Movies like Sam Was Here (2016)
The best movies like Sam Was Here (2016) are Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021), Observance (2016) and The Oak Room (2020). If Sam Was Here hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHereditary (2018)7.3/10 from 9,088 votes
- NewestThe Home (2025)Released 2025
Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)
In the late 90s, a video archivist unearths a series of sinister pirate broadcasts and becomes obsessed with uncovering the dark conspiracy behind them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisObservance (2016)
In the grip of grief following the death of his young son, his marriage on the rocks and nearing bankruptcy, Parker reluctantly returns to work as a private investigator. Embarking on an unusual assignment to observe a woman from an abandoned apartment, Parker witnesses bizarre happenings surrounding her, unaware that the derelict building that he surveys her from has birthed a dark presence which slowly threatens to consume him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Oak Room (2020)
During a raging snowstorm, a drifter returns home to the blue-collar bar located in the remote Canadian town where he was born. When he offers to settle an old debt with a grizzled bartender by telling him a story, the night's events quickly spin into a dark tale of mistaken identities, double-crosses and shocking violence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dead Center (2019)
When a mysterious "John Doe" wakes up in a morgue and wanders into a psychiatric ward, a devoted doctor and curious medical examiner must slowly uncover dark and sinister secrets about the man that reveal a more horrifying truth than they could have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHunter Hunter (2020)
A fur trapper leaves his wife and daughter behind to kill a rogue wolf in the remote wilderness, but they soon become increasingly worried when their peaceful existence is disrupted.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResolution (2013)
A man imprisons his estranged junkie friend in an isolated cabin in the boonies of San Diego to force him through a week of sobriety, but the events of that week are being mysteriously manipulated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Amusement Park (1975)
An elderly gentleman goes for what he assumes will be an ordinary day at the amusement park, only to find himself in the midst of a hellish nightmare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Black String (2018)
When a suburban slacker has a reckless encounter with a mysterious woman, his life begins to unravel in horrific fashion. His friends and family believe he's losing his mind, but he's convinced something far more sinister is taking place.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHorror in the High Desert 3: Firewatch (2024)
As a wildfire bears down on the opposite side of the state, Oscar Mendoza, armed with a secret, takes advantage of the distraction and journeys to Northeastern Nevada in search of missing outdoorsman Gary Hinge's last known whereabouts.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
They Look Like People (2016)
Suspecting that people are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPod (2015)
A family intervention goes horrifically awry within the snowy confines of an isolated lake house.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeliever (2024)
A young writer is attacked by a notorious cult leader and mass murderer, a man who exerts an inexplicable control over his followers. When she claims no memory of the attack, her family begins to question her motives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
The Home (2025)
A troubled man starts working at a retirement home and realizes its residents and caretakers harbor sinister secrets. As he investigates the building and its forbidden fourth floor, he starts to uncover connections to his own past and upbringing as a foster child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBacktrack (2015)
Troubled psychotherapist Peter Bowers is suffering from nightmares and eerie visions. When he uncovers a horrifying secret that all of his patients share, he is put on a course that takes him back to the small hometown he fled years ago. There he confronts his demons and unravels a mystery 20 years in the making.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBanshee Chapter (2013)
On the trail of a missing friend who had been experimenting with mind-altering drugs, a young journalist - aided by a rogue counter-culture writer, finds herself drawn into the dangerous world of top-secret government chemical research and the mystery of a disturbing radio signal of unknown origin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSon (2021)
When a young boy contracts a mysterious illness, his mother must decide how far she will go to protect him from terrifying forces in her past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRent-A-Pal (2020)
Set in 1990, a lonely bachelor named David searches for an escape from the day-to-day drudgery of caring for his aging mother. While seeking a partner through a video dating service, he discovers a strange VHS tape called Rent-A-Pal. Hosted by the charming and charismatic Andy, the tape offers him much-needed company, compassion, and friendship. But Andy's friendship comes at a cost, and David desperately struggles to afford the price of admission.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou'll Never Find Me (2024)
Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick’s intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Go On (2016)
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Harvest (2015)
After becoming orphaned, a lonely girl moves in with her grandparents and tries to befriend a sick, bed-ridden boy next door, despite his mother’s strong objections. Her persistence leads to a friendship, but during secret visits, she uncovers dark secrets in the boy's home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Endless (2017)
Two brothers return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group's beliefs may be more sane than they once thought.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Mountain Side (2016)
A group of archaeologists working in Northern Canada uncover a strange structure dating over ten thousand years before the present. The team soon finds themselves isolated when their communication systems fail and they begin to feel the effects of solitude.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Righteous (2021)
A burdened man feels the wrath of a vengeful God after he and his wife are visited by a mysterious stranger.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
In late-'90s suburbia, lonely teenager Owen meets Maddy, who introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world pulsing beneath their own. As time goes on, questions begin to arise about why the show sometimes seems more real than their own lives, as their view of reality begins to crack.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Signal (2016)
The spirit of a murdered girl returns with a message. Now a stranded woman must team up with the staff of a local station to solve the mystery of her death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSound of Violence (2021)
As a child, the brutal murder of her family made Alexis regain her hearing along with synesthetic abilities. Now as an adult, she finds solace in the sounds of bodily harm. But when she’s told she might lose her hearing again, she escalates her gruesome sound experiments in a quest to compose her masterpiece.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Tethered (2022)
Miles from civilization, a blind teenager and the hunter he befriends are tormented by a mysterious creature lurking in the woods.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
The Breach (2022)
John Hawkins is set to retire from his post as police chief of the small town of Lone Crow, that is tucked away in the deep woods of northern Ontario. But following the discovery of a gruesome body with uncanny injuries, he’s pulled into an investigation to solve the horrifying mystery, which evades explanation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBarbarian (2022)
In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Sam Was Here and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sam Was Here?
The closest matches to Sam Was Here are Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021), Observance (2016) and The Oak Room (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sam Was Here?
People who watched Sam Was Here most often go on to Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021), Observance (2016) and The Oak Room (2020).
What is the highest-rated movie like Sam Was Here?
Hereditary (2018), rated 7.3/10 by 9,088 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sam Was Here?
The Home (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Sam Was Here?
Yes: Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021), Observance (2016) and The Oak Room (2020).
How are movies similar to Sam Was Here chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sam Was Here, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.