Movies like Brain Dead (1987)
The best movies like Brain Dead (1987) are Nocebo (2022), The Inhabitant (2022) and Werewolf by Night (2022). If Brain Dead hooked you with its mystery and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Brain Dead
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHouse (1977)7.3/10 from 861 votes
- NewestIt Ends (2026)Released 2026
Nocebo (2022)
A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino caregiver who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisWerewolf by Night (2022)
On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader. In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Jester (2016)
The Jester is the titular main antagonist of the horror/thriller analogy short films of the same name. He is an enigmatic and malevolent being who enjoys inducing suffering to individuals he comes across who don't appreciate his own tricks or break the rules of Halloween.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger (2020)
Jess joins her friends at a party in a dilapidated mansion hosted by the mysterious Seth. When odd things begin to happen to Jess and her friends, the Phantom Stranger intervenes to save her from a dreary fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmelia’s Children (2024)
When Edward’s search for his biological family leads him and his girlfriend Ryley to a magnificent villa high in the mountains of Northern Portugal, he is full of excitement at meeting his long-lost mother and twin brother. Finally, he will discover who he is and where he comes from. But nothing is as it seems, and Edward will soon learn that he is linked to them by a monstrous secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Watch (1973)
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Ends (2026)
A group of recent grads head out on a late night drive for grub, hoping to enjoy one final hangout before their paths diverge. Instead, they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cramped together inside a Jeep Cherokee and with the miles stretching infinitely ahead, they face a choice: embrace their new existence or fight to escape it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisCome Play (2020)
Oliver, a lonely autistic boy, seeks solace and refuge in his ever-present cell phone and tablet. When a mysterious creature uses the boy's devices against him, his parents must fight to save their son from the monster beyond the screen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCurse of the Blair Witch (1999)
A mockumentary exploring the legend of the Blair Witch and the case of the three missing student filmmakers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
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 thisDust Bunny (2025)
Ten-year-old Aurora asks her hitman neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she claims ate her family. To protect her, he must battle an onslaught of assassins while accepting that some monsters are real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Jester: Chapter 2 (2017)
The Jester returns in this sequel short film to continue to spread his Halloween cheer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Dogs (2025)
After fleeing his psychotic father, a young teen and his mom seek refuge in a remote farmhouse, only to face a pack of ferocious dogs and the sinister spirits that haunt the property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMad God (2021)
A silent figure known as The Assassin travels through a nightmare underworld of tortured souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities forged from the primordial horrors of the unconscious mind of Phil Tippett, the world's preeminent stop-motion animator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022)
A young woman with psychokinetic powers breaks out of a Louisiana asylum and makes her way to New Orleans, where she falls into the city’s netherworld of misfits and miscreants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woman in Black (1989)
A lawyer travels to a small seaside town to settle the estate of a recently deceased woman, but soon becomes ensnared in something much more sinister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
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 thisThe Haunted (1991)
When the Smurl family moves into a duplex, they find out it's haunted. When the Catholic Church is no help, they reach out to famous demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisHouse (1977)
Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMultiple Maniacs (1970)
The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak show, acts as a front for Divine, who is out for blood after discovering her lover's affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFour Journeys Into Mystic Time: Trans (1978)
Part of the larger filmic Four Journeys Into Mystic Time, in this work director Shirley Clarke makes use of a dancer’s body not only as the primary performer, but also as a canvas on which to paint projected images. Further enhanced by editing and effective use of shadows, the film is a transformative experience.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Newscaster/Dragon/Maggots (2013)
The surreal film Newscaster/Dragon/Maggots is a transmission of what lurks in between the channels. This is a rotoscoped piece of animation created from three randomly selected pieces of found footage. The foundation of this piece is based in mathematics, chance and montage editing measured in increments of triangular numbers. After the Formalist groundwork was laid, elements of Surrealism were employed to take the film beyond the initial framework of the metric and rhythmic editing process. The pixels were playfully manipulated and melded together into an entirely new form, backed by a noise composition set into place without regard for pacing, only duration. Music by legendary noise musician Merzbow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Hedy (1966)
Egotistical faded star Hedy Lamarr visits a plastic surgeon to be transformed into the "14-year-old girl" she believes herself to be. She is then caught shoplifting by Mary Woronov and is put on trial, with Tavel as the judge and her five ex-husbands the jury. Hedy remains self-centered and detached throughout, posing and primping and bursting out renditions of "I Feel Pretty" and "Young at Heart."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Reflections of Evil (2002)
Julie, a teen who died from a PCP overdose in the early '70s, searches from beyond the grave for her younger brother Bob, who now in the '90s is an obese watch seller suffering with sucrose intolerance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
The Daddy's Meat (2004)
A gloomy tale or a completely innocent family picnic on the open air ...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Wellspring (1991)
Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish dreams from reality. What is a dream? Oblivion or flight? Dream collaboration with a love that no choice could suddenly seize every Love is invisibly present in everything:. In burning candles, trembling petals, or the whisper of the wind trembling wings of a butterfly - Failure to nowhere, drop into eternity, infinity soaring - Plast problems and worries of everyday savings, suffering, expectations. But then: dive in yourself, in its essence, in its original And the gap:. dizziness, drop, hover, dive into the freshness of dew, moisture, spring - Finally: enlightenment, cleansing , clarity of thought, the joy of existence. And then, the flight again, merger and dissolution of eternity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Brain Dead?
The closest matches to Brain Dead are Nocebo (2022), The Inhabitant (2022) and Werewolf by Night (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Brain Dead?
Start with Nocebo (2022), the closest match to Brain Dead.
What is the highest-rated movie like Brain Dead?
House (1977), rated 7.3/10 by 861 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Brain Dead?
It Ends (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Brain Dead?
Yes: Nocebo (2022), The Inhabitant (2022) and Werewolf by Night (2022).
How are movies similar to Brain Dead chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Brain Dead, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.