Movies like Texas Cotton (2018)
The best movies like Texas Cotton (2018) are The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Appaloosa (2008). If Texas Cotton hooked you with its crime and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNo Country for Old Men (2007)7.9/10 from 14,059 votes
- NewestOscar Shaw (2026)Released 2026
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins, the latter is reminded of a promise he made to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada, in his Mexican home town. He kidnaps Norton and exhumes Estrada's corpse, and the odd caravan sets out on horseback for Mexico.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Day at Black Rock (1955)
One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAppaloosa (2008)
Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThieves Highway (2025)
After discovering a plot to haul stolen cattle in the middle of nowhere, a desperate and isolated lawman becomes the only thing standing between a group of dangerous rustlers and a clear run to the border.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLone Star (1996)
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)
When the Scooby gang visits a dude ranch, they discover that it and the nearby town have been haunted by a ghostly cowboy, Dapper Jack, who fires real fire from his fire irons. The mystery only deepens when it’s discovered that the ghost is also the long lost relative of Shaggy Rogers!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExtreme Prejudice (1987)
Lean, mean Texas Ranger Jack Benteen locks horns with a former friend, Cash Bailey, now a ruthless drug kingpin. Though they're on opposite sides of the law, they share a love interest in the sensual Sarita. When a crew of rogue soldiers descends upon the border town for an off-the-books mission, all roads lead to a bloody, to-the-death showdown, as loyalties shift and the lines between good and evil are blurred.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Revengers (1972)
The life of peaceful rancher John Benedict is torn apart when his family is massacred by a gang of marauding outlaws and his farm is destroyed. He assembles a team of mean, lawless convicts to act as his posse as he pursues the gang responsible for the deaths of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisNo Country for Old Men (2007)
Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEddington (2025)
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAin't Them Bodies Saints (2013)
Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApache Junction (2021)
Apache Junction is an outpost of lawlessness, a haven for thieves and cold-blooded killers. After big-city reporter Annabelle Angel arrives to write an article on the town, she becomes a target when notorious gunslinger Jericho Ford comes to her aid. Now Annabelle must entrust her future to a man with a deadly past, as Jericho heads toward a tense showdown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHell or High Water (2016)
A divorced dad and his ex-con brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's farm in West Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOscar Shaw (2026)
After retiring from the police force, a relentless detective haunted by the tragic loss of his closest friend sets out on a perilous quest for vengeance, seeking redemption and fighting to restore justice to the streets he once swore to protect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDesert Dawn (2025)
A newly appointed small-town sheriff and his begrudging deputy get tangled up in a web of lies and corruption involving shady businessmen and the cartel while investigating the murder of a mysterious woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unholy Trinity (2025)
Set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana, in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, he gives his estranged son, Henry, an impossible task: murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove, the town’s upstanding new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St. Christopher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLet Him Go (2020)
Following the loss of their son, a retired sheriff and his wife leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShimmer Lake (2017)
Shot in reverse day-by-day through a week—a local sheriff embarks on a quest to unlock the mystery of three small-town criminals and a bank heist gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute 2: School's Out (1998)
When teacher Randall Thomasson is killed during a carjacking, an unexpected visitor shows up at his funeral - his estranged brother, Karl Thomasson. An ex-Green Beret turned mercenary, Karl signs on as a new substitute teacher in order to investigate Randall's murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruder in the Dust (1949)
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. Quickly arrested for murder and jailed, Beauchamp insists he's innocent and asks the town's most prominent lawyer, Gavin Stevens, to defend him, but Stevens refuses. When a local boy whom Beauchamp has helped in the past and who believes him to be innocent hears talk of a mob taking Beauchamp out of jail and lynching him, he pleads with Stevens to defend Beauchamp at trial and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Heat of the Night (1967)
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThursday (1998)
A former Los Angeles drug dealer moves far away to Texas, making a new life for himself as a married architect in the suburbs. His old crime partner unexpectedly shows up with heroin and gangster business, attracting a slew of violent unsavory characters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gift (2000)
Annie Wilson, young widow and mother of three, makes her living foretelling others' futures—though her own has become cloudier than even she can see. Threatened by a client's violent husband and plagued by visions of a missing local woman, Annie finds herself pulled into a thicket of lies and deception in which her extraordinary gift may ultimately get her killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReindeer Games (2000)
After assuming his dead cellmate's identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)
In 1889, seventeen men die under mysterious circumstances, and spooked by recent events, the miners who populate the town leave in droves until there's nothing left but a shell of a community.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisJust Cause (1995)
A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreaker! Breaker! (1977)
Truck driver searches for his brother, who has disappeared in a town run by a corrupt judge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisTo Kill the Beast (2021)
Emilia arrives at her Aunt Ines’ hostel at the Argentina-Brazil border looking for her long lost brother. In this luxuriant jungle, a dangerous beast believed to be the spirit of an evil man taking the form of different animals seems to be roaming around. On a journey to sexual awakening, Emilia will have to confront her past in order to kill the beast.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Texas Cotton?
The closest matches to Texas Cotton are The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Appaloosa (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Texas Cotton?
Start with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), the closest match to Texas Cotton.
What is the highest-rated movie like Texas Cotton?
No Country for Old Men (2007), rated 7.9/10 by 14,059 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Texas Cotton?
Oscar Shaw (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Texas Cotton?
Yes: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Appaloosa (2008).
How are movies similar to Texas Cotton chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Texas Cotton, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.