Movies like A Ghost Story (2017)
The best movies like A Ghost Story (2017) are What Dreams May Come (1998), What if... (2010) and City of Angels (1998). If A Ghost Story hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIt's a Wonderful Life (1946)8.3/10 from 5,157 votes
- NewestAl Coda (2025)Released 2025
What Dreams May Come (1998)
After Chris Nielsen dies in a car accident, he is guided through the afterlife by his spirit guide, Albert. His new world is beautiful and can be whatever Chris imagines. Even his children are there. But, when his wife, Annie, commits suicide and is sent to hell, Chris ignores Albert's warnings and journeys there to save her. Upon arrival, Chris finds that rescuing Annie will be more difficult than he'd imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat if... (2010)
Fifteen years ago, Ben Walker made a decision to leave his college sweetheart and ultimately his faith, in order to pursue a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a high-paying career and a trophy fiancé, he is visited by an angel, who gives him a glimpse into what his life would look like had he followed his calling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCity of Angels (1998)
When a guardian angel – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter's Tale (2014)
A burglar falls for an heiress as she dies in his arms. When he learns that he has the gift of reincarnation, he sets out to save her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomewhere in Time (1980)
Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early twentieth century. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Spirit of Christmas (2015)
A woman falls in love with a man who is somewhat unavailable.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOnly Lovers Left Alive (2013)
A depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, already played over several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHereafter (2010)
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCollateral Beauty (2016)
Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost (1990)
After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe In Between (2022)
After surviving a car accident that took the life of her boyfriend, a teenage girl believes he's attempting to reconnect with her from the after world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt's a Wonderful Life (1946)
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Lovely Bones (2009)
After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDisappearing Acts (2000)
A struggling construction worker and an aspiring musician find themselves falling in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2014)
Told from the woman's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)
Told from the man's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife in a Year (2020)
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSave the Last Dance (2001)
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJack Frost (1998)
A father who can't keep his promises dies in a car accident. One year later, he returns as a snowman, who has one final chance to put things right with his son before he is gone forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngel Sign (2019)
Manga creator Tsukasa Hojo's debut live-action film. 'Angel Sign' is Hojo's debut as a director, which is made by editing a number of short films into one movie. Hojo directs the "Prologue" and "Epilogue" stories, while a different director will handle each of the other stories, which were selected in Silent Manga Audition. All the stories will have no spoken lines, and will only have video and music.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & drama
Vampires (1998)
The church enlists a team of vampire-hunters to hunt down and destroy a group of vampires searching for an ancient relic that will allow them to exist in sunlight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProof (2005)
Catherine is a woman in her late twenties who is strongly devoted to her father, Robert, a brilliant and well-known mathematician whose grip on reality is beginning to slip away. As Robert descends into madness, Catherine begins to wonder if she may have inherited her father's mental illness along with his mathematical genius.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEfreet (2022)
Sophia, who recently turned 10, is haunted by mysterious nightmares. In her nightmares, a girl named Selinka keeps appearing, showing her things about her mother Tina's past that she shouldn't know anything about. Tina thinks that her ex-husband Markus is secretly seeing Sophia, although he is not allowed to have any contact with her. But when one evening Sophia mentions the name "Efreet", Dana (a close friend of the little family) knows that they are dealing with evil forces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Parallel (2014)
Pregnant Emmy is drugged by her boyfriend and taken to an illegal abortion clinic, but the ordeal makes her sterile. One day she decides to adopt an orphan girl who always keeps a doll which turns out to be possessed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Skeleton Key (2005)
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie and Let Live (2006)
Benny throws a party to help woo his crush Stephanie. But when bloodthirsty zombies crash the party, Benny and his friends find themselves fighting for their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Al Coda (2025)
A student at a prestigious music academy struggles to recreate a piece of sheet music stolen by an egocentric professor. After given just 2 hours to complete this task, he experiences the highs and lows of this process as it alters the way he thinks about the creation of art itself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Playing with Death (2011)
The family of Eusebio, a sick old man, believes that he has begun to lose his mind and that the stories he tells, which nobody listens to, are those of a crazy person.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Ghost Story?
The closest matches to A Ghost Story are What Dreams May Come (1998), What if... (2010) and City of Angels (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Ghost Story?
Start with What Dreams May Come (1998), the closest match to A Ghost Story.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Ghost Story?
It's a Wonderful Life (1946), rated 8.3/10 by 5,157 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Ghost Story?
Al Coda (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A Ghost Story?
Yes: What Dreams May Come (1998), What if... (2010) and City of Angels (1998).
How are movies similar to A Ghost Story chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Ghost Story, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.