Movies like The Butterfly (2009)
The best movies like The Butterfly (2009) are I Am David (2003), Black Gold (2011) and The Transfiguration (2016). If The Butterfly hooked you with its drama and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSpotlight (2015)7.8/10 from 9,085 votes
- NewestA Story of Derry (2026)Released 2026
I Am David (2003)
A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Gold (2011)
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Transfiguration (2016)
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisEnd of Sentence (2019)
Newly widowed Frank Fogle embarks on a journey to Ireland to scatter his late wife’s ashes. His estranged son, Sean, recently released from prison, agrees to join only when his father promises that they’ll never see each other again following the trip. After revelations surface about an old flame of Frank’s wife and a charming hitchhiker with plans of her own intervenes, father and son find themselves drawn together in unexpected ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWerewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisCave Rescue (2019)
When a youth football team of 12 boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach is trapped deep inside a cave in Northern Thailand, thousands of volunteers and soldiers from around the world unite in a race against time to find them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrimeval (2007)
A news team is sent to Burundi to capture and bring home a legendary 25-foot crocodile. Their difficult task turns potentially deadly when a warlord targets them for death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013)
The Doctor struggles to help the only remaining crewmember of a crashing gunship. The people of the planet below offer to save his life, but at a dear cost to the life he's lived for hundreds of years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRaging Grace (2023)
An undocumented Filipina immigrant lands a job as a careworker for a seemingly terminal old man, securing a better life for her and her daughter. But a dark discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s strived for and holds dear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLimbo (1999)
Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSavaged (2014)
After thugs brutalize a deaf-mute woman, the spirit of an Apache warrior takes over her lifeless body and sets out on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Story of Derry (2026)
Hundreds of years before Pennywise, three youngsters venture into the Western Wood...where they encounter a terrifying ancient spirit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMārama (2026)
1859. When a young Māori woman is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, she uncovers her horrific colonial heritage and is compelled to confront and destroy the titled Englishman who devastated her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue Grit (1969)
The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Warrior (2001)
In feudal India, a warrior who renounces his role as the longtime enforcer to a local lord becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan mountains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Surrender (2025)
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSweeney Todd (2006)
A BBC adaptation of the Victorian "penny dreadful" tale of 19th century "demon barber" Sweeney Todd, of Fleet Street, who cuts the throats of unsuspecting clients in his London shop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCivic Duty (2006)
An American accountant bombarded with cable news and the media's obsession with terrorist plots in the post 9-11 world, receives a jolt when an unattached Islamic graduate student moves in next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)
The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYasmin (2004)
In England, the Pakistanis Yasmin lives two lives in two different worlds: in her community, she wears Muslin clothes, cooks for her father and brother and has the traditional behavior of a Muslin woman. Further, she has a non-consumed marriage with the illegal immigrant Faysal to facilitate the British stamp in his passport, and then divorce him. In her job, she changes her clothes and wears like a Westerner, is considered a standard employee and has a good Caucasian friend who likes her. After the September, 11th, the prejudice in her job and the treatment of common people makes her take side and change her life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Mighty Heart (2007)
Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Few Days in September (2006)
1 September 2001. Elliot, an American C.I.A. agent holding top secret information on the immediate future of the world, disappears. His sole aim was to meet his daughter Orlando, whom he abandoned ten years before. Irène, a French agent who used to work with him, and David, his adoptive son, will help him and lead the girl to her father. Chased by William Pound, a strangely poetic psycho, they will defy the dangers of international espionage from Paris to Venice and finally get to Elliot on 11 September 2001.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Journal for Jordan (2021)
Based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a soldier deployed to Iraq begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLoose Change 9/11: An American Coup (2009)
With the departure of the Bush Administration and the arrival of an “era of transparency,” opportunities are arising for the disclosure of new information that may shed more light on the events that took place before and after 9/11/2001. Loaded with powerful, new footage and in-depth interviews this documentary presents a wide array of evidence both known and unknown…until now.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRace to 9/11 (2023)
Three Friends compete to see who can get to Boston's Logan Airport the fastest
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Dear John (2010)
While Sergeant John Tyree is home on two weeks leave from Germany, he meets Savannah after he dives into the ocean to retrieve Savannah's purse that had fallen off a pier. John eventually falls in love with Savannah, who promises to write to him until he returns from overseas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKhuda Kay Liye (2007)
The film is about the difficult situation in which the Pakistanis in particular and the Muslims in general are caught up since 9/11. There is a war going on between the Fundamentalists and the Liberal Muslims. This situation is creating a drift not only between the Western world and the Muslims, but also within the Muslims. The educated and modern Muslims are in a difficult situation because of their approach towards life and their western attire. They are criticized and harassed by the fundamentalists and on the other hand the Western world sees them as potential suspects of terrorism just because of their Muslim names.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Spotlight (2015)
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unidentified (2008)
At once gritty and whimsical, The Unidentified follow Estlin, a passionate young journalist scraping by in New York City. As his frustration with his entry-level job at a local newspaper peaks, his disgruntled best friend, Brooke, leaves Brooklyn for Ohio. Set adrift, Estlin falls for Sophie, an elusive artist with an optimistic view on life. But as their romance blossoms, his high ideals and dogged pursuit of truth come into conflict with her tightly guarded secrets. The film is an exploration of idealism and apathy in today's youth culture and the vestiges of the social consciousness of the 1960s. In a climactic scene shot at a real anti-war protest in Washington D.C., Estlin must come to terms with what has been lost, what still remains and where he must go from here.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Butterfly and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Butterfly?
The closest matches to The Butterfly are I Am David (2003), Black Gold (2011) and The Transfiguration (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Butterfly?
Start with I Am David (2003), the closest match to The Butterfly.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Butterfly?
Spotlight (2015), rated 7.8/10 by 9,085 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Butterfly?
A Story of Derry (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Butterfly chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Butterfly, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.