Movies like Islands (2017)
The best movies like Islands (2017) are Next Floor (2008), Carne (1991) and Bleat (2022). If Islands 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 ratedWhat the Day Owes the Night (2012)7.6/10 from 254 votes
- NewestA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchNext Floor (2008)Also in French
Next Floor (2008)
During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events destabilizes the endless symphony of abundance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarne (1991)
After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBleat (2022)
A black and white silent short film, set on the Greek Cycladic island of Tenos. A woman in black is mourning inside a simple house. Reality blends with dreamy imagination, and tradition with insidious desires.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Mia (2017)
Mia recounts her most intimate confessions, uncensored, in her first approach to a totally new world of domination and submission.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Exterminating Angels (2006)
A filmmaker holds a series of boundary-pushing auditions for his latest project: a thriller on the subject of female pleasure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisMoon Garden (2023)
A comatose five-year-old girl journeys through a dark industrial dreamscape, following her mother's voice on a transistor radio to find her way back to consciousness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & horror
Despite the Night (2016)
After returning to Paris, a heartbroken man searching for his missing lover finds solace, and a passionate but troubled love, with a grieving nurse. This unconventional romance unfolds against a backdrop of music and defies expectations, venturing into uncharted emotional territory.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Keyhole (2011)
Gangster and deadbeat dad, Ulysses Pick, embarks on an unusual journey through his home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Lux Æterna (2020)
Charlotte Gainsbourg agrees to play a witch condemned to be burned at the stake in the first film directed by Béatrice Dalle. But the chaotic production, technical problems, and psychotic breakdowns gradually plunge the shoot into a chaos of pure light.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlux Gourmet (2022)
At an institute devoted to culinary and alimentary performance, a collective finds themselves embroiled in power struggles, artistic vendettas and gastrointestinal disorders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisTwentynine Palms (2003)
A photographer and an unemployed woman embark on a chaotic trip to the California desert for a photo shoot, filled with passionate encounters and frequent fights. Their seemingly empty relationship takes a dark turn when a brutal incident abruptly ends their journey.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011)
A suburban father gets trapped in a one-sided incestuous relationship with his abusive son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)
In an enchanted forest, back in the time of the Druids, the shepherd Céladon and the shepherdess Astrée share a pure and chaste love. Fooled by a suitor, Astrée dismisses Céladon, who throws himself into a river out of despair. She thinks he's dead, but he's been secretly rescued by some nymphs. Faithful to the promise he made to Astrée to never appear before her again, Céladon must overcome many obstacles to break the curse. Mad with love and despair, coveted by the nymphs, surrounded by rivals, and obliged to disguise himself as a woman to be near the one he loves, will he manage to make himself known without breaking his oath? A romance filled with doubt, hazards, and delicious temptations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisGagarine (2020)
Yuri, 16, has lived all his life in Gagarin Towers, a vast red-brick housing project on the outskirts of Paris. He dreams of becoming an astronaut. When plans to demolish Gagarin Towers leak out, Yuri joins the resistance. With his friends Diana and Houssam, he embarks on a mission to save their home, which has become his “starship.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Laughs (1928)
When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2014)
Jack is born with his heart frozen solid on the coldest day in history. A wise midwife saves him by replacing it with a cuckoo clock. Now Jack must abide by three rules to keep his mechanical heart safe: never touch the clock's hands, master his anger, and never fall in love. He tries his best, but when he meets a girl named Acacia he falls in love, threatening the delicate balance of his artificial heart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Perfect Ending (2012)
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Can't Think Straight (2008)
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove at Twenty (1962)
Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeparture (2016)
An English mother and her teenage son spend a week preparing the sale of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his dawning sexuality and an increasing alienation from his mother, Beatrice. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father, Philip, has grown loveless and the life she knows is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément, quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSahara (1983)
Intent on winning a competition in place of her distinguished late father, beautiful young heiress Dale takes on the guise of a man and competes in his spot, embarking on a car race that crosses the unforgiving Sahara desert.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady J (2018)
When a romance between a widow and a notorious libertine takes an unexpected turn, Mademoiselle de Joncquières becomes instrumental to one lover’s plans for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFallen Angel (1945)
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat the Day Owes the Night (2012)
Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey Won't Believe Me (1947)
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRestless (2011)
Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Islands?
The closest matches to Islands are Next Floor (2008), Carne (1991) and Bleat (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Islands?
People who watched Islands most often go on to Next Floor (2008), Carne (1991) and Bleat (2022).
What is the highest-rated movie like Islands?
What the Day Owes the Night (2012), rated 7.6/10 by 254 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Islands?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Islands?
Yes: Next Floor (2008), Carne (1991) and The Exterminating Angels (2006).
How are movies similar to Islands chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Islands, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.