Movies like Fanny and Alexander (1982)
The best movies like Fanny and Alexander (1982) are Closet Monster (2016), Donnie Darko (2001) and The Sixth Sense (1999). If Fanny and Alexander hooked you with its fantasy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedForrest Gump (1994)8.5/10 from 30,874 votes
- NewestWhat We Hide (2025)Released 2025
Closet Monster (2016)
A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDonnie Darko (2001)
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sixth Sense (1999)
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDark Places (2015)
A woman who survived the brutal killing of her family as a child is forced to confront the events of that day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhat We Hide (2025)
After their mother dies of an overdose, two sisters hide her body to avoid being separated by the foster system, but as their secret threatens to unravel, they must confront the consequences of their desperate choice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisByzantium (2013)
Residents of a coastal town learn, with deadly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought refuge at a local boarding house, the Byzantium.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTideland (2005)
Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Christmas Carol (2004)
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives in a New England beach town. Whenever the landlady inquires after Rynn's father, she claims that he's not available. But when the landlady's son, Frank, won't leave Rynn alone, she teams up with a neighbor Mario to maintain the dark family secret that she's been keeping to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Client (1994)
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he tells Mark where the body of a Senator is buried. Clifford shoots himself and Mark is found at the scene, and both the FBI and the Mafia quickly realize that Mark probably knows more than he says.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInheritance (2020)
The patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and destroy their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaving Zoë (2019)
A year after the murder of her sister Zoë, Echo is determined to uncover the truth. With Zoë's diary as her guide, Echo finds herself pulled into the darkness of her sister's secret life and she uncovers how one small decision can lead to tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeast (2018)
A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeacock (2010)
A minor train accident in rural Nebraska gradually unveils a mystery involving the town's reclusive bank clerk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMystic River (2003)
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Clovehitch Killer (2018)
A picture-perfect family is torn apart after Tyler finds a cache of disturbing images in his father's possession. He begins to suspect that the man he trusts most in the world may be responsible for the murder of 13 women ten years prior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe King Tide (2024)
After the mayor of an idyllic island village discovers a child with mysterious powers awash on their shores, the once peaceful community devolves into civil war, torn over the belief that the child is the next saviour.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCracks (2009)
Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuddenly, Last Summer (1959)
The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCitizen Kane (1941)
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSilent Night, Lonely Night (1969)
Over the Christmas holidays in a small New England college town, a man and a woman share a brief interlude. He is there to visit his wife, who is a mental patient at the university, and she is there visiting her son, who is a student, after discovering her husband's infidelity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Tenants (1987)
A satirical comedy about the oddball inhabitants of a Tehran apartment building and their landlord.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Por Trás do Pano (1999)
A famous actor believes he has totally mastered his craft. A young and talented actress is open to new challenges. They meet, and confront each other; on, and off the stage. From his personal and artistic lethargy, he sees the possibilities of a new beginning, new opportunities, after starting to see her. The story unravels, as the title states, "behind the curtain."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sunday in August (2004)
A couple on a boat. Their love is burnt out. But how to let go when souls are entangled?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forrest Gump (1994)
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Dark (2005)
In an attempt to pull her family together, Adèlle travels with her young daughter Sarah to Wales to visit her father. The morning after they arrive, Sarah mysteriously vanishes in the ocean. Not long after, a little girl bearing a striking resemblance to their missing daughter reveals that she has retuned from the dead — and that Sarah has been taken to the Welsh underworld.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Girl at My Door (2014)
Sent from Seoul to serve in a remote coastal village, a policewoman gets involved in the life of a mysterious teenage girl who is abused by both her father and her grandmother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tigress (1990)
The wild and wanton Francisca, known as "The Tigress," is the eldest of three sisters, who are bosses of a farm in Ecuador. A medicine man tells Francisca and Juliana that their youngest sister Sara must remain a virgin to protect their land. A travelling salesman, engaged to Sara, tells the police that she is being kept locked up by her older sisters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Fanny and Alexander and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Fanny and Alexander?
The closest matches to Fanny and Alexander are Closet Monster (2016), Donnie Darko (2001) and The Sixth Sense (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Fanny and Alexander?
Start with Closet Monster (2016), the closest match to Fanny and Alexander.
What is the highest-rated movie like Fanny and Alexander?
Forrest Gump (1994), rated 8.5/10 by 30,874 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Fanny and Alexander?
What We Hide (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Fanny and Alexander chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Fanny and Alexander, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.