Movies like The Institute (2017)
The best movies like The Institute (2017) are Doctor X (1932), The Home (2025) and Goodnight Mommy (2022). If The Institute hooked you with its thriller and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Prestige (2006)8.2/10 from 18,448 votes
- NewestThe Home (2025)Released 2025
Doctor X (1932)
A wisecracking reporter investigates the cannibalistic 'Moon Killer' murders tied to a medical academy, culminating in a chilling reenactment experiment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodnight Mommy (2022)
When twin brothers arrive home to find their mother’s demeanor altered and face covered in surgical bandages, they begin to suspect the woman beneath the gauze might not be their mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisturbing Behavior (1998)
Steve Clark is a newcomer in the town of Cradle Bay, and he quickly realizes that there's something odd about his high school classmates. The clique known as the "Blue Ribbons" are the eerie embodiment of academic excellence and clean living. But, like the rest of the town, they're a little too perfect. When Steve's rebellious friend Gavin mysteriously joins their ranks, Steve searches for the truth with fellow misfit Rachel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGod Is a Bullet (2023)
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Resurrected (1991)
Charles Dexter Ward, a wealthy scientist, uses an ancient diary and human remains to begin a terrifying and bloody pursuit for immortality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheat (2023)
On the surface it's believed to be another urban legend - a supernatural being from the afterlife is violently killing anyone who cheats on their significant other in the small college town of Silvercreek, Pennsylvania. But the town's unusually high suicide rate is finally convincing both locals and college students that everything is not as it seems. When Maeve - a female college student - sleeps with Charlie, the married man of the host family she is staying with, both sense the deadly curse is closing in on them. Unable to get anyone to believe them, Maeve and Charlie seek out a local history student to help find answers and figure out a way to defend themselves. It all comes undone, however, as several people are horrifically killed by the savage being - one-by-one at a rapid pace. Eventually, Maeve, Charlie and the few survivors band together in an attempt to defeat the monster once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBecky (2020)
A teenager's weekend at a lake house with her father takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts wreaks havoc on their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Final (2010)
A group of high school outcasts get revenge on the students that torment them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & 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 thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFunny Games (2008)
When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Light (2019)
A woman returns to her family home and discovers it to be inhabited by monsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPossessor (2020)
Tasya Vos, an elite corporate assassin, uses brain-implant technology to take control of other people’s bodies to terminate high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment, Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Now confined to a mental hospital, young Kirsty insists her supposedly dead father is actually stuck in Hell following his wife’s betrayal. Few believe the young woman’s lurid stories aside from the thrill-seeking Dr. Channard. Kirsty is undeterred and, with the help of a fellow patient, heads to Hell for a rescue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ugly (1997)
A female psychologist wants to understand the minds of a confessed serial killer who spent the last five years in a mental hospital because of his state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGothika (2003)
After a car crash, criminal psychologist Dr. Miranda Grey regains consciousness only to find that she's a patient in the same mental institution that currently employs her. She's been accused of murdering her husband Dr. Douglas Grey — but she has no memory of committing the crime. As she tries to regain her memory and convince her co-worker, Dr. Pete Graham, of her innocence, a vengeful spirit uses her as an earthly pawn, which further convinces everyone of her guilt.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacob's Ladder (1990)
After returning home from the Vietnam War, veteran Jacob Singer struggles to maintain his sanity. Plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks, Singer rapidly falls apart as the world and people around him morph and twist into disturbing images. His girlfriend, Jezzie, and ex-wife, Sarah, try to help, but to little avail. Even Singer's chiropractor friend, Louis, fails to reach him as he descends into madness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMalignant (2013)
After the death of his wife, a grieving man becomes the victim of a horrific experiment to cure his addiction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Brain Dead (1990)
In a battle of man versus machine, Martin, a top neurosurgeon who's studying brain malfunctions that cause mental illness, delves deep into his own mind to save himself from a megalomaniacal corporation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisClean, Shaven (1995)
Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVampire Wars (2017)
In the wake of the American Civil War, two vampires rise and fight to reclaim their land from the inhabitants of a sleepy Southern town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Prestige (2006)
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRe-Animator (1985)
Conducting clandestine experiments within the morgue at Miskatonic University, scientist Herbert West reveals to a fellow graduate student his groundbreaking work concerning the re-animation of fresh corpses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Based on an "actual event" that took place in 1943. About a US Navy Destroyer Escort that disappeared from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and sent two men 40 years into the future to 1984.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiet Earth (1985)
After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Institute?
The closest matches to The Institute are Doctor X (1932), The Home (2025) and Goodnight Mommy (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Institute?
Start with Doctor X (1932), the closest match to The Institute.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Institute?
The Prestige (2006), rated 8.2/10 by 18,448 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Institute?
The Home (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Institute?
Yes: Doctor X (1932), The Home (2025) and Goodnight Mommy (2022).
How are movies similar to The Institute chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Institute, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.