Movies like Awakening the Zodiac (2017)
The best movies like Awakening the Zodiac (2017) are Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024), The Ritual Killer (2023) and Suspect Zero (2004). If Awakening the Zodiac hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBelieve Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)8.0/10 from 724 votes
- NewestSearching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024)Released 2024
Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024)
A single mother determined to provide a safer world for her daughter, Regina joins the Dallas Police Department. As a rookie, Regina and her partner Eddie stumble upon the first victim of what would be many murders of female prostitutes by the notorious serial killer, whom the media dubbed “The Eyeball Killer,” because he surgically removed the eyes of his victims. Despite only being months into the job and a woman in a profession dominated by men, Regina risks everything to get involved in the case. She discovers crucial evidence missed by FBI and city homicide detectives that lands her on the doorstep of a satanic killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
The Ritual Killer (2023)
Unable to process the death of his daughter, Detective Boyd embarks on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles, an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSuspect Zero (2004)
A killer is on the loose, and an FBI agent sifts through clues and learns that the bloodthirsty felon's victims of choice are other serial killers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLucky (2011)
A wannabe serial killer wins the lottery and pursues his lifelong crush.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dead Girl (2006)
The clues to a young woman's death come together as the lives of seemingly unrelated women begin to intersect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDot.Kill (2005)
Charlie Daines is a morphine-addicted detective on the trail of a psychopath who is setting up murders and broadcasting them live on the internet. As he closes in on the killer, Charlie realises that he is to be the final victim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
The Zodiac (2005)
An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHe Went That Way (2024)
Set in 1964, a three-day journey along Route 66 begins when Bobby Falls, a 19-year-old serial killer, hitches a ride with Jim Goodwin, a celebrity animal handler travelling with his precious cargo: his TV chimpanzee, Spanky.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCrescent City (2024)
When a ruthless serial killer terrorizes a small Southern town, everyone becomes a suspect -- including local authorities. As the body count rises and the dark mystery deepens, the chief detective becomes haunted by the horrors of his past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnight Moves (1992)
A chess grandmaster is in a big tournament, and when his lover is found painted up and the blood drained out of her body he becomes a chief suspect. After he gets a call from the killer urging him to try and figure out the game, he cooperates with police and a psychologist to try and catch the killer, but doubts linger about the grandmaster's innocence as the string of grisly murders continues.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bone Collector (1999)
Lincoln Rhyme was the department's top homicide detective and leading expert in criminal forensics until an injury left him paralyzed, depressed, and incapable of working. But when a gruesome murder in Manhattan leaves detectives baffled, they call on Rhyme to help solve the mystery. Amelia Donaghy, a rookie cop whose quick thinking preserved a gruesome murder scene, is enlisted by Rhyme to be his on-the-scene forensics expert. With Amelia reluctantly acting as Rhyme's able-bodied go-between, the pair piece together cryptic clues the killer leaves behind at the scene of the crime, hoping to catch the grisly serial killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Factory (2012)
An obsessed cop is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, N.Y. but when his teenage daughter disappears, he drops any professional restraint to get the killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisTed Bundy (2002)
Seattle, 1974. Ted Bundy gives into his violent passions and embarks on a cross country killing spree, leaving a trail of raped, tortured, murdered, dismembered, and defiled corpses in his wake…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer (2010)
A small independent news crew investigates a series of unexplained disappearances in a small Midwestern county. They find themselves interviewing a man who possesses an all too intimate knowledge of the details of "The County Line Cannibal" - Cyrus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisHorsemen (2009)
A recently widowed detective still grieving over his wife's death discovers a shocking connection between himself and the suspects in a serial killing spree linked to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelieve Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)
On the night she plans on taking her own life, 17-year-old 'Lisa McVey' is kidnapped and finds herself fighting to stay alive and is raped. She manages to talk her attacker into releasing her, but when she returns home, no one believes her story except for one detective, who suspects she was abducted by a serial killer. Based on horrifying true events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Hillside Strangler (2004)
Kenneth Bianchi is a security guard whose attempts to become a police officer are repeatedly thwarted. He moves to California to live with his cousin Angelo and dates a string of women, becoming increasingly preoccupied with sex. Eventually the cousins decide to start an escort agency. After violently killing a prostitute they thought had betrayed them, Kenneth and Angelo begin committing a series of crimes that become a media sensation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
Mindhunters (2004)
Trainees in the FBI's psychological profiling program must put their training into practice when they discover a killer in their midst. Based very loosely on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDear Mr. Gacy (2010)
A chronicle of the interaction between college student Jason Moss and the object of his obsession, serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFreeway Killer (2009)
For years he terrorized California motorists as he rode the endless highways searching for his next victim. The discarded bodies turned up beaten, sexually assaulted and horribly mutilated. Deceptively charming and intelligent, the scheming murderer easily avoided police at first. But as police closed in and the killer’s pattern grew more erratic, the only question was how many more will die?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Stolen (2009)
A detective becomes obsessed with solving a child's 50-year-old murder, uncovering striking similarities between the case and his son's disappearance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLast Moment of Clarity (2020)
After his girlfriend Georgia is murdered by European mobsters, Sam flees to Paris to hide out. Years later, he sees a woman in a Hollywood film who he's certain is Georgia. In L.A. to investigate, he encounters Kat who impulsively decides to help him on his quest. But when Sam meets the mystery actress face to face his life spins out of control.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Frozen Ground (2013)
An Alaska State Trooper partners with a young woman who escaped the clutches of serial killer Robert Hansen to bring the murderer to justice. Based on actual events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer Inside Me (2010)
Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a pillar of the community in his small west Texas town, patient and apparently thoughtful. Some people think he is a little slow and maybe boring, but that is the worst they say about him. But then nobody knows about what Lou calls his "sickness": He is a brilliant, but disturbed sociopathic sadist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisZodiac (2007)
Police conduct a manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTexas Killing Fields (2011)
In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective teams up with a cop from New York City to investigate a series of unsolved murders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014)
Lizzie Borden Took An Ax chronicles the scandal and enduring mystery surrounding Lizzie Borden, who was tried in 1892 for axing her parents to death. As the case rages on, the courtroom proceedings fuel an enormous amount of sensationalized stories and headlines in newspapers throughout the country, forever leaving Lizzie Borden’s name in infamy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisStranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Betrayed (2008)
Kidnappers force a young mother to recover money stolen by her shady husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Awakening the Zodiac?
The closest matches to Awakening the Zodiac are Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024), The Ritual Killer (2023) and Suspect Zero (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Awakening the Zodiac?
People who watched Awakening the Zodiac most often go on to Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024), The Ritual Killer (2023) and Suspect Zero (2004).
What is the highest-rated movie like Awakening the Zodiac?
Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 724 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Awakening the Zodiac?
Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Awakening the Zodiac?
Yes: Searching for a Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (2024), The Ritual Killer (2023) and Suspect Zero (2004).
How are movies similar to Awakening the Zodiac chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Awakening the Zodiac, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.