Movies like Kids Don't Tell (1985)
The best movies like Kids Don't Tell (1985) are Girl in the Box (2016), Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). If Kids Don't Tell hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Sixth Sense (1999)8.0/10 from 13,607 votes
- NewestSound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)Released 2024
Girl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNormal (2003)
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)
The McMartin family's lives are turned upside down when they are accused of serious child molestation. The family run a school for infants. An unqualified child cruelty "expert" videotapes the children describing outrageous stories of abuse. One of the most expensive and long running trials in US legal history, exposes the lack of evidence and unprofessional attitudes of the finger pointers which kept one of the accused in jail for over 5 years without bail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Zero (2014)
Based on the true story of a successful couple, Maggie and Aaron who are preparing for the arrival of their first child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors (2015)
"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" is based on the inspiring true story of living legend Dolly Parton's remarkable upbringing. This once-in-a-lifetime movie special takes place inside the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith and a raggedy patchwork coat that helped make Parton who she is today. The film is set in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains in 1955. It is neither a biopic nor a musical about Dolly's whole life and performing career, but rather a family-oriented faith-based story about the incidents in her and her family's life around the time she was nine years old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlowers in the Attic (2014)
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove You to Death (2019)
Inspired by a true story, this film tells the shocking tale of a mother and daughter who are nothing like they seem, their tumultuous relationship ending in a brutal murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath of a Salesman (1985)
Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman, struggles to accept reality and his failure to achieve the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Son (2019)
Time passes and tension mounts in a Florida police station as an estranged interracial couple awaits news of their missing teenage son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrapped in Silence (1986)
A compelling drama about a silent, violent teenager. Kevin suffers from elective mutism and no one has ever heard him utter a word.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTommy (1975)
After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDolores Claiborne (1995)
Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAntwone Fisher (2002)
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn American Crime (2007)
The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy (2012)
A father comes home for Christmas in the basement where he is keeping his wife and children captive. Inspired by the Josef Fritzl case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Porcelain (2024)
A woman returns to her childhood home following her father's death, and begins to remember the horrors of her past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
Led by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sixth Sense (1999)
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
Like Kids Don't Tell and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kids Don't Tell?
The closest matches to Kids Don't Tell are Girl in the Box (2016), Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kids Don't Tell?
Start with Girl in the Box (2016), the closest match to Kids Don't Tell.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kids Don't Tell?
The Sixth Sense (1999), rated 8.0/10 by 13,607 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kids Don't Tell?
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Kids Don't Tell?
Yes: Girl in the Box (2016), Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) and The Christmas Shoes (2002).
How are movies similar to Kids Don't Tell chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kids Don't Tell, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.