Movies like Area 51 (2015)
The best movies like Area 51 (2015) are Phoenix Forgotten (2017), Monolith (2023) and Life (2017). If Area 51 hooked you with its horror and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Thing (1982)8.1/10 from 8,431 votes
- NewestOsiris (2025)Released 2025
Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
Twenty years after three teenagers disappeared in the wake of mysterious lights appearing above Phoenix, Arizona, unseen footage from that night has been discovered, chronicling the final hours of their fateful expedition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonolith (2023)
A desperate young journalist turns to podcasting to salvage her career, but her rush to make headlines leads her to an alien conspiracy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife (2017)
The six-member crew of the International Space Station is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life, which proves more intelligent than ever expected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caller (1987)
One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they're playing a strange mind game and that there's something very wrong about the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Thing (2011)
When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEvent Horizon (1997)
In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing (1982)
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe X-Files (1998)
Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOsiris (2025)
Special Forces commandos on a mission are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft. Upon waking aboard, they find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlien: Romulus (2024)
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBody Snatchers (1993)
When Environmental Protection Agency inspector Steve Malone travels to a remote military base in order to check for toxic materials, he brings his family along for the ride. After arriving at the base, his teenage daughter Marti befriends Jean Platt, daughter of the base's commander, General Platt. When people at the base begin acting strangely, Marti becomes convinced that they are slowly being replaced by plant-like aliens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien: Covenant (2017)
The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisV/H/S/Beyond (2024)
The infinite playground of forbidden worlds and dangerous lifeforms offered by the sci-fi horror genre will lead to the biggest, maddest, bloodiest V/H/S ever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bay (2012)
Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisSpecies (1995)
In 1993, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Project receives a transmission detailing an alien DNA structure, along with instructions on how to splice it with human DNA. The result is Sil, a sensual but deadly creature who can change from a beautiful woman to an armour-plated killing machine in the blink of an eye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRe-Kill (2015)
Five years after a zombie outbreak, the men and women of R-Division hunt down and destroy the undead. When they see signs of a second outbreak, they fear humanity may not survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisWifelike (2022)
A grieving detective in the near-future hunts down criminals who trade artificial humans on the black market. In the fight to end AI exploitation, an underground resistance attempts to infiltrate him by sabotaging the programming of the artificial human assigned as his companion to behave like his late wife. She begins to question her reality as memories of a past life begin to surface in a world where nothing is as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrimes of the Future (2022)
With his partner Caprice, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. An investigator from the National Organ Registry obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed... Their mission — to use Tenser's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBooks of Blood (2020)
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
After moving to an isolated cabin, Jacob Taylor vanishes without a trace. With the help of footage he leaves behind, his family members, friends, and a detective try to find answers to the strange events that are centered around him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Critters 2 (1988)
Three bounty hunters from space fly back to the town of Grovers Bend, hoping to save local residents from a new batch of Critter eggs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStarship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)
A group of troopers take refuge in an abandoned outpost after fighting alien bugs, failing to realize that more danger lays in wait.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisEvil Aliens (2006)
The sensationalist reporter Michelle Fox presents the TV show Weird World, with phony matters about UFOS and aliens. When she hears about Cat, a young woman that claims that have been abducted with her boyfriend and become pregnant by aliens, she convinces her chief to travel with a team to the remote Welsh island of Scalled to interview Cat. She invites the cameraman Ricky Anderson with his sound technician partner; the nerd expert in "ufology" and "ley lines" Gavin Gorman; the actress Candy Vixen and an obscure gay actor to prepare the matter. They get a van and wait for the low tide to reach the island, and when they find evidences that aliens are really landed in the location, the ambitious Michelle decides to film her way to fame and wealth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisFear and Desire (2019)
A woman awakens in a remote location to news that the world as she knows it has ended. As she adjusts to her new reality, events unfold and details emerge that may suggest otherwise.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVengeful Spirit House: Fear of Entering the Curse of Hell (2011)
In the tower that points out that it is the origin of all urban legends, it follows the horror directors Miki Hatano, Ayako Koito, and Kiyotaka Taguchi. A bizarre old woman with inspiration gathers everyone to the Koito family and thinks about countermeasures... In the Koito family, which has become a locked room, can old women find a mystery of the cause in the rampage appearance of vengeful ghosts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
10/31/85 (2022)
On a chilly Halloween night in 1985, 3 teenagers happen upon the unfortunate antics of a crazed serial killer named Mr. Trick.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Alien Autopsy (2006)
Humouristic reconstruction of the 1995 scandal when two British lads were accused of having faked a documentary from the Roswell incident in 1947.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Henry Smurf Project (2005)
El proyecto del Pitufo Enrique is a document about the existence of a mysterious goblin from the province of Catamarca. During the filming of the movie there were some tragic incidents, such as the disappearance of six people or the violent deaths of another three. Some of these incidents were registered on video but couldn't see the light because of the ongoing legal battle between the director and the victim's families opposing its screening. On the contrary, Elvira Serio director of the movie, thinks that what is on the tape could be of great help shedding some light over all the mysteries around this thread. She hopes that her work can serve as a warning as well to all the residents and tourists who often visit that place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Area 51?
The closest matches to Area 51 are Phoenix Forgotten (2017), Monolith (2023) and Life (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Area 51?
Start with Phoenix Forgotten (2017), the closest match to Area 51.
What is the highest-rated movie like Area 51?
The Thing (1982), rated 8.1/10 by 8,431 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Area 51?
Osiris (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Area 51?
Yes: Phoenix Forgotten (2017), Monolith (2023) and Life (2017).
How are movies similar to Area 51 chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Area 51, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.