Movies like Nightmare (1981)
The best movies like Nightmare (1981) are Malignant (2021), The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Strangers (2008). If Nightmare hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)7.4/10 from 6,065 votes
- NewestHamlet (2025)Released 2025
Malignant (2021)
Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities with a mysterious tie to her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last House on the Left (1972)
On the eve of her 17th birthday, Mari and friend Phyllis set off from her family home to attend a rock concert in the city. Attempting to score some drugs on the way, the pair run afoul of a group of vicious crooks, headed up by the sadistic Krug.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strangers (2008)
After a 4 a.m. knock at the door and haunting voices, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt’s remote getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as three masked strangers invade. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
After his revival in a hospital morgue, Jason fixes his vengeful attention on the Jarvis family and a group of hitherto carefree teenagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreddy vs. Jason (2003)
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees return to terrorize the teenagers of Elm Street. Only this time, they're out to get each other, too.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJason Lives - Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
Tommy Jarvis, tormented by the fear that maybe Jason isn't really dead, unwittingly resurrects the mass murderer for another bloody rampage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrick (2019)
A detective tries to track down a masked killer who reappears every Halloween to wreak bloody havoc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Dead (2025)
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Based on Wes Craven's 1977 suspenseful cult classic, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carter family soon realizes the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family...and they are the prey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaXXXine (2024)
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJeepers Creepers (2001)
On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of serial killers end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCreep (2014)
Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: "$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated." Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSlither (2006)
A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cave (2005)
After a group of biologists discovers a huge network of unexplored caves in Romania and, believing it to be an undisturbed eco-system that has produced a new species, they hire the best American team of underwater cave explorers in the world. While exploring deeper into the underwater caves, a rockslide blocks their exit, and they soon discover a larger carnivorous creature has added them to its food chain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCamp Killer (2016)
The sheriff of a town plagued by an unstoppable killer Meets up with his nemesis one last time as a pair of survivors complicate matters for the worse. Who will be left standing and what will remain of their sanity?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Hamlet (2025)
A theatre director intends to make a revolutionary version of Hamlet. It all starts with finding the right actors and putting their lives in danger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Blood Widow (2014)
Laurie and Hugh are a successful young couple who have just closed on a weekend home away from the city. Unbeknownst to them, the neighboring property contains the crumbling remains of a boarding school that was shuttered in the wake of an unspeakable massacre. The sole survivor of that massacre still resides in the ruins of the school, hiding from the world and wanting only to be left alone. When Laurie and Hugh's friends explore the property, they have no idea that they disturbed an emotionally-broken killing machine: The Blood Widow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Good Son (1993)
A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle, and befriends his cousin who's the same age. But his cousin begins showing increasing signs of psychotic behavior.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMandy (2018)
The Shadow Mountains, 1983. Red and Mandy lead a loving and peaceful existence; but when their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnighters (2018)
Midnight, New Year’s Eve: when all the hopes of new beginnings come to life – except for Lindsey and Jeff Pittman, whose strained marriage faces the ultimate test after they cover up a terrible crime and find themselves entangled in a Hitchcockian web of deceit and madness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPet Sematary (1989)
After the Creed family's cat is accidentally killed, a friendly neighbor advises its burial in a mysterious nearby cemetery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cell (2000)
A psychotherapist journeys inside the mind of a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Nightmare and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nightmare?
The closest matches to Nightmare are Malignant (2021), The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Strangers (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nightmare?
Start with Malignant (2021), the closest match to Nightmare.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nightmare?
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), rated 7.4/10 by 6,065 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nightmare?
Hamlet (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Nightmare?
Yes: Malignant (2021), The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Strangers (2008).
How are movies similar to Nightmare chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nightmare, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.