Movies like The Prayer (2018)
The best movies like The Prayer (2018) are Dogville (2003), Braven (2018) and Father Stu (2022). If The Prayer hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,475 votes
- NewestEcho Valley (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchThe Party Is Over (2018)Also in French
Dogville (2003)
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBraven (2018)
A logger defends his family from a group of dangerous drug runners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFather Stu (2022)
The true-life story of boxer-turned-priest. When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to Los Angeles to find money and fame. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. However, a motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others, leading to the surprising realization that he's meant to be a Catholic priest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Baker (2023)
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back into a life he tried to put behind him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEcho Valley (2025)
Kate lives a secluded life—until her troubled daughter shows up, frightened and covered in someone else's blood. As Kate unravels the shocking truth, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBen Is Back (2018)
19-year-old Ben Burns unexpectedly returns home to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. Ben's mother, Holly, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLess Than Zero (1987)
A college freshman returns to Los Angeles for Christmas at his ex-girlfriend's request, but discovers that his former best friend has an out-of-control drug habit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Lieutenant (1992)
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoad to Paloma (2014)
While Native American Wolf is being pursued by the FBI for having taken the law into his own hands, when his mother was raped and killed on their reservation he crosses paths with Cash, a down and out musician who is coping with the end of his marriage. An unlikely friendship develops, as they ride together towards the Teton mountain range, where Wolf will spread his mothers ashes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbsolution (1978)
At a Catholic boys' school, domineering disciplinarian Father Goddard rules over his pupils with an iron hand. When one of his teenage charges confesses to murder, the dogmatic but deeply repressed Goddard finds his faith challenged and his life spiralling dangerously out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Million Little Pieces (2019)
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Party Is Over (2018)
Despite their differences, Celeste and Sihem quickly become inseparable. The common will to get out of drugs seals their fusional friendship. This will be as much a force as an obstacle when, transferred from the center that welcomes them, they find themselves left to themselves, to the test of the real world and its temptations. They will have to fight to finally live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Day in Paradise (1998)
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Doctor (2021)
Mikael is doctor on night call. It’s a vocation. Between two patient-visits in slum areas, he cares for those whom no one else wants to see: the drug addicts, the homeless… He rubs shoulders with destitution. His life is in shambles. Especially when it comes to his pharmacist cousin who makes him write false prescriptions for Subutex. Overnight, he decides to get out of drug trafficking and rebuild his life. But there will be a heavy price to pay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Padre (2018)
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDead Man Walking (1995)
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGorillas in the Mist (1988)
The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKundun (1997)
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWithdrawal (2025)
Artistic lovers, Viv and Jay, have become trapped in a vicious cycle of codependent heroin addiction. But when Viv’s wealthy parents hire an interventionist to take Viv to rehab, the couple decides to set off on their own with the help of a suboxone prescription... all they have to do is survive a harrowing night through drug withdrawal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hunger (2008)
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNightfaces (2024)
A taxi driver kicks a homeless woman out of his car. It'll be a long night until he can make amends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Masks: Sentient (2013)
Steve and Marcus were best friends in high school. They now lead very different lives, but meet again at a Halloween party long after they graduated. After venturing to Marcus' secluded family home deep in the woods, their lives unravel with deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Weekend with My Mother (2009)
15 years ago, Luiza decided to make a fresh start in Spain. She left her 3-year-old daughter Cristina in the care of her relatives and took off. When she returns to Romania, the woman learns some shocking truths that were kept hidden from her: Cristina ran away from home, is a drug addict and has a 2-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage. Overwhelmed by guilt, Luiza attempts to save her daughter
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Arjun Reddy (2017)
A brilliant but impulsive young surgeon spirals into self-destruction after a painful breakup, struggling to cope with love, loss, and the consequences of his own temper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuleiman Mountain (2017)
After his long-lost son is suddenly thrust back into his life, a charismatic con artist takes to the road with his two wives, swindling everyone they encounter along their path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cristo te ama (1975)
A young woman is fired by her lover from her job in a bookstore and meets a trafficker she falls in love with. She becomes a heroin and prostitutes to buy the drug. The trafficker is arrested and she surrenders to the supplier in exchange for drugs. He pretends to care for a cemetery and demands money from him. She desperately kills him. When the trafficker leaves, he decides to rebuild his life and goes as a doctor to the mountains with the young woman. She also wants to quit the drug and succeeds with her help, but when boarding a vehicle they are killed by four gunmen. Source: http://www.imcine.gob.mx/cine-mexicano/pelicula2425
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Prayer?
The closest matches to The Prayer are Dogville (2003), Braven (2018) and Father Stu (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Prayer?
Start with Dogville (2003), the closest match to The Prayer.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Prayer?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,475 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Prayer?
Echo Valley (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Prayer?
Yes: The Party Is Over (2018) and The Night Doctor (2021).
How are movies similar to The Prayer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Prayer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.