Movies like Defarious (2016)
The best movies like Defarious (2016) are The Jester (2016), Night Watch (1973) and The Inhabitant (2022). If Defarious hooked you with its mystery and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlow-Up (1966)7.3/10 from 1,441 votes
- NewestDust Bunny (2025)Released 2025
The 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 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 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 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 thisNocebo (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 thisBody Cam (2020)
As a police officer investigates the gruesome murder of her colleague, she discovers that a mysterious supernatural force is behind it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Entity (1982)
A single mom is raped by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist believes the experience stems from childhood trauma, while she knows something supernatural is at play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOlder Gods (2023)
After the disappearance of his troubled friend, American Chris Rivers travels to the remote Welsh countryside to investigate what happened – leading him to a dark apocalyptic cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
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 thisLady in White (1988)
Locked in a school closet during Halloween 1962, young Frank witnesses the ghost of a young girl and the man who murdered her years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & 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 thisDark Light (2019)
A woman returns to her family home and discovers it to be inhabited by monsters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deliverance (2024)
Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her personal demons, moves her family into a new home for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
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 horror
SnoozefestMovies 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 horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBloodline Killer (2024)
Moira Cole endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after her family's murder at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightbreed (1990)
A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of friendly monsters are hiding from humanity. Meanwhile, a sadistic serial killer is looking for a patsy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou'll Never Find Me (2024)
Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick’s intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDelusion (2016)
Three years after the death of Frank's wife a mysterious woman appears. As their attraction grows Frank struggles with reality and his loss. He tries to start over not knowing his choices could lead him to his own downfall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & horror
Now You See It... (2005)
While producing a reality TV show, a teenager meets a magician whose powers are real but put him in danger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisFaces of Gore (1999)
Join our fiendish host, Dr. Vincent Van Gore, as he leads you into the forbidden world of the dead. Only the nastiest car accidents, suicides and murders are here; faithfully and explicitly documented through actual crime scene investigations by police and emergency response teams from around the world. Everything you see is real; nothing has been faked. There are no boring autopsies or old World War II footage. Only the best and bloodiest corpses killed within the past 10 years are good enough to become the FACES OF GORE! If you cannot handle smashed brains, bug-eyed corpses and char-boiled fetuses, then DO NOT WATCH THIS DVD! Nothing you have ever seen before can prepare you for this breakthrough new horror film by TODD TJERSLAND, the Visionary Overlord of American Horror!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Cruel World (2006)
Following his dismissal from a television reality show, a deranged young man lures a group of beautiful coeds to his abode by telling them they will be the stars of a new show he is creating. What the women do not know is that when they lose their slot on the show, they lose their lives as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Vanilla Sky (2001)
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nines (2007)
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMomo (1986)
Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a powerful international corporation starts stealing everybody’s time, nobody has any time left for her, let alone their friends or families. Momo, together with Master Hora, the custodian of time, are the only ones who can go up against the time thieves before all is lost forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlow-Up (1966)
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Moon (1975)
There is a global gender war between men and women. A teenage girl tries to escape this reality and arrives at a hidden place where a strange unicorn lives with a family: sister, brother, many children and an old, bedridden woman who stays in contact with the world through her radio.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrave Encounters (2011)
A crew from a paranormal reality television show lock themselves in a haunted psychiatric hospital. They search for evidence of paranormal activity as they shoot what ends up becoming their final episode.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Defarious?
The closest matches to Defarious are The Jester (2016), Night Watch (1973) and The Inhabitant (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Defarious?
Start with The Jester (2016), the closest match to Defarious.
What is the highest-rated movie like Defarious?
Blow-Up (1966), rated 7.3/10 by 1,441 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Defarious?
Dust Bunny (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Defarious?
Yes: The Jester (2016), Night Watch (1973) and The Inhabitant (2022).
How are movies similar to Defarious chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Defarious, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.