Movies like The School (2018)
The best movies like The School (2018) are Awoken (2019), The Beach House (2020) and The Dead Center (2019). If The School hooked you with its thriller and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStonehearst Asylum (2014)6.9/10 from 1,668 votes
- NewestVicious (2025)Released 2025
Awoken (2019)
Karla, a young medical student, is trying to cure her brother, Blake, from a terminal sleep illness called Fatal Familial Insomnia, where you are unable to sleep until you die. On her quest to treat him, a more sinister reason for his condition is revealed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Beach House (2020)
A romantic getaway for two troubled college sweethearts turns into a struggle for survival when unexpected guests – and the surrounding environment – exhibit signs of a mysterious infection.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Dead Center (2019)
When a mysterious "John Doe" wakes up in a morgue and wanders into a psychiatric ward, a devoted doctor and curious medical examiner must slowly uncover dark and sinister secrets about the man that reveal a more horrifying truth than they could have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisExeter (2015)
A group of teenagers accidentally release an evil spirit that starts to possess them one by one.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhosts of Darkness (2017)
Two paranormal investigators are unexpectedly thrown together in the hope of solving a 100 year mystery. Locked for three nights in a house with a dark and unsettling past, the two investigators must put their differences to one side and work together. They soon discover the myths and stories are nothing compared to what actually resides within the eerie walls of Richwood Manor. Scepticism and showmanship are soon put to one side when the two investigators realise there is more at stake than just their professional reputation. For once they have stumbled onto the real thing, but this time it's their own lives at stake.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
The 8th Night (2021)
With prayer beads in one hand and an ax in the other, a monk hunts down a millennia-old spirit that's possessing humans and unleashing hell on Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonstrous (2022)
Laura, traumatized by an abusive relationship, runs away from her former husband with her seven-year-old son Cody. But in their new, idyllic and remote sanctuary, they find they have another, bigger and more terrifying monster to deal with…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisPrey (2019)
After being put on a supposedly uninhabited island as a form of behavioral rehabilitation, a high school senior finds that he's not alone on the island, and that getting discovered could be deadly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisCarnifex (2022)
An aspiring documentarian and two conservationists who venture into the Outback to record the animals displaced by bushfires where they discover a terrifying new species.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hollow Child (2018)
Samantha has lived her whole life in different foster homes. Now living in a small town, she never feels like she quite fits in, even with her own current foster family who might adopt her, or the boy who follows her around doing her classwork. So, it’s perhaps natural that she doesn’t know what to do with a curious tagalong little sister named Olivia. One day, Sam callously ditches Olivia, who wanders off into the woods on her own and disappears.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHaunter (2013)
A teenager is stuck in a time loop that is not quite the same each time. She must uncover the truth but her actions have consequences for herself and others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cottage (2012)
A romance novelist (David Arquette) moves into a "cottage" behind the home of a composer and his family. He seems sweet, but what do they really know about him?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
The Darkness (2016)
A family returns from a Grand Canyon vacation with a supernatural presence in tow.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhost Ship (2002)
After discovering a passenger ship missing since 1962 floating adrift on the Bering Sea, salvagers claim the vessel as their own. Once they begin towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre occurrences happen and the group becomes trapped inside the ship, which they soon learn is inhabited by a demonic creature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweet River (2021)
Hannah's search for her son's body leads her to sleepy Billins, where her investigations uncover more than she expected and threaten to expose towns dark secrets....secrets that both the living and the dead will fight to protect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
Zombie at 17 (2018)
With the exception of losing her older sister in a hit-and-run, 17-year-old Tia Scott has had a pretty normal life. That is until she starts exhibiting strange symptoms and realizes she's caught a virus that's slowly turning her into a zombie. Desperate to find a cure, the only person she trusts is a loner at school, Flynn, a self-proclaimed expert in all things paranormal. But Tia's life gets even worse when a friend of her boyfriend, Connor, is murdered. Tia knows that Connor's friend Jason is involved but going to the cops makes her a target and with the clock ticking until Tia's too far gone to recover, she enlists the help of her mother Kate and a reclusive doctor in hopes they'll stop the disease before Jason finds out she's the snitch.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Havenhurst (2016)
A troubled young woman takes up residence in a gothic apartment building where she must confront a terrifying evil.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisSightless (2020)
After an attack renders her blind, Ellen withdraws from the world to recover. But soon she plunges into paranoia, unable to convince anyone that her assailant has returned to terrorize her by hiding in plain sight.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIncarnate (2016)
An exorcist comes up against an evil from his past when he uses his skills to enter the mind of a nine year old boy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Awakening (2011)
In post–War England, a writer and sometime-ghost hunter investigates a reported haunting at a boys boarding school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOffseason (2022)
Upon receiving a mysterious letter that her mother's grave has been vandalized, Marie travels to the desolate island town where she's buried. Just as she arrives, the island closes for the season, leaving Marie trapped in a nightmare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisUnseen (2023)
Sam receives a call from Emily, a near blind woman who is running from her murderous ex in the woods. Can she survive using Sam as her eyes via video call?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWake Wood (2011)
The parents of a girl who was killed by a savage dog are granted the opportunity to spend three days with their deceased daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies 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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStonehearst Asylum (2014)
An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caller (1987)
One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they're playing a strange mind game and that there's something very wrong about the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLike Minds (2006)
A forensic psychologist must determine if a minor should be charged with murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
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 Marsh King's Daughter (2023)
Helena, a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, hides a dark secret—her father is the infamous 'Marsh King', the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to escape her past, Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVicious (2025)
When Polly receives a mysterious box, it comes with one rule: place inside something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves. If she doesn’t obey, it will consume everything—and everyone—she’s ever known.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The School?
The closest matches to The School are Awoken (2019), The Beach House (2020) and The Dead Center (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The School?
People who watched The School most often go on to Awoken (2019), The Beach House (2020) and The Dead Center (2019).
What is the highest-rated movie like The School?
Stonehearst Asylum (2014), rated 6.9/10 by 1,668 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The School?
Vicious (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The School?
Yes: Awoken (2019), The Beach House (2020) and The Dead Center (2019).
How are movies similar to The School chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The School, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.