Movies like While the Children Sleep (2007)
The best movies like While the Children Sleep (2007) are Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Dare (2019) and The Bad Seed Returns (2022). If While the Children Sleep hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedObsession (2026)8.2/10 from 6,572 votes
- NewestObsession (2026)Released 2026
Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
A young woman moves to a high-rise apartment building and soon begins to be tormented by an unknown stalker who seems to know her every move.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dare (2019)
A rare family night for Jay takes a brutal twist when he awakens in a basement with three other prisoners. As their vengeful captor runs riot, Jay engages in a twisted battle to solve the puzzle to his past and save his family's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Bad Seed Returns (2022)
Several years after the murderous events of the first movie left her father dead, Emma is now living with her aunt Angela and navigating high school. Angela’s husband begins to suspect that Emma may not be as innocent as she appears and suggests sending her off to boarding school. Meanwhile, a new girl at school seems to know Emma’s secrets, leaving Emma no choice but to slip back to her old ways and take care of her enemies by any means necessary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBuried Alive (1990)
A married woman and her lover plot to kill her husband to make off with the insurance money. However, their attempt to murder him using poisonous fish toxins backfires in surprising ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Very Foul Play (2019)
At a gathering of mystery and true crime fans, Aurora Teagarden’s nephew, Phillip, is accused of murder when an unplanned onstage blackout during the play in which he is performing ends, revealing Phillip holding the bloody knife that has just killed one of the other performers. 12th installment in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bad Seed (2018)
A widower suspects that his seemingly perfect adolescent daughter is a heartless killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKept Woman (2015)
Jessica and her fiancé Evan have just moved from the city into their dream home on a quiet suburban street. Soon after, Jessica catches her seemingly friendly new neighbor, Simon, in a strange lie and can't let her suspicions rest. The danger escalates when Simon lures her inside his home and imprisons Jessica in his secret bunker, meticulously decorated in the idealized style of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMotherly (2022)
Kate and her daughter Beth live alone in an isolated farmhouse in the woods, but when Kate slowly begins to suspect that something sinister is happening, her motherly instincts are put to the test.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShut In (2022)
A young single mother is held captive along with her two children by a violent ex and must plot their escape before it’s too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStalked by My Doctor (2015)
When a teenage girl is miraculously saved by a heart surgeon, the doctor begins to flirt with her. Her father doesn’t believe her and unbeknownst to all, the doctor is obsessed with the girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Teeth (2021)
A college student moonlighting as a chauffeur picks up two mysterious women for a night of party-hopping across LA. But when he uncovers their bloodthirsty intentions—and their dangerous, shadowy underworld—he must fight to stay alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Marsh King's Daughter (2023)
Helena, a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, hides a dark secret—her father is the infamous 'Marsh King', the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to escape her past, Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHailey Dean Mysteries: Deadly Estate (2017)
When Hailey helps her friend Pam sell her recently deceased parent’s estate, she becomes suspicious when Pam suddenly leaves town without notice. To make matters worse, Pam's boyfriend is the sudden victim of an accident and the man Hailey's dating, Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Jonas McClellan, falls critically ill. Now Hailey must determine: Are all these events a coincidence?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisObsession (2026)
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMegaboa (2021)
On a trip to Colombia, a group of college students encounter a fifty-foot boa constrictor, hungry for blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Sale Mystery: The Novel Murders (2016)
When Jennifer makes a home delivery for a customer, she finds the recipient has been murdered. She soon realizes that the victim's cold-blooded demise is a re-enactment of a murder in a classic mystery novel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Sister (2015)
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a fatal attraction to Zoe's brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPerfect Stranger (2007)
A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her best friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisHailey Dean Mysteries: Murder, With Love (2016)
Former prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean is a powerhouse, Mensa bright, and acutely observant. During a tragic week, one of her patients loses her parents to separate fatal accidents along with millions of dollars that has seemingly vanished into thin air. When the police begin to question Hailey's patient, shes knows she is innocent. But who is the culprit?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBasilisk: The Serpent King (2006)
Two millennia ago, a Lybian king has a basilisk (snake-shaped dragon), which petrifies people, subjected to the same fate with a golden scepter during a solar eclipse. Both these and several victims are dug up by modern archaeologist Harrison 'Harry' McColl's expedition. Despite a cryptic warning from tribal locals, everything goes to his Colorado university's museum. It's all exhibited during another eclipse, which leads to the monster reviving. Harry and some of his friends must try to petrify the monster again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPsycho II (1983)
Norman Bates is declared sane and released from the facility in which he was being held, despite the complaints of Lila Loomis, sister of his most famous victim. Is he really cured, or will he kill again?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost Ship (2002)
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Client (1994)
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisturbing Behavior (1998)
Steve Clark is a newcomer in the town of Cradle Bay, and he quickly realizes that there's something odd about his high school classmates. The clique known as the "Blue Ribbons" are the eerie embodiment of academic excellence and clean living. But, like the rest of the town, they're a little too perfect. When Steve's rebellious friend Gavin mysteriously joins their ranks, Steve searches for the truth with fellow misfit Rachel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSin piedad (2025)
Under the relentless sun, a killer stalks through the mountains, where the innocence of a young couple becomes prey. With no shadows to hide their fate, the hunt is a macabre game in broad daylight, where fear is not hidden in the darkness, but burns with the rawness of the unperturbed noon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Bone Collector (1999)
Lincoln Rhyme was the department's top homicide detective and leading expert in criminal forensics until an injury left him paralyzed, depressed, and incapable of working. But when a gruesome murder in Manhattan leaves detectives baffled, they call on Rhyme to help solve the mystery. Amelia Donaghy, a rookie cop whose quick thinking preserved a gruesome murder scene, is enlisted by Rhyme to be his on-the-scene forensics expert. With Amelia reluctantly acting as Rhyme's able-bodied go-between, the pair piece together cryptic clues the killer leaves behind at the scene of the crime, hoping to catch the grisly serial killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Demons (2018)
Four estranged friends reunite and spend the night in a remote country house that was once home to a Manson Family like cult. As the night goes on, the strange rituals in the house's past open connections between the past, the present and the subconscious, forcing all the characters to confront their deepest secrets and darkest demons, or be destroyed by them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
I Blame Society (2020)
A struggling filmmaker senses her peers are losing faith in her ability to succeed, so she decides to prove herself by finishing her last abandoned film and committing the perfect murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Host (2006)
A teenage girl is captured by a giant mutated squid-like creature that appears from Seoul's Han River after toxic waste was dumped in it, prompting her family into a frantic search for her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSunshine (2007)
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like While the Children Sleep?
The closest matches to While the Children Sleep are Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Dare (2019) and The Bad Seed Returns (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after While the Children Sleep?
Start with Someone's Watching Me! (1978), the closest match to While the Children Sleep.
What is the highest-rated movie like While the Children Sleep?
Obsession (2026), rated 8.2/10 by 6,572 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like While the Children Sleep?
Obsession (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like While the Children Sleep?
Yes: Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Dare (2019) and The Bad Seed Returns (2022).
How are movies similar to While the Children Sleep chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside While the Children Sleep, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.