Movies like The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
The best movies like The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) are Opera (1987), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). If The Stendhal Syndrome hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedDeep Red (1975)7.7/10 from 1,662 votes
- NewestThe Card Player (2004)Released 2004
- In ItalianOpera (1987)Also in Italian
Opera (1987)
A young opera singer is stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
An American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite him and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlood and Black Lace (1964)
Isabella, a young model, is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a fashion house in Rome. When her diary, which details the house employees' many vices, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Blade in the Dark (1983)
Bruno, an up and coming film composer, has been hired to write the score to a new horror movie. After moving into a secluded villa, life begins to imitate art as a vicious killer starts bumping off anyone and everyone who happens to pay him a visit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisTenebre (1982)
A razor-wielding serial killer is on the loose, murdering those around Peter Neal, an American mystery author in Italy to promote his newest novel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeep Red (1975)
An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods. The two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia and violence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ugly (1997)
A female psychologist wants to understand the minds of a confessed serial killer who spent the last five years in a mental hospital because of his state.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTorso (1973)
A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe New York Ripper (1982)
A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrauma (1993)
A young Romanian woman and a recovering drug addict launch an unlikely investigation after her parents are murdered by a vicious serial killer known as The Headhunter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisAutopsy (1975)
A series of random suicides in Rome, Italy are attributed to a heatwave, but a young pathologist named Simona—who is working on a thesis about murders disguised as suicides—suspects otherwise. When a young girl associated with Simona's playboy father ends up dead in another supposed suicide, Simona teams up with the girl's priest brother to prove she was murdered and track down the unknown serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House with Laughing Windows (1976)
Stefano, a young restorer, is commissioned to save a controversial mural located in the church of a small, isolated village.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRings of Fear (1978)
Angela Russo, a sixteen-year-old girl, is found dead in a river, having been fatally violated with a large blunt instrument. Inspector Di Salvo is assigned to the case and focuses his investigations on St. Theresa's, the exclusive school where Angela boarded. Three of the murdered girl's classmates, Franca, Paola and Virginia (who call themselves "The Inseparables"), receive threatening poems from an individual using the name "Nemesis." Bizarre "accidents" start to befall the girls: Franca is injured when someone causes her horse to bolt and Virginia nearly breaks her neck on marbles left at the top of a staircase. But Di Salvo is determined to find the killer, even if it means using unorthodox methods. He is aided by Angela Russo's little sister Emily, whose helpful clues lead to a boutique owned by a dubious character and a vice ring where "rich influential men pay well for teenage favours..."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
Sleepless (2001)
An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Psychic (1977)
A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974)
An unidentified fifteen year-old girl is found hanged after an anonymous tip-off. The girl, Silvia Polvesi, is soon discovered to have been murdered. A peeping tom is caught with photos of her having sex with a teenage drop-out but he is later released due to lack of evidence. The investigation, conducted by Inspector Silvestri and the assistant public prosecutor Vittoria Stori, focuses on the girl's parents. Conspiracies and horrors pile up, as do the body parts.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDelirium: Photo of Gioia (1987)
Gioia is a buxom centerfold working for Pussycat magazine. In such a profession, having an admirer or two is expected, but Gioia's admirer is a vicious killer! He murders her fellow magazine models one at a time, using a variety of twisted implements of death. Gioia is the lucky recipient of a collection of photos, each with murdered bodies arranged around posters of her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisYour Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)
Oliviero is a drunk, burned-out writer who amuses himself by hosting orgies at his grand country manor and humiliating his wife Irina. When a number of women are murdered in grisly fashion, Oliviero becomes a prime suspect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
Carol Hammond, daughter of a politician, has vivid nightmares involving sex orgies and LSD. In a dream, she murders a neighbor she envies and wakes up to a real investigation into her neighbor's murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDressed to Kill (1980)
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Card Player (2004)
Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisNaked You Die (1968)
A woman is strangled in the bath by a black-gloved killer who disposes of her body in a large trunk. The trunk is delivered to St. Hilda College, an exclusive finishing school. Betty-Anne, one of the female students, is strangled in the school cellar. The police, led by Inspector Durand, are called in to investigate. Suspects include La Floret, the voyeuristic gardener; Di Brazzi, the new swimming instructor; Mrs. Clay, the summer school French mistress; an old professor who collects birds; and a philandering young teacher called Richard. The murders continue but Jill, a keen amateur detective, helps the police identify the unlikely killer...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
A newsman works with a blind puzzle-solver to uncover a deadly conspiracy linked to a genetic research facility.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
A high-rise apartment populated by models, nightclub dancers and call girls becomes the focus of a mysterious serial killer. When a young model named Jennifer and her friend Marilyn move into one of the victims' former apartments, Jennifer becomes the next target and the pair try to identify the killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInferno (1980)
A young man returns from Rome to his sister's satanic New York apartment house.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes of Laura Mars (1978)
A famous fashion photographer develops a disturbing ability to see through the eyes of a serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThesis (1996)
While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL'immoralità (1978)
Federico is a child-killer running from the law. Wounded, he is taken in by an 11 year old girl named Simona. Their strange love affair is interrupted by Simona's depressed, oversexed mother Vera, who concocts a plan with Federico to kill her wheelchair-bound, reclusive husband. Simona does not take kindly to this new relationship between Federico and Vera.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Tattoo (1981)
Karl Kinsky, an unbalanced tattoo artist, becomes obsessed with Maddy, a model he meets when he is hired to body-paint several women for a photo shoot, making the women look like they have large tattoos. As Kinsky grows more obsessed with Maddy, he becomes increasingly determined that Maddy should bear his "mark" -- forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Return to Cabin by the Lake (2001)
Murderous screenwriter Stanley Caldwell, who incidentally is thought to be dead, returns to the scenes of his crimes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Stendhal Syndrome?
The closest matches to The Stendhal Syndrome are Opera (1987), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Blood and Black Lace (1964). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Stendhal Syndrome?
People who watched The Stendhal Syndrome most often go on to Opera (1987), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Blood and Black Lace (1964).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Stendhal Syndrome?
Deep Red (1975), rated 7.7/10 by 1,662 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Stendhal Syndrome?
The Card Player (2004) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Stendhal Syndrome?
Yes: Opera (1987), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Blood and Black Lace (1964).
How are movies similar to The Stendhal Syndrome chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Stendhal Syndrome, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























