Movies like Head Above Water (1993)
The best movies like Head Above Water (1993) are Head Above Water (1996), Wild Horse Nine (2026) and Very Bad Things (1998). If Head Above Water hooked you with its comedy and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBattle Royale (2000)7.3/10 from 4,020 votes
- NewestWild Horse Nine (2026)Released 2026
Head Above Water (1996)
Judge George brings his young wife, Nathalie, to a remote island for a vacation. But while George accompanies their only neighbor -- Nathalie's childhood friend Lance -- on a fishing trip, Nathalie spends time with her ex, Kent. When Kent ends up dead the next morning, Nathalie tries to hide the evidence before her husband gets home. After the body is found, the events of the previous night unravel, with unexpected revelations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild Horse Nine (2026)
Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Amongst the Island's iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris's newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisVery Bad Things (1998)
Kyle Fisher has one last night to celebrate life as a single man before marrying Laura, so he sets out to Vegas with four of his best buddies. But a drug and alcohol filled night on the town with a stripper who goes all the way, turns into a cold night in the desert with shovels when the stripper goes all the way into a body bag after dying in their bathroom. And that's just the first of the bodies to pile up before Kyle can walk down the aisle...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInto the Night (1985)
Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met Diana. Now, Ed's having trouble staying alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wrong Guy (1997)
Nelson Hibbert expects to become the new president of Nagel Industries, but Mr. Nagel gives the promotion to another employee. When Nelson barges into Nagel's office to confront him, he finds Nagel's been murdered. Fearing that he will be implicated, Nelson decides to run from the law...despite the fact that the police already know the killer's identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2 Days in the Valley (1996)
In a sleepy bedroom community of LA's San Fernando Valley, the murder of a professional athlete by two hit men sets into motion a chain of events that puts the mundane lives of a dozen residents on a collision course. This clever tale tells the story of two hit men, a mistress, a nurse, a vindictive ex-wife, a wealthy art dealer and his lovelorn assistant, a suicidal writer and his dog, and a bitter cop and his partner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Window (2004)
Mort Rainey, a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his ex-wife, is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Perfect Getaway (2009)
For their honeymoon, newlyweds Cliff and Cydney head to the tropical islands of Hawaii. While journeying through the paradisaical countryside the couple encounters Kale and Cleo, two disgruntled hitchhikers and Nick and Gina, two wild but well-meaning spirits who help guide them through the lush jungles. The picturesque waterfalls and scenic mountainsides quickly give way to terror when Cliff and Cydney learn of a grisly murder that occurred nearby and realize that they're being followed by chance acquaintances that suspiciously fit the description of the killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Jeopardy (1999)
Libby Parsons, wrongly convicted of her husband Nick's murder, thinks he is still alive. She survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman. Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superior and law enforcement colleagues, as she plunges into a desperate fight for justice, survival, and revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLou (2022)
A young girl is kidnapped during a powerful storm. Her mother joins forces with her mysterious neighbour to set off in pursuit of the kidnapper. Their journey will test their limits and expose the dark secrets of their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Heat (1981)
During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAcross the Hall (2009)
Convinced that his fiancee is cheating on him, a man follows her to a hotel and calls his best friend to help him avoid a calamity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTraffik (2018)
A couple off for a romantic weekend in the mountains are accosted by a biker gang. Alone in the mountains, Brea and John must defend themselves against the gang, who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStowaway (2022)
A tenacious party girl fights to survive after three thieves commandeer her luxury yacht. Unable to escape and trapped on the yacht at high seas, the prey becomes the hunter as she turns the tables on the intruders and takes matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woman in the Window (2021)
An agoraphobic woman living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors only to witness a disturbing act of violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Late for Tears (1949)
Through a fluke circumstance, a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and is determined to hold onto it even if it means murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
The story of best friends Barb and Star, who leave their small midwestern town for the first time to go on vacation in Vista Del Mar, Florida, where they soon find themselves tangled up in adventure, love, and a villain’s evil plot to kill everyone in town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder Suspicion (1991)
In the late 1950s, British police officer Tony Aaron resigns from the force after sleeping with Hazel, wife of the man whose house he was supposed to guard. In his new job as a fake private investigator, he helps couples get divorces by photographing Hazel having "affairs" with the husband. When she is murdered during a job, Tony begins having an affair with the dead man's mistress, Angeline, while trying to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLet's Go to Prison (2006)
When a career criminal's plan for revenge is thwarted by unlikely circumstances, he puts his intended victim's son in his place by putting him in prison...and then joining him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBalearic Caper (1966)
A scepter is stolen, and it's hunted for by various groups of international robbers and spies, for various reasons - in a parody of 007 movies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & comedy
Law of Desire (1987)
Pablo, a successful film director, disappointed in his relationship with his young lover, Juan, concentrates in a new project, a monologue starring his transgender sister, Tina. Antonio, an uptight young man, falls possessively in love with the director and in his passion would stop at nothing to obtain the object of his desire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeed Poll (2004)
Two drug-addicted, incestuous, rich siblings kill a call-boy to make playing cards out of his skin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Identity (2003)
Complete strangers stranded at a remote desert motel during a raging storm soon find themselves the target of a deranged murderer. As their numbers thin out, the travelers begin to turn on each other, as each tries to figure out who the killer is.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYoung and Innocent (1937)
When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeauty Betrayed (2002)
A gun fires and supermodel Lily Sampson is dead. Two cops, Clark and his new partner Allie, are on the case. Their only clues are a revealing videotape of the victim in a searing game of bondage with a famous fashion photographer, and Lily's high school yearbook which reveals a mysterious twin sister and clues to a lifelong rivalry with another model.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Thousand Year Sleep (2007)
Samantha, Lydia, Isabella, and Lisa. These four young women are about to learn that humanity is just an irrelevant flame burning nowhere in the vastness of space. Their dreams will be shattered and one man will marvel at the evil he has committed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Tell-Tale Heart (2010)
A computer-generated rendering of the classic Poe tale about a man's sanity being a point of contention as he confesses to murdering an elderly man, driven by the victim's pale blue 'vulture eye', culminating in guilt-induced auditory hallucinations of the victim's beating heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Jakarta (1988)
A CIA agent roams the streets of New York haunted by the death of the beautiful woman he fell in love with while on assignment in Jakarta. When he is kidnapped and drugged, the destination is Jakarta once again where he tries to unravel the mystery that is the city which broke him three years earlier.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Battle Royale (2000)
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
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 Head Above Water?
The closest matches to Head Above Water are Head Above Water (1996), Wild Horse Nine (2026) and Very Bad Things (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Head Above Water?
Start with Head Above Water (1996), the closest match to Head Above Water.
What is the highest-rated movie like Head Above Water?
Battle Royale (2000), rated 7.3/10 by 4,020 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Head Above Water?
Wild Horse Nine (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Head Above Water chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Head Above Water, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.