Movies like Hot Ashes (2018)
The best movies like Hot Ashes (2018) are Fathers and Daughters (2015), Butterfly on a Wheel (2007) and Sleeping with the Enemy (1991). If Hot Ashes hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAmerican History X (1998)8.3/10 from 13,123 votes
- NewestFree at Heart (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseIntentions of Murder (1964)Also in Japanese
Fathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisButterfly on a Wheel (2007)
A sociopathic kidnapper methodically pushes a desperate pair of parents to their absolute breaking point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleeping with the Enemy (1991)
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntrusion (2021)
When a husband and wife move to a small town, a home invasion leaves the wife traumatized and suspicious that those around her might not be who they seem.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntentions of Murder (1964)
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack or White (2015)
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoyhood (2014)
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdulterers (2016)
On a steamy New Orleans afternoon, Sam Deuprey decides to surprise his beautiful wife, Ashley, for their anniversary and comes home early. But Ashley is not alone in the bedroom. She and her lover, Damien are about to learn how far a jealous husband will go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTyler Perry's Divorce in the Black (2024)
Ava, a young bank professional is devastated when her husband Dallas abandons a marriage she is determined to fight for until fate intervenes, revealing Dallas' wicked deeds that have trashed their marriage, and once upon a time sabotaged Ava's destiny to be loved by her true soulmate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Burning Bed (1984)
An abused battered wife has had enough of husband beating up on her. Everywhere she turns for help, there's not much anyone will do. After he rapes her one night, she sets the bed on fire with him in it asleep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKen Park (2003)
Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eel (1997)
A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHer Love Boils Bathwater (2016)
After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Futaba resolves to spend her remaining time reuniting her broken family, reopening the long-closed bathhouse, and helping her shy daughter Azumi learn to stand on her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGaslight (1944)
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlowers in the Attic (2014)
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAcrimony (2018)
Faithful wife Melinda, who is tired of standing by her devious husband Robert, is enraged when it becomes clear she has been betrayed. That's when she lost it, and now she cannot let it go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Someone in Love (2012)
An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAvance et tu verras (2025)
The sun rises over the dark, misty forest. It's springtime. Nature is lush. A man in his fifties walks warily along a hiking trail cut through tall ferns. He's not walking alone; something invisible is connected to him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
American History X (1998)
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisJeanne (2026)
A poignant journey through time following the daughter of a dairy farmer as she navigates the tension between her rural roots and the pull of a modern, urban life, ultimately discovering that her future may lie exactly where she began.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Family Upside Down (1978)
An elderly married couple find that as their physical and mental health deteriorates, they find themselves dependent more and more upon their grown children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Intruder (2011)
A wounded soldier's wife begins the long road to recovery after her husband is released into her care. But the strange noises next door may bring a more immediate struggle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hands (2023)
The story of a family, told through their hands.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Between Us (TBA)
Two friends meet and the news is given that the grandmother of one of them has died. What was supposed to be a moment of consolation ends up becoming a change of perspective on death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Into the Blue (2026)
Philippe Croizon, a 26-year-old metal worker at Fonderies du Poitou, had no idea that his life would be turned upside down on March 5, 1994. On that day, the young father received three 20,000 V shocks while trying to dismantle the TV antenna hanging from the chimney of his house in Saint-Rémy-sur-Creuse. After two months in a coma, he woke up with all four limbs amputated. Thus began what he calls his "second life", which has enabled him to overcome his disability, meet his partner, Suzanna Sabino, and achieve some incredible sporting feats, including a swim across the English Channel in less than 24 hours.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Free at Heart (2026)
Sebastian's (16) sheltered small-town life changes suddenly when his family takes in 15-year-old Kolja, supposedly the son of his father's recently deceased girlfriend. In addition to his little sister, another teenager now lives with them. Although the two boys are strangers to each other at first, they begin to open up to each other more and more and discover that they are biological brothers. The relationship of trust with his parents breaks down and when Sebastian and Kolja become closer than they expected, Sebastian's life is suddenly turned upside down, as he has found not only a soul mate in his new brother, but also a real, first love. Overwhelmed by their feelings, the two hide their relationship, but when the secret, incestuous relationship is discovered, the family breaks out of the social structure of the small town and comes into conflict with societal norms. Everything that follows is a rollercoaster of emotions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beyond Silence (1996)
Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hot Ashes?
The closest matches to Hot Ashes are Fathers and Daughters (2015), Butterfly on a Wheel (2007) and Sleeping with the Enemy (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hot Ashes?
Start with Fathers and Daughters (2015), the closest match to Hot Ashes.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hot Ashes?
American History X (1998), rated 8.3/10 by 13,123 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hot Ashes?
Free at Heart (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Hot Ashes?
Yes: Intentions of Murder (1964), The Eel (1997) and Her Love Boils Bathwater (2016).
How are movies similar to Hot Ashes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hot Ashes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.