Movies like Virus (1980)
The best movies like Virus (1980) are The Omega Man (1971), The Thing (2011) and Extinction (2015). If Virus hooked you with its horror and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Thing (1982)8.1/10 from 8,428 votes
- NewestResident Evil (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseResident Evil: Death Island (2023)Also in Japanese
The 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 science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing (2011)
When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
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 & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWarning Sign (1985)
An accident occurs in an ultra-secret government biological weapons laboratory spreading a sinister bacteria.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWorldbreaker (2025)
Five years ago, a tear in the fabric of reality brought creatures to our world from an alternate dimension bent on our destruction. A father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe while he prepares her for survival and the battles to come. But when the world is about to break, no place is safe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bay (2012)
Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisResident Evil (2026)
Medical courier Bryan unwittingly finds himself fighting for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThese Final Hours (2014)
With the end of the world only hours away, self-absorbed James heads to the ultimate party-to-end-all-parties. On his way there, he saves the life of a young girl named Rose who is searching desperately for her missing father. This simple act sets James on a path to redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Life (2023)
A mysterious woman on the run, and the resourceful fixer assigned to bring her in. Their two unique stories inextricably link, as the stakes of the pursuit rise to apocalyptic proportions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisResident Evil: Death Island (2023)
In San Francisco, Jill Valentine is dealing with a zombie outbreak and a new T-Virus, Leon Kennedy is on the trail of a kidnapped DARPA scientist, and Claire Redfield is investigating a monstrous fish that is killing whales in the bay. Joined by Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers, they discover the trail of clues from their separate cases all converge on the same location, Alcatraz Island, where a new evil has taken residence and awaits their arrival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWorld War Z (2013)
Life for former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane and his family seems content. Suddenly, the world is plagued by a mysterious infection turning whole human populations into rampaging mindless zombies. After barely escaping the chaos, Lane is persuaded to go on a mission to investigate this disease. What follows is a perilous trek around the world where Lane must brave horrific dangers and long odds to find answers before human civilization falls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYear 10 (2024)
After the fall of civilization, the few survivors have been driven to cannibalism. A young man must confront a violent tribe that has murdered his father and stolen the medicine that keeps his girlfriend alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResident Evil (2002)
When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBird Box (2018)
Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAwake (2021)
After a sudden global event wipes out all electronics and takes away humankind’s ability to sleep, chaos quickly begins to consume the world. Only Jill, an ex-soldier with a troubled past, may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter. The question is, can Jill safely deliver her daughter and save the world before she herself loses her mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this28 Years Later (2025)
Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing (1982)
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like this28 Days Later (2002)
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. Carried by animals and humans, the virus turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs -- and it's absolutely impossible to contain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRight at Your Door (2006)
A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisScreamers (1995)
SIRIUS 6B, Year 2078. On a distant mining planet ravaged by a decade of war, scientists have created the perfect weapon: a blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers designed for one purpose only -- to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
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 drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDiary of the Dead (2007)
A group of young filmmakers encounter real zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisZombio 2 (2013)
Zombies, beautiful dead girls, newly-dead and a wide variety of colorful and slimy undead invade the West of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Guts roll while "yerba mate" Cronenberg is consumed by the farmers. But the zombies aren't the biggest problem when all the humans are sadistic and selfish.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Screamers: The Hunting (2009)
A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which has been supposedly deserted since the destruction of the man-made weapons known as "screamers." Once the squad arrives, they find a group of human survivors eking out an existence in an old military outpost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisEight Below (2006)
In the Antarctic, after an expedition with Dr. Davis McClaren, the sled dog trainer Jerry Shepherd has to leave the polar base with his colleagues due to the proximity of a heavy snow storm. He ties his dogs to be rescued after, but the mission is called-off and the dogs are left alone at their own fortune. For six months, Jerry tries to find a sponsor for a rescue mission.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGeostorm (2017)
After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong: the system built to protect Earth is attacking it, and it becomes a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything and everyone along with it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna and the Apocalypse (2018)
A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven—at Christmas—forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash, and sing their way to survival. In a desperate race to reach their loved ones, they soon learn that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilization falling apart around them, the only people they can truly rely on are each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost Bus (2025)
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Virus and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Virus?
The closest matches to Virus are The Omega Man (1971), The Thing (2011) and Extinction (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Virus?
Start with The Omega Man (1971), the closest match to Virus.
What is the highest-rated movie like Virus?
The Thing (1982), rated 8.1/10 by 8,428 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Virus?
Resident Evil (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Virus?
Yes: Resident Evil: Death Island (2023).
How are movies similar to Virus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Virus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.