Movies like Instinct (2019)
The best movies like Instinct (2019) are Faithfully Yours (2022), Mothers' Instinct (2019) and Sex Doll (2016). If Instinct hooked you with its drama and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLost Highway (1997)7.6/10 from 3,119 votes
- NewestA Widow's Game (2025)Released 2025
Faithfully Yours (2022)
Using each other as alibis, two friends sneak off to indulge in secret affairs — but their elaborate web of lies unravels when one of them goes missing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMothers' Instinct (2019)
When a sudden tragedy uproots the lives of two women and their families, they begin to question the relationships they once held so dear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSex Doll (2016)
High-priced London call girl Virginie goes about her work as a prostitute with a cool detachment, trading sex with wealthy businessmen for money, but never getting emotionally involved. That all changes when she meets Rupert, an enigmatic stranger with unclear intentions. Risking everything, Virginie plunges into a dangerous affair that puts her between a ruthless madam who forbids romantic attachment and a dark, sexy man who could be her saviour or her downfall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisAll That Matters Is Past (2012)
Reunited after years apart, childhood sweethearts William and Janne are forced to confront the dark secrets of their past-and the menacing presence of William's pathologically jealous brother — in this haunting story from celebrated Norwegian director Sara Johnsen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Loft (2010)
Five best friends, all married, decide to share a loft apartment. In this loft they meet their mistresses and conquests. Everything seems perfect, until one morning the body of an unknown young woman is found in the loft. The group of friends begin to suspect each other and it soon becomes clear that they know far less about each other than they had initially thought.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaged (2011)
After years of suppressing her desires, Stella finds she can no longer ignore her deep-rooted longings. Breaking out of her cage and starting a secret double-life, Stella transforms into a "unicorn", a nickname for single women who indulge in a hedonistic lifestyle, visiting sex clubs and erotic parties, and flourishing with all the new attention. Even as her husband uncovers his Stella's secret life, he can't do much more than give her the freedom that she obviously needs, in the hope it's all just a phase. Then one day she finds herself lying unconscious in a basement cell, with no idea how she arrived there. Days go by when an other woman is brought into her cell. Christine, a woman about the same age. In the following days they reveal their life stories to one other. Christine is convinced that the reason for their captivity lies in Stella's lifestyle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisI, Anna (2012)
A noir thriller told from the point of view of a femme fatale, who falls for the detective in charge of a murder case.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBasic Instinct 2 (2006)
Novelist Catherine Tramell is once again in trouble with the law, and Scotland Yard appoints psychiatrist Dr. Michael Glass to evaluate her. Though, like Detective Nick Curran before him, Glass is entranced by Tramell and lured into a seductive game.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlindspot (2008)
A sexy, psychological film noir which features the story of a man who is sucked into the psychological web of two women on the run. On the run from themselves and from their past. One - wild, tempestuous and adulterous, the other - introverted, bitter and revengeful. Only the dance is pure - with the gun loaded.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
The Skin I Live In (2011)
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Widow's Game (2025)
When a man is found dead, the investigation shatters his widow's perfect facade and exposes a hidden double life in this thriller based on real events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere Before (2022)
Haunted by the death of her young daughter, a distraught woman develops an all-consuming obsession with a girl she believes is her reincarnated child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrazen (2022)
Mystery writer Grace Miller has killer instincts when it comes to motive - and she'll need every bit of expertise to help solve her sister's murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Book (2006)
Israel, 1956: Jewish teacher Rachel Stein rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz. It brings back memories of her experiences in the Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. In September 1944, Rachel's hiding place is bombed by Allied troops; she makes contact with a resistance member and joins a group of Jews to be smuggled across the Biesbosch to the freed South Netherlands. Only Rachel escapes a massacre by patrol Germans, and is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers, whose son is captured trying to smuggle weapons. Kuipers asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze, a mission that she will soon learn that the boat attack wasn't a coincidence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Perfect Student (2011)
A criminology professor becomes a target herself when she tries to establish the innocence of her star student in a murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery & thriller
Loft (2008)
Five close friends, all of them married, share a loft to meet their mistresses. One day they find the body of a young woman in the loft. Since there are only five keys to the loft, the five men begin to suspect each other of murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisObsession (2015)
Simone needs a change in her life. When she inherits a decrepit mansion in the South of France, she decides to move there with her husband Eric and their two children and turn the mansion into a new home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Noble Intention (2015)
1888: a luthier, Vedder, has to step aside when his home, opposite the recently completed Central Station in Amsterdam, must yield for the planned Victoria Hotel. His cousin Anijs, pharmacist in the Northern provinces of the Netherlands, has gotten into a fix after illegal medical practices, and is looking for a way out. For himself and his wife Martha, but also for a colony of poor peat cutters whom he promises a future in the United States. Committed - or is it pride? - the two of them think up a scheme from which they all will fully benefit. With tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Weekend Away (2022)
When her best friend vanishes during a girls' trip to Croatia, Beth races to figure out what happened. But each clue yields another unsettling deception.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarnivores (2018)
At the dawn of her thirties, Mona tries relentlessly to take off as an actress. Time passes and proposals do not arrive. Short of resources, she is forced to move to Sam, her younger sister.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBased on a True Story (2017)
Delphine is the author of an autobiographical novel that has become a bestseller. Exhausted by the promotional tour, just when she feels out of place, paralyzed by the idea of having to start writing again, she meets Elle, a young, attractive, intelligent, intuitive woman who seems to understand her better than anyone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisReckless (2014)
This stylish, sexually charged thriller revolves around two men who kidnap a woman and chain her to a bed as they await the ransom money. As the clock ticks, the woman discovers that she may have a relationship with one of the kidnappers that she never expected...and that the two men may have a relationship with each other that no one could have expected.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
The Truth of Lie (2011)
Two women kidnapped, chained in abandoned basement. Captor tortures them, plans release date revealed. Need for escalating cruelty. Captor's partner arrives, new demands made, situation intensifies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Clean Hands (2015)
Sylvia has turned a blind eye for too long to husband Eddie's flourishing drug business. When his dealing takes a (deadly) turn for the worse, however, her need to protect the lives and futures of her young children compel her to flee. But Eddie will stop at nothing to keep his wife inside the ‘family'.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
A Private Affair (2002)
Divorced private detective Francois Maneri is assigned by his agency to investigate the disappearance of Rachel, a young student who has been missing for six months. After interviewing Rachel's family, friends and classmates, Francois is attacked and injured by an anonymous assailant and becomes reluctant to continue his search. But when Rachel's body is found, Francois is drawn deeper into the investigation as he discovers the dead girl's secret life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisExposed (2016)
After witnessing a miracle, a young Latina woman experiences strange things as a police detective searches for the truth behind his partner's death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe 4th Man (1983)
A writer whose lover is a woman widowed three times begins to suspect she may be responsible for her husbands' deaths.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFarewell, My Lovely (1975)
Private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by ex-con Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend, a former lounge dancer. While also investigating the murder of a client and the theft of a jade necklace, Marlowe becomes entangled with seductress Helen Grayle and discovers a web of dark secrets that are better left hidden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost Highway (1997)
A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Instinct?
The closest matches to Instinct are Faithfully Yours (2022), Mothers' Instinct (2019) and Sex Doll (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Instinct?
People who watched Instinct most often go on to Faithfully Yours (2022), Mothers' Instinct (2019) and Sex Doll (2016).
What is the highest-rated movie like Instinct?
Lost Highway (1997), rated 7.6/10 by 3,119 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Instinct?
A Widow's Game (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Instinct chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Instinct, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.