave the country immediately.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Agony over smiling lips (1974)
(Shahira) enters into a long struggle between reason and emotion, as she loves (Essam), her childhood friend, and they wait for their marriage together since childhood, until (Mustafa), the successful businessman, appears in her life, and with him a prosperous future full of luxury. She has to choose and give priority to her passion or reason.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Age of Wolves (1986)
Hanan works as a secretary for Shawkat, a businessman who trades in weapons. Despite being watched by the police and constant attacks from the journalist Samia, Shawkat steals Hanan from her fiancé, Ahmed, who works in an Arab country. Hanan's attempts to escape and follow her fiancée fail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bittersweet (2010)
An Egyptian-American returns to his homeland after twenty years abroad, filled with nostalgia and high hopes. But as he reconnects with his roots, he finds himself caught between two worlds—and begins to experience the reality of a country he thought he knew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSorry i refuse the divorce (1980)
Mona devotes her life to her husband and their only daughter, striving to keep them happy. On their 10th anniversary, her husband Essam calmly asks for a divorce, but she refuses to let go so easily.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
El-Halal Yksab (1985)
After Dr. Fouad performs an operation on Shams and saves her life, she becomes attached to him and asks him to marry her. He hides from her that he is engaged to Narges, fearing that her health will deteriorate, so he marries her and Narges at the same time, and convinces Shams that Narges is his sister, and events escalate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Microphone (2010)
Upon his return to Alexandria, Khaled becomes intrigued with a graffiti mural opposite his apartment. As he pursues this further, a larger underground arts scene slowly reveals itself, composed of musicians, filmmakers, and graffiti artists. As they struggle to get their voices heard, Khaled is compelled to help them acquire some much deserved visibility.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Family That Has Been Banned (2022)
It deals with the life of an Egyptian family across different generations in a comedic style of show. It presents the social and cultural changes between them, and the family tensions resulting from different customs and values, with a focus on humor and music to convey a message about adapting to time changes and maintaining family ties.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rawheya Has Been Kidnapped (1989)
As Rawheya gets kidnapped, her husband, Ratib, searches for her. However, it turns out to be a trick she carried out in cooperation with Mukhlis and Attia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Hunger and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Hunger?
The closest matches to The Hunger are The Young One (1960), The Truth About Emanuel (2013) and Girl in the Box (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Hunger?
Start with The Young One (1960), the closest match to The Hunger.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Hunger?
The Good Neighbor (2022), rated 6.7/10 by 215 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Hunger?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Hunger chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Hunger, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.