Movies like The Heretics (2017)
The best movies like The Heretics (2017) are Pumpkinhead (1988), Mandy (2018) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). If The Heretics hooked you with its horror and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHereditary (2018)7.3/10 from 9,093 votes
- NewestPhi Phong: The Blood Demon (2026)Released 2026
Pumpkinhead (1988)
When a group of teenagers inadvertently kill his only son, Ed Harley seeks the powers of a backwoods witch to bring the child back to life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMandy (2018)
The Shadow Mountains, 1983. Red and Mandy lead a loving and peaceful existence; but when their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
A psychiatrist, familiar with the knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger, helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dark Song (2016)
A determined young woman and a damaged occultist risk their lives and souls to perform a dangerous ritual that will grant them what they want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Harvest (2023)
In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Knight's War (2025)
A fearless knight braves a deadly realm to save the Chosen One’s soul. Facing witches, demons, and brutal foes, he discovers her return could ignite chaos and doom humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpell (2020)
A father survives a plane crash in rural Appalachia, but becomes suspicious of the elderly couple who take him in to nurse him back to health with the ancient remedies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unhealer (2021)
A botched faith healing bestows supernatural Shaman powers on a bullied teenager. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that kills someone he loves, he uses his powers for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisStranger in the Woods (2024)
Olivia and her friends go on a vacation. After Olivia nearly drowns with a slit wrist in her bathtub after her fiancé's funeral, her friends suspect that she tried to kill herself, but she believes someone attacked her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of serial killers end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Five friends set out for a weekend at a remote cabin in the woods, expecting nothing more than fun and relaxation. As night falls, they discover that something far more unsettling is at work and that nothing about their getaway is what it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Dr. Kelson finds himself in a shocking new relationship - with consequences that could change the world as they know it - and Spike's encounter with Jimmy Crystal becomes a nightmare he can't escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Dead (2025)
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies 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 horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Let Go (2024)
As an evil takes over the world beyond their front doorstep, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and their family’s protective bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ring (2002)
Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaint Catherine (2024)
An orphaned girl is rescued from a satanic ritual and taken to Saint Catherine Institute for homeless youth. There she will learn new skills while facing demons that stalk her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Hill (2006)
Rose, a desperate mother, takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose embarks on a horrific journey to get her back and begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFading of the Cries (2009)
Jacob, a young man armed with a deadly sword, saves Sarah, a teenage girl, from Mathias, a malevolent evil that has begun plaguing a small farmland town while in search of an ancient necklace that had belonged to Sarah's uncle. Jacob sets out to get Sarah home safely, running through streets, fields, churches and underground tunnels, while being pursued by hordes of demonic creatures. Along the way, both come to terms with the demons within themselves - Sarah begins to understand her hatred towards her mother and sister may be unjustified and Jacob discovers the secrets of his past, realizing the only way to truly defeat the demons is to return to the very place his family was murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & fantasy
Clawface (2024)
A group of friends, a duo of quirky park rangers, a frisky couple and a pirate DJ unknowingly set off a series of bloody murders when they enter the woods of local legend, Clawface: a hulking madman who was left for dead after a bear attack in his youth. Inspired by slasher films of the 1980s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
The shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Power of Darkness gather at a midnight mass. The dance of the Magus widdershins around the Swirling Spiral Force, the solar swastika, until the Bringer of Light—Lucifer—breaks through.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNight Angel (1990)
A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a successful fashion magazine with the aim of corrupting the world via mass media.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Soul Eater (2024)
When the disappearance of children and bloody murders multiply in a small mountain village, an old legend shrouded in sulphur reappears... Commander Guardiano and Captain of the Gendarmerie De Rolan are forced to join forces to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPhi Phong: The Blood Demon (2026)
Phí Phông—a bloodthirsty demon from the mountain folk legends that has haunted generations. The film follows Còn (Kiều Minh Tuấn) and Dương (Minh Anh), two apprentice shamans who journey into the mountains to save their mother, who has fallen under the Phí Phông curse. At the same time, a series of gruesome deaths begin to plague a remote village, casting suspicion on Mon (Diệp Bảo Ngọc) and her daughter Lua (Nina Nutthacha), who exhibit traits eerily similar to the demon. Yet, buried deep within the cursed forest lie shocking secrets, drawing Còn and Dương into an endless hunt for the true face of Phí Phông.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Astral Woods (2023)
A wife is forced into a life insurance scam and then abandoned at a cabin in the woods. She soon learns the land holds an ancient secret that is not from this world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Feed Me (2013)
Feed Me is a story about a young family in a suburban area in Southern California. The father, Jason (Cameron Graham), is an ambitious executive who keeps getting promoted in a large corporation. The mother, Christy (Mitra Avani), is a step aerobics instructor, who dedicates her life to caring for her 4 years old daughter Alicia (Duna DiVito). However, everything changes when Alicia suddenly starts disappearing every night. Jason contemplates his job security in devoting a great deal of time to this disturbing family issue. Christy believes that she can save her daughter by developing her medium skills. Alicia seems to remember nothing when she reappears, and malevolent forces may be placing her in a state between the unconscious to the subconscious.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Nexus (2023)
Theobald Geigert—a self-proclaimed investigator of the supernatural—can hardly believe his luck when he finally encounters the supernatural being Nexus, but the encounter doesn't go like he imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Guardians of Night: The Demon Hunting Academy (2016)
Demons and humans share a planet near Earth. The humans occupy the planet by day and the demons occupy it at night. They live in harmony until some of the demons scheme against the humans. The Guardians rid the planet of the troublesome demonic creatures to preserve the peace.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Heretics?
The closest matches to The Heretics are Pumpkinhead (1988), Mandy (2018) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Heretics?
Start with Pumpkinhead (1988), the closest match to The Heretics.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Heretics?
Hereditary (2018), rated 7.3/10 by 9,093 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Heretics?
Phi Phong: The Blood Demon (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Heretics?
Yes: Pumpkinhead (1988), Mandy (2018) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).
How are movies similar to The Heretics chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Heretics, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.