Movies like Death Happens (2009)
The best movies like Death Happens (2009) are Play Dead (2022), Art of the Devil 2 (2005) and The Shed (2019). If Death Happens hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSuccubus (2024)8.3/10 from 279 votes
- NewestThe Cycle (2026)Released 2026
Play Dead (2022)
Criminology student Chloe fakes her own death to break into a morgue, in order to retrieve a piece of evidence that ties her younger brother to a crime gone wrong. Once inside, she discovers that a sadistic coroner is using the corpses for his sick and twisted business, and when he realises that Chloe still has a pulse, a terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArt of the Devil 2 (2005)
A beautiful teacher is wronged by six of her students. Calling on demons and forces of black magic, she extracts an ultra-gruesome retribution against each of them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shed (2019)
The story of Stan, an orphaned teenager stuck living with his abusive grandfather and tasked with routinely protecting his best friend from high school bullies. When Stan discovers a murderous creature has taken refuge inside the tool shed in his backyard, he tries to secretly battle the demon alone until his bullied friend discovers the creature and has a far more sinister plan in mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cycle (2026)
A daughter unravels her father's dark past after his body, missing for 36 years, is found at a horrific crime scene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEyes of a Stranger (1981)
A TV newswoman catches a pervert watching her sister who cannot see, hear or speak.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Other (2025)
Unable to conceive, a couple seeks to build a family with a young orphan, survivor of tragic childhood. But their act of love turns to horror when they realize the violence in their foster's past has returned to destroy the new family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWait Until Dark (1967)
After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEradication (2022)
When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShades of Desire (2023)
After her twin sister Aubrey goes missing, Jennifer uncovers the scandalous, secret double-life that Aubrey leads - and that has put both of them in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuccubus (2024)
A new father going through a marital separation joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman... whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Last Breath (2024)
A group of old college friends reunite on a Caribbean scuba diving trip exploring the wreckage of a WWII battleship and find themselves trapped inside the underwater labyrinth of rusted metal surrounded by great white sharks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ (2019)
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDefence of the Realm (1986)
A reporter named Mullen 'stumbles' onto a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a KGB agent and a near-nuclear disaster involving a teenage runaway and a U.S. Air Force base. Has there been a Government cover-up? Mullen teams up with Vernon Bayliss, an old hack, and Nina Beckam, the MP's assistant, to find out the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return of Doctor X (1939)
When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLee Cronin's The Mummy (2026)
The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisState of Play (2009)
When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKalifornia (1993)
A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mean Season (1985)
A routine investigation of a shocking murder takes a bizarre twist when the killer contacts the reporter and appoints him his personal spokesman. As the killer's calls and clues increase, the reporter is lured into a deadly trap.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woman in Cabin 10 (2025)
On a lavish yacht for an assignment, a journalist sees a passenger go overboard. But when no one believes her, she risks her life to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanishing on 7th Street (2010)
A mysterious global blackout yields countless populations to simply vanish, leaving only their clothes and possessions behind. A small handful of survivors band together in a dimly-lit tavern on 7th Street, struggling to combat the apocalyptic horror. Realizing they may in fact be the last people on earth, a dark shadow hones in on them alone.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisShutter (2025)
After a senior analog photographer discovers the spectral image of a former college student haunting his photos and coming to life, his girlfriend investigates the phantom, uncovering a horrific past crime that is now claiming his friends' lives one by one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Paranoid (2000)
Chloe Keane is an stressed American fashion model living in London who is about to have the worst weekend of her life. She and her boyfriend are invited to attend a party at the house of a former rock-star named Stan and his weird family who live in the countryside. Chloe awakes the next morning only to find her boyfriend has abandoned her at Stan's house and she has been drugged and handcuffed to the bed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisKiller Camera Monsters (2020)
A struggling photographer gets more than he bargained for, discovering the truth of what his new camera is really capable of.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Dying Breed (2008)
An extinct species, the Tasmanian tiger. A long-forgotten legend, “The Pieman” aka Alexander Pearce, who was hanged for cannibalism in 1824. Both had a desperate need to survive; both could have living descendants within the Tasmanian bush. Four hikers venture deep into isolated territory to find one of these legends, but which one will they come upon first?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)
In late 19th century London, a woman weds a necrophiliac doctor whose first wife died under mysterious circumstances - and who might be returning from the grave to torment her successor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBoston Strangler (2023)
Reporters Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole bravely pursue the story of the Boston Strangler at great personal risk, putting their own lives on the line in their quest to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbandoned (2010)
Mary Walsh delivers boyfriend Kevin to a hospital for routine outpatient surgery. But when Mary returns to take him home, he's mysteriously vanished.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNight Shadow (1989)
Alex, an up-and-coming TV journalist, returns to her hometown of Danford as local police attempt to cope with a series of brutal murders. The small town plunges into a state of panic and the murders--clearly the work of a monster, more beast than man--continue... until Alex comes face to face with the evil itself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Prim: el asesinato de la calle del Turco (2014)
Madrid, Spain, December 27, 1870. General Juan Prim i Prats, president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of War gets involved in a treacherous ambush, is mortal injured and dies three days later. A mystery, a conspiracy, a murder that was never solved.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Like Death Happens and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Death Happens?
The closest matches to Death Happens are Play Dead (2022), Art of the Devil 2 (2005) and The Shed (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Death Happens?
Start with Play Dead (2022), the closest match to Death Happens.
What is the highest-rated movie like Death Happens?
Succubus (2024), rated 8.3/10 by 279 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Death Happens?
The Cycle (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Death Happens chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Death Happens, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.