Movies like The Tale (2018)
The best movies like The Tale (2018) are Luckiest Girl Alive (2022), Black Butterfly (2017) and The Dead Girl (2006). If The Tale hooked you with its drama and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Sixth Sense (1999)8.0/10 from 13,592 votes
- NewestThe Chronology of Water (2025)Released 2025
Luckiest Girl Alive (2022)
A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Butterfly (2017)
Paul is a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who picks up a drifter and offers him a place to stay. However, when the deranged stranger takes Paul hostage and forces him to write, their unhinged relationship brings buried secrets to light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dead Girl (2006)
The clues to a young woman's death come together as the lives of seemingly unrelated women begin to intersect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngel of Mine (2019)
A woman grieving over the death of her daughter loses grip of reality when she begins to think her girl may still be alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShirley (2020)
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sixth Sense (1999)
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPeacock (2010)
A minor train accident in rural Nebraska gradually unveils a mystery involving the town's reclusive bank clerk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelieve Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)
On the night she plans on taking her own life, 17-year-old 'Lisa McVey' is kidnapped and finds herself fighting to stay alive and is raped. She manages to talk her attacker into releasing her, but when she returns home, no one believes her story except for one detective, who suspects she was abducted by a serial killer. Based on horrifying true events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Chronology of Water (2025)
Plagued by an abusive childhood, a woman finds escape in competitive swimming, sexual experimentation, toxic relationships, and addiction before ultimately finding her voice through writing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWoman of the Hour (2024)
An aspiring actress crosses paths with a prolific serial killer in '70s LA when they're cast on an episode of "The Dating Game."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCape Fear (1991)
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Thousand and One (2023)
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mustang (2019)
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMay December (2023)
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Girl Like Her (2015)
Sophomore year has been a nightmare for Jessica Burns. Relentlessly harassed by her former friend Avery Keller, Jessica doesn't know what she did to deserve the abuse from one of South Brookdale High's most popular and beautiful students. But when a shocking event changes both of their lives, a documentary film crew, a hidden digital camera, and the attention of a reeling community begin to reveal the powerful truth about A Girl Like Her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHypnotic (2023)
A detective becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of reality-bending crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018)
A look at India's second confidential nuclear test series at Pokhran lead by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, during the time of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApples (2021)
As an unpredictable, sweeping pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help him build a new life. His treatment: performing daily tasks prescribed by his doctors on cassette tape, and capturing those with a Polaroid camera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Horse (2014)
One-time Maori speed-chess champ, Genesis Potini, lives with a bi-polar disorder and must overcome prejudice and violence in the battle to save his struggling chess club, his family and ultimately, himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaby Snatcher (1992)
A woman is delighted to have given birth to a baby girl but her life is turned into a nightmare when she goes missing. The police mount a frantic search but to the woman's horror she finds out that it's herself who is the main suspect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lilya 4-ever (2002)
In a struggling post-Soviet community, Lilya a teenage girl is abandoned when her mother moves to the United States with her boyfriend. Facing neglect and poverty, she meets Andrei, who offers her a job in Sweden, giving her hope for a better life — and a journey that will change everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pink Panther (2006)
When the coach of the France football team is killed by a poisoned dart in the stadium at the end of a game, and his huge, expensive ring with the Pink Panther diamond disappears, the ambitious Chief Inspector Dreyfus assigns the worst police inspector – Jacques Clouseau – to the case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like this42plus (2007)
When the beautiful, efficient and successful Christine, 42, arrives at their summer beach home with her husband and teenage daughter, a young hitchhiker catches her eye. What follows is the story of a woman who frees herself, tears her life into pieces and puts it back together in a different order.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not (2002)
A talented art student named Angélique is passionately in love with Dr. Loïc Le Garrec, a handsome married man whom she believes will leave his wife. When he eventually decides to stay in his marriage, it causes Angélique to spiral. However, as the story shifts from Angélique's perspective to Loïc's, the surprising truth about their relationship is revealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDo Fish Do It? (2002)
16-year old Jan is absent-mindedly strolling through the streets when he's run over by roller-skating Nina. As fast as she has stormed into his life, however, she rushes off again. Nina is 15 years old and full of crazy ideas. She lives together with her brother, her father and his new girlfriend. Her mother isn't in touch much. That's why there is the unconventional Angel whose own daughter disappeared years ago and who is Nina's best friend and substitute mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Woodland Grey (2022)
When a man living alone in the woods saves the life of a young woman, they are forced to coexist. Chaos ensues when the woman makes a terrifying discovery in the woods behind the man's home and unleashes something truly haunting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Tale?
The closest matches to The Tale are Luckiest Girl Alive (2022), Black Butterfly (2017) and The Dead Girl (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Tale?
Start with Luckiest Girl Alive (2022), the closest match to The Tale.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Tale?
The Sixth Sense (1999), rated 8.0/10 by 13,592 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Tale?
The Chronology of Water (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Tale?
Yes: Luckiest Girl Alive (2022), Black Butterfly (2017) and The Dead Girl (2006).
How are movies similar to The Tale chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Tale, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.