Movies like The Nightmare Woman (1981)
The best movies like The Nightmare Woman (1981) are The Girl in the Book (2015), Beau Is Afraid (2023) and Hanna (2011). If The Nightmare Woman hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPoor Things (2023)7.6/10 from 5,925 votes
- NewestPoor Things (2023)Released 2023
- In GermanBerlin Alexanderplatz (2020)Also in German
The 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeau Is Afraid (2023)
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHanna (2011)
Raised by her father, an ex-CIA agent, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing has been geared to making her the perfect assassin. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBerlin Alexanderplatz (2020)
In 2015, thirty year old refugee Francis, the sole survivor of a boat that illegally crossed the Mediterranean, is drawn into Berlin's seedy underbelly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLola (1981)
Germany in the autumn of 1957: Lola, a seductive cabaret singer-prostitute exults in her power as a temptress of men, but she wants out—she wants money, property, and love. Pitting a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, Lola launches an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything, and everyone, is for sale. Shot in childlike candy colors, Fassbinder’s homage to Josef von Sternberg’s classic The Blue Angel stands as a satiric tribute to capitalism.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeeping Tom (1960)
Loner Mark Lewis works at a film studio during the day and, at night, takes racy photographs of women. Also he's making a documentary on fear, which involves recording the reactions of victims as he murders them. He befriends Helen, the daughter of the family living in the apartment below his, and he tells her vaguely about the movie he is making.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Only Living Boy in New York (2017)
When a young man learns that his overbearing father is having an affair, he tries to stop it, only to be seduced by the older woman as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Between (1953)
A British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets into and out of the Eastern Bloc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMay (2003)
A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPossession (1981)
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSummer in Berlin (2005)
An intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaniel Isn't Real (2019)
A troubled college freshman resurrects his imaginary friend to help him cope with a violent trauma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoor Things (2023)
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisChristiane F. (1981)
A teen girl in 1970s Berlin becomes addicted to heroin. Everything in her life slowly begins to distort and disappear as she befriends a small crew of junkies and falls in love with a drug-abusing male prostitute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat's New Pussycat? (1965)
A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOracle (2023)
A young woman accepts a job on a property with a traumatic history. Upon her arrival, she soon realizes that the nightmares of her childhood are connected to the evil in the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBasic Instinct (1992)
Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Nightmare Woman?
The closest matches to The Nightmare Woman are The Girl in the Book (2015), Beau Is Afraid (2023) and Hanna (2011). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Nightmare Woman?
Start with The Girl in the Book (2015), the closest match to The Nightmare Woman.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Nightmare Woman?
Poor Things (2023), rated 7.6/10 by 5,925 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Nightmare Woman?
Poor Things (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Nightmare Woman?
Yes: Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020), Lola (1981) and Summer in Berlin (2005).
How are movies similar to The Nightmare Woman chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Nightmare Woman, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.