Movies like Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973)
The best movies like Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) are Grindhouse (2007), Play Dead (2025) and Night of the Living Dead (1990). If Death Smiles on a Murderer hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)7.4/10 from 6,071 votes
- NewestThe Dreadful (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianTorso (1973)Also in Italian
Grindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse combines Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, an action thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. It is presented as a double feature with fictitious exploitation trailers preceding each segment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Dead (2025)
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight of the Living Dead (1990)
A ragtag group barricade themselves in an old Pennsylvania farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls ravaging the Northeast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeadsight (2018)
A man with partial blindness and a young pregnant police officer must work together to escape a deadly virus that has spread across Grey County.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A masked maniac terrorizes the same small community where a murderer known as the Phantom Killer struck decades earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBloodline (2019)
Evan values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNightmare Cinema (2018)
A series of down-on-their-luck individuals enter the decrepit and spine-chilling Rialto theater, only to have their deepest and darkest fears brought to life on the silver screen by The Projectionist – a mysterious, ghostly figure who holds the nightmarish futures of all who attend his screenings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisTorso (1973)
A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill, Baby... Kill! (1966)
A 20th century European village is haunted by the ghost of a murderous little girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrick (2019)
A detective tries to track down a masked killer who reappears every Halloween to wreak bloody havoc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Based on Wes Craven's 1977 suspenseful cult classic, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carter family soon realizes the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family...and they are the prey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie Alone (2024)
Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, Ethan, a young man with amnesia navigates the dangerous landscape in search of his lost love Emma. His journey takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Mae, a hardened and eccentric survivor. Together, Ethan and Mae face threats both human and otherwise before a fateful encounter with Kai unravels a secret that lies just beyond Ethan's fractured memory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hunt (2020)
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are—or how they got there. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt humans for sport. But their master plan is about to be derailed when one of the hunted turns the tables on her pursuers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971)
When socialite and heiress Julie Wardh begins receiving blackmail letters attributed to a mysterious serial killer, she suspects her cruel and sadistic former lover Jean is behind them. With her husband Neil frequently out of town, she falls into the arms of her friend's cousin George, and as the unknown assassin begins to make his move, she fears that one of the three men in her life may be the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAutopsy (1975)
A series of random suicides in Rome, Italy are attributed to a heatwave, but a young pathologist named Simona—who is working on a thesis about murders disguised as suicides—suspects otherwise. When a young girl associated with Simona's playboy father ends up dead in another supposed suicide, Simona teams up with the girl's priest brother to prove she was murdered and track down the unknown serial killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDust Bunny (2025)
Ten-year-old Aurora asks her hitman neighbor to kill the monster under her bed that she claims ate her family. To protect her, he must battle an onslaught of assassins while accepting that some monsters are real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return of the Exorcist (1975)
An archaeology student photographs a mysterious naked woman by a waterfall, unaware that she is a female demon called Haggia, who soon takes possession of him via a cursed amulet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dreadful (2026)
In medieval England, Anne and her domineering mother-in-law Morwen struggle to survive on the outskirts of society. But when a man from Anne's past returns from war, a curse begins to take shape through a mysterious knight and threatens to destroy them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisLand of the Dead (2005)
The living dead have taken over the world, and the remaining humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they cope with the situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChopper (2023)
CHOPPER is a modern-day re-imagining of the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow. After taking a strange new drug with supernatural side effects at a Daytona Bike Week party, a troubled young bartender and her biker friends start seeing ghosts. They are stalked by the Reaper, a headless ghost on a motorcycle who collects the souls of sinners in the afterlife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Sorority Row 2 (TBA)
Sequel to Sorority Row (2009).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Hole (2001)
Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Skin of Your Teeth (2009)
Four survivors of the zombie apocalypse hide out in a farm. They try to find a way to escape and survive. Things don't work out as planned. Will any of them make it?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Red's Breakfast 2: Dawn Of The Red (1997)
Loveable serial killer, "Red Toole" meets his soul-mate "Violet". They fall instantly in love...and murder a Greek architecht. Tons of romantic fun for everyone!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Through Eyes of the Dead (1999)
Shocking music videos and interviews with Necrophagia. Film works as an introduction to the underground that influences this particular music movement and showcases moments of intense performances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
The Omen (2006)
A diplomatic couple adopts the son of the devil without knowing it. A remake of the classic horror film of the same name from 1976.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisNever Have I Ever (TBA)
Alex has invited a group of friends whom he hasn't seen in ages to spend the weekend at his parent's summer home. As the alcohol begins pouring the group's tightly knit history begins to unravel. An ill-advised game of Never Have I Ever seems to bring the festivities to a screeching halt. As the group separates to deal with their various emotional drama, an intruder crashes the party to silence them all for good. In one night, a years old secret will come to the surface and fighting is the only means of survival. The truth hurts, but a knife hurts deeper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
In My Skin (2002)
After a disfiguring leg injury, a young woman develops an unsettling secret relationship with her own body in which pain is pleasure, mutilation is love and hungers of the flesh have a mind of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Death Smiles on a Murderer?
The closest matches to Death Smiles on a Murderer are Grindhouse (2007), Play Dead (2025) and Night of the Living Dead (1990). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Death Smiles on a Murderer?
Start with Grindhouse (2007), the closest match to Death Smiles on a Murderer.
What is the highest-rated movie like Death Smiles on a Murderer?
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), rated 7.4/10 by 6,071 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Death Smiles on a Murderer?
The Dreadful (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Death Smiles on a Murderer?
Yes: Torso (1973), Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966) and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971).
How are movies similar to Death Smiles on a Murderer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Death Smiles on a Murderer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.