Movies like Population Zero (2016)
The best movies like Population Zero (2016) are Terry (2011), Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026) and Death of a President (2006). If Population Zero hooked you with its crime and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Thin Blue Line (1988)7.7/10 from 431 votes
- NewestHunting Matthew Nichols (2026)Released 2026
Terry (2011)
In the summer of 2009, Charlie Ruez made a documentary. 6 months later the footage was seized for evidence by the Metropolitan Police Department. In 2010, the footage was released.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026)
Twenty-three years after her brother mysteriously disappeared on Vancouver Island, a documentary filmmaker sets out to solve his missing person's case. When a disturbing piece of evidence is revealed, she comes to believe he might still be alive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery
Death of a President (2006)
A fictional investigative documentary looks back on the "assassination" of George W. Bush and attempts to answer the question of who committed the murder. Perhaps less morbid and disturbing to watch now than during Bush's presidency, the film doesn't address Bush's policies at all, instead focusing on the way a nation assigns blame in a time of crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013)
In February of 1959, nine Russian hikers ventured into a remote area of the Ural Mountains. Two weeks later, all of them were found dead. What happened is a mystery that has baffled investigators and researchers for decades. It has become known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident. When five ambitious American college students are issued a grant to return to the site of the original events, they gear up with the belief that they can uncover and document the truth of what happened to the supposedly experienced hikers. But what they find is more shocking than anything they could have imagined. Retracing the steps of the Russians' ill-fated journey, the students are plagued by strange and increasingly terrifying phenomena that suggest that in spite of the desolate surroundings, they are not alone. The forces at work in the Dyatlov Pass Incident have been waiting for them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe're Not Here to Fuck Spiders (2020)
In early 2018, an email was sent to a select group of journalists and politicians in Australia, containing a link to thousands of hours of secretly filmed footage documenting day to day life in an ice dealer's house in South Sydney. The footage was refined down to this story of the ice dealer, Anton Berger, his girlfriend Effs, whom he keeps imprisoned in the house, his crew, Pincer, Bezza and Ahmed, and the bikers and corrupt cops he deals with.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Exhibit A (2007)
Exhibit A tells the timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure. All is not as it seems as the King family go about their day-to-day lives oblivious of the horror to come. Dad Andy (Bradley Cole) is nursing a secret that ultimately leads to terrible consequences for them all. We witness these chilling events unfold through daughter Judith's video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Flock (2007)
Erroll Babbage has spent his career tracking sex offenders and his unorthodox methods are nearly as brutal as the criminals he monitors. When he links one of his deranged parolees to the disappearance of a local girl, he and his new partner must scour the S&M underground to find her before it's too late.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisMenendez: Blood Brothers (2017)
Lyle and Eric Menendez were nice, educated boys from Beverly Hills, which makes the murder of their parents even more inexplicable. Never-before-seen details emerge in this investigation into their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Evidence (2013)
Detectives use clues from various recording devices to piece together events surrounding a massacre involving bus passengers at an abandoned gas station.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Night Stalker (2016)
An account of serial killer Richard Ramírez and his rampage in California during the mid-1980s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Zodiac (2007)
Police conduct a manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
When hundreds of videotapes showing torture, murder and dismemberment are found in an abandoned house, they reveal a serial killer's decade-long reign of terror and become the most disturbing collection of evidence homicide detectives have ever seen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDog Eat Dog (2016)
Ex-cons Troy, Mad Dog, and Diesel are hired by an eccentric mob boss to kidnap a baby and hold it for a large ransom. When the abduction goes awry, the men find themselves on the run from the mob and the cops. Vowing to stay out of prison at all costs, getting away with the crime is a matter of life and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSurveillance (2008)
An FBI agent tracks a serial killer with the help of three of his would-be victims - all of whom have wildly different stories to tell.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer (2010)
A small independent news crew investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in a small Midwestern county. They find themselves interviewing a man who possesses an all too intimate knowledge of the details of "The County Line Cannibal" - Cyrus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisCold Ground (2017)
1976: Two young journalists leave for the French-Swiss border to investigate a strange case of cattle mutilations and record testimonies for a TV channel. Yet, once they get there, the scientific team they were supposed to meet has gone missing. Escorted by a first-aider, a British biologist and an American forensic investigator, Melissa and David will go looking for the missing team deep into the mountains.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dirties (2013)
The line between reality and fiction starts to blur when two best friends start making a movie about getting revenge on bullies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCropsey (2010)
Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Harvest (2025)
Detectives are thrust into a chilling hunt for a sadistic serial killer from the past whose return marks the beginning of a new wave of grotesque, otherworldly crimes tied to a cosmic force.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dry (2021)
Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThere Are Monsters (2013)
A crew of student filmmakers embark on a road trip when they discover odd events and people acting strangely around them. Soon, they realise that sinister doppelgangers have invaded the town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2004)
For the third time, HBO cameras go inside Trenton State Maximum Security Prison--and inside the mind of one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history--in this gripping documentary. Mafia hit man Richard Kuklinski freely admits to killing more than 100 people, but in this special, he speaks with top psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz in an effort to face the truth about his condition. Filled with more never-before-revealed confessions, it's the most chillingly candid Iceman special yet as it combines often-confrontational interview footage between Kuklinski and Dietz with photos, crime reenactments and home movies that add new layers to this evolving and fascinating story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Horror in the High Desert (2021)
In July 2017, an experienced outdoor enthusiast vanished in Northern Nevada while on an outdoor excursion. After an extensive search, he was never located. On the three-year anniversary of his disappearance, friends and loved ones recall the events leading up to his vanishing, and for the first time, speak about the horrifying conclusion of his fate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Thin Blue Line (1988)
One night in November 1976, after his car breaks down on a road outside Dallas, Randall Dale Adams accepts a ride from teenager David Harris. Harris is driving a stolen vehicle and, later that night, when Dallas police officer Robert Wood pulls the car over to check its headlights, he is shot and killed. A jury believes Adams is the killer, but stylized reenactments and interviews with key figures, conflicting testimonies and evidence are presented to argue that Adams was framed by a corrupt justice system, ultimately leading to his exoneration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLunopolis (2010)
When two documentary filmmakers find evidence of a hidden base on the moon, they quickly become entangled in uncovering a secret history of earth that was meant to be long forgotten.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisInto the Deep: The Submarine Murder Case (2020)
When journalist Kim Wall disappears after boarding inventor Peter Madsen's submarine, his changing story about her fate masks a terrifying truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Frozen Ground (2013)
An Alaska State Trooper partners with a young woman who escaped the clutches of serial killer Robert Hansen to bring the murderer to justice. Based on actual events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hunt for the BTK Killer (2005)
After 31 years at-large, detectives in Wichita, Kansas hone in on the serial killer known as BTK.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
The Frankenstein Theory (2013)
When he is suspended from his university job for his outlandish ideas, Professor John Venkenheim leads a documentary film crew to the rim of the Arctic Circle in a desperate effort to vindicate his academic reputation. His theory: Mary Shelley's ghastly story, "Frankenstein," is, in fact, a work of non-fiction disguised as fantasy. In the vast, frozen wilderness, Venkenheim and his team search for the legendary monster, a creature mired in mystery and drenched in blood. What they find is an unspeakable truth more terrifying than any fiction...a nightmare from which there is no waking.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
SnoozefestMovies like thisInsomnia (2002)
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Population Zero?
The closest matches to Population Zero are Terry (2011), Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026) and Death of a President (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Population Zero?
People who watched Population Zero most often go on to Terry (2011), Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026) and Death of a President (2006).
What is the highest-rated movie like Population Zero?
The Thin Blue Line (1988), rated 7.7/10 by 431 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Population Zero?
Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Population Zero?
Yes: Terry (2011), Hunting Matthew Nichols (2026) and Death of a President (2006).
How are movies similar to Population Zero chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Population Zero, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.