Movies like When Dreams Come True (1985)
The best movies like When Dreams Come True (1985) are The Night Stalker (1972), Seeds of Yesterday (2015) and Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016). If When Dreams Come True hooked you with its thriller and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016)7.8/10 from 2,392 votes
- NewestBoston Strangler (2023)Released 2023
The Night Stalker (1972)
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of murders in Las Vegas and suspects the culprit is a vampire. His editor thinks he's crazy and the police think he's a nuisance, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeeds of Yesterday (2015)
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016)
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves in 1890s London in this holiday special.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Ronald (1974)
When awkward teen Ronald Wilby accidentally kills a young girl whose sister rejected his affections, his overbearing mother decides to hide him from the law by creating a concealed room in their home for him to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Woman in the Window (1944)
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Night Strangler (1973)
After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrangers on a Train (1951)
A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (1992)
At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', the country house of Ruth's sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Maltese Falcon (1941)
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: The Disappearing Game (2018)
Crime-solving librarian Aurora Teagarden leaps headfirst into Lawrenceton’s latest murder investigation when her nephew Phillip and his college roommate go missing after the roommate’s girlfriend is found dead. Enlisting the help of her Real Murders pals, and the handsome college professor Nick Miller who just moved in across the street from her, Roe uncovers a kidnapping plot gone awry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManiac (1963)
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Sale Mystery: The Novel Murders (2016)
When Jennifer makes a home delivery for a customer, she finds the recipient has been murdered. She soon realizes that the victim's cold-blooded demise is a re-enactment of a murder in a classic mystery novel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHailey Dean Mysteries: Murder, With Love (2016)
Former prosecutor-turned-therapist Hailey Dean is a powerhouse, Mensa bright, and acutely observant. During a tragic week, one of her patients loses her parents to separate fatal accidents along with millions of dollars that has seemingly vanished into thin air. When the police begin to question Hailey's patient, shes knows she is innocent. But who is the culprit?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpellbound (1945)
When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFramed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017)
In the small resort town of Lighthouse Cove, everyone knows that the best man for the job is a woman. And that woman is Shannon Hughes, owner of a construction company and an expert in Victorian home restoration and renovation. Through her renovations she will find clues to uncover the house’s secret past and in turn become an unlikely sleuth to help crack these unsolved mysteries
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Widow (1987)
Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But since Catherine is seemingly a master of disguise and has multiple identities, Alexandra can't prove anything with conventional detective work. With no other option, she goes undercover, pursuing the same man as Catherine, and hoping that Catherine will slip up and reveal her true identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Without Pity (1957)
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Water Gold (1970)
A scuba team, a marine archaeologist and a Mexican historian join forces to reach the wreck of an historic Spanish galleon before a well-armed commercial expedition does.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Shadow of Fear (1974)
A rich woman, an industrialist's wife, finds her home nearly destroyed and with menacing phrases painted on the walls. Besides calling the police, her husband calls his security manager, an ex-cop, who hesitates before accepting the task of protecting her and finding the responsible party.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Collector (2002)
The detective Maud Graham hides her sensibility behind the image of a strong and independant woman. She frequently offers her hospitality to a 16-year-old prostitute, Grégoire, a young man who became her friend. But when the teenager decides to invite a 12-year-old boy who is running away from home, Maud is near illegality. In addition, the detective has to deal with a serial killer who had already killed and mutilated many women. When she understands that the killer is very intelligent and organized, she elaborates a strategy to arrest him. There starts a dangerous game where the two teenagers that Graham is protecting will be implied. The killer is getting closer, revealing more and more of his madness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Night of the Generals (1967)
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil All the Time (2020)
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Way to Treat a Lady (1968)
Christopher Gill is a psychotic killer who uses various disguises to trick and strangle his victims. Moe Brummel is a single and harassed New York City police detective who starts to get phone calls from the strangler and builds a strange alliance as a result. Kate Palmer is a swinging, hip tour guide who witnesses the strangler leaving her dead neighbor's apartment and sets her sights on the detective. Moe's live-in mother wishes her son would be a successful Jewish doctor like his big brother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunsplit (1997)
As the California sun shines down from an Los Angeles sky, three unique individuals are about to collide in the most unexpected ways imaginable. Lyle is a psychotic serial killer who has formed a dangerous fixation on single mother and expert car thief Tess. As Lyle prepares to make his deadly move, widowed Greek Restaurant owner Shandor finds himself forced to take matters into his own hands when the law fails to protect and serve as promised.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Roadgames (1981)
A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer in a van who lures young female hitchhiker victims on a desolate Australian highway.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Hours (2021)
Private detective John Duval, an ex-lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy and Naval Intelligence, finds himself the prime suspect in a police hunt for a sexual killer when three women are brutally murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Boston 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 this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When Dreams Come True?
The closest matches to When Dreams Come True are The Night Stalker (1972), Seeds of Yesterday (2015) and Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When Dreams Come True?
Start with The Night Stalker (1972), the closest match to When Dreams Come True.
What is the highest-rated movie like When Dreams Come True?
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016), rated 7.8/10 by 2,392 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When Dreams Come True?
Boston Strangler (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like When Dreams Come True?
Yes: The Night Stalker (1972), Seeds of Yesterday (2015) and Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016).
How are movies similar to When Dreams Come True chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When Dreams Come True, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.