Movies like The Thinning (2016)
The best movies like The Thinning (2016) are Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), Hypnotic (2021) and This Is Not a Test (2026). If The Thinning hooked you with its thriller and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDangerous Minds (1995)7.0/10 from 1,368 votes
- NewestThis Is Not a Test (2026)Released 2026
Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHypnotic (2021)
A young woman seeking self-improvement enlists the help of a renowned hypnotist but, after a handful of intense sessions, discovers unexpected and deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Is Not a Test (2026)
Sloane and four classmates take cover in Cortege High to escape a world plagued by the infected. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of those who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDie Alone (2024)
Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, Ethan, a young man with amnesia navigates the dangerous landscape in search of his lost love Emma. His journey takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Mae, a hardened and eccentric survivor. Together, Ethan and Mae face threats both human and otherwise before a fateful encounter with Kai unravels a secret that lies just beyond Ethan's fractured memory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assessment (2025)
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
Winston Smith is a government employee whose job involves the rewriting of history in a manner that casts his fictional country's leaders in a charitable light. His trysts with Julia provide his only measure of enjoyment, but lawmakers frown on the relationship -- and in this closely monitored society, there is no escape from Big Brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Long Walk (2025)
In a dystopian America, fifty teenage boys take part in a deadly annual walking contest, forced to maintain a minimum pace or be executed, until only one survivor remains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hunt (2020)
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are—or how they got there. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt humans for sport. But their master plan is about to be derailed when one of the hunted turns the tables on her pursuers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStormageddon (2015)
What happens when you ask the most powerful computer program, run by the most powerful computers, to follow, listen and predict human behavior? The program learns, becomes sentient and begins to behave like a human. When a master computer program, Echelon, takes over America's entire online system, our country is threatened to be brought to its knees. Hacking into DARPA, Echelon gains the ability to manipulate the weather, create earthquakes, and cause a level of destruction unlike anything the country could ever imagine. But how do you stop a computer program when it has control over any and every defense you have?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtinction (2015)
And suddenly, overnight, the world came to a halt. Two men, two survivors, one kid, and hatred that separates them. A place forgotten by everyone, including the creatures that inhabit the Earth... until now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Purge: Election Year (2016)
Seventeen years after choosing not to kill the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Leo Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlene Roan, the front runner in the next Presidential election due to her vow to eliminate the Purge. On the night of what should be the final Purge, a betrayal from within the government forces Barnes and Roan out onto the street where they must fight to survive the night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Omega Man (1971)
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLand of the Dead (2005)
The living dead have taken over the world, and the remaining humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they cope with the situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChildren of the Damned (1964)
Six children are found spread through out the world that not only have enormous intelligence, but identical intelligence and have a strange bond to each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Genius (2024)
A highly-gifted student sees an opportunity to escape her roots by helping wealthy classmates cheat on key exams, but at great risk to her future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMetropia (2009)
In the near future, oil reserves are nearly depleted and Europe is connected by series of underground tunnels. While navigating these tunnels, Roger hears voices, one in particular. Seeking a way to rid himself of the voice only leads Roger deeper into a bizarre conspiracy of control - mind and body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStake Land (2010)
Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed in an empty pit of economic and political disaster. A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely north to Canada, the continent's New Eden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOpen Grave (2013)
A man awakes -- without memory -- in a pit full of bodies and must figure out if the people who rescued him are the killers, or if he is the murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Freddy Krueger returns once again to terrorize the dreams of the remaining Dream Warriors, as well as those of a young woman who may be able to defeat him for good.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisTamara (2005)
Tamara, an unattractive girl who is picked on by her peers, returns after her death as a sexy seductress to enact revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisPandorum (2009)
Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone – and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDistrict B13 (2004)
Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEscape from L.A. (1996)
Into the 9.6-quaked Los Angeles of 2013 comes Snake Plissken. His job: wade through L.A.'s ruined landmarks to retrieve a doomsday device.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisCypher (2002)
An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeach Logs Kill (2024)
At a high school football game the star quarterback promises her lucky number to the deserving girl teammate. During the game things go wrong. An awkward girl in detention tries to prove herself worthy of quarterback's regard and legacy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
End Game (2006)
Secret Service agent Alex Thomas is detailed with protecting the president of the United States but, at a public appearance, everything went wrong and the president is assassinated. Wracked with guilt, he blames himself for his team's failure. Meanwhile, seasoned journalist Kate Crawford comes to believe there's a massive conspiracy afoot and convinces Alex of it. Together they unravel a treacherous web of lies as they try to unlock the truth behind the conspiracy amid the deadly threat of shadowy assassins and ex-special ops enforcers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDangerous Minds (1995)
Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUltraviolet (2006)
In the late 21st century, a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease, giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence. As they are set apart from "normal" and "healthy" humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war aimed at the destruction of the "diseased" population. In the middle of this crossed-fire is - an infected woman - Ultraviolet, who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like The Thinning and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Thinning?
The closest matches to The Thinning are Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), Hypnotic (2021) and This Is Not a Test (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Thinning?
Start with Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), the closest match to The Thinning.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Thinning?
Dangerous Minds (1995), rated 7.0/10 by 1,368 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Thinning?
This Is Not a Test (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Thinning?
Yes: Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012), Hypnotic (2021) and This Is Not a Test (2026).
How are movies similar to The Thinning chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Thinning, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.