Movies like Batch '81 (1982)
The best movies like Batch '81 (1982) are New Order (2020), The Experiment (2001) and Death and the Maiden (1994). If Batch '81 hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Wave (2008)7.5/10 from 3,735 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
New Order (2020)
In the near future, a popular uprising in Mexico City interrupts a wedding held at the home of a wealthy family. After the riots have been quashed, they discover the bride has gone missing and plea with the military to help locate her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2001)
20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDangerous Drugs of Sex (2020)
An elite salaryman drunkenly tries to die by suicide, but is saved by a mysterious stranger who holds him captive and sexually torments him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Boy Bubby (1993)
Bubby has spent thirty years trapped in the same small room, tricked by his mother. One day, he manages to escape and, deranged and naive in equal measures, his adventure into a modern and nihilistic life begins.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wave (2008)
A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Genius (2024)
A highly-gifted student sees an opportunity to escape her roots by helping wealthy classmates cheat on key exams, but at great risk to her future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wave (1981)
A teacher conducts an experiment in an American high school where students learn how easy it is to be seduced by the same social forces which led to the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBurning Days (2022)
With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lesson (2015)
Two schoolboy delinquents learn a lesson that they will never forget when a teacher at the end of his tether decides to abduct them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisOne Eyed Girl (2014)
After the death of his girlfriend, Travis, a thirty-something psychiatrist, struggles to keep it together. On the brink of a nervous breakdown he stumbles across a strange church run by a charismatic leader, Pastor Jay. In search of answers Travis is led deeper and deeper into the underworld of religious fanaticism, home to a Doomsday cult and a teenage girl named Grace.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
The Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChatroom (2010)
When strangers Jim, Eva, Emily and Mo meet William online in his new 'Chelsea Teens!' chatroom, they're completely seduced by his fast-talking, charismatic character. But beneath the surface lies a much darker truth. William is a dangerous loner, channeling all his energies into cyberspace. He's become an analyser, a calculating manipulator who finds it almost impossible to interact normally with others in the real world, instead turning his hand to manipulating people online.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight It Up (1999)
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxcatcher (2014)
The greatest Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team joins Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul - a union that leads to unlikely circumstances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Plague (2025)
A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuce (2019)
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to light, putting a strain on family bonds while igniting intense debates on race and identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHorns (2013)
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Kiss Before Dying (1956)
A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToy Soldiers (1991)
After federal agents arrest a drug czar and put him on trial, the cartel leader's vicious son storms a prep school and takes its students hostage. They rebel against the armed intruders and try to take back their academy by any means necessary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomeo Must Die (2000)
Two warring gang families (one African-American, the other Chinese) maneuver for bragging rights to the Oakland, California docks. Han Sing and Trish O'Day uncover a trail of deceit that leaves most of the warring factions dead... or worse!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAt Eternity's Gate (2018)
Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Batch '81?
The closest matches to Batch '81 are New Order (2020), The Experiment (2001) and Death and the Maiden (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Batch '81?
People who watched Batch '81 most often go on to New Order (2020), The Experiment (2001) and Death and the Maiden (1994).
What is the highest-rated movie like Batch '81?
The Wave (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 3,735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Batch '81?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Batch '81 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Batch '81, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.