Movies like Afraid of the Dark (1992)
The best movies like Afraid of the Dark (1992) are Before I Wake (2016), Savaged (2014) and The Return (2006). If Afraid of the Dark hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDressed to Kill (1980)6.9/10 from 1,211 votes
- Newest40 Acres (2025)Released 2025
Before I Wake (2016)
An orphaned child's dreams—and nightmares—manifest physically as he sleeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSavaged (2014)
After thugs brutalize a deaf-mute woman, the spirit of an Apache warrior takes over her lifeless body and sets out on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Return (2006)
Joanna Mills has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father, and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWerewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisBaby Blues (2008)
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMedusa (2020)
After being bitten by a lethal snake, a young woman experiences changes in her senses and appearance, as she sheds her old self and slowly turns into a deadly weapon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCastle Freak (1996)
John Reilly discovers that his family's newly inherited castle in Italy is haunted by a relentless, bloodthirsty creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplit (2016)
The story of a young woman who takes an epic journey to claim her own darkness and sexuality so she can stop putting it into the hands of her abusive lover. When Inanna, a young actress, working as a stripper, becomes obsessed with a mask maker, she sacrifices parts of herself and her life, piece by piece, in order to win his love. At the same time she enters a mythic journey in the theater. One that forces her to face the many abuses endured by women around that world and that blurs her performance, her dreams and her real life and results in a provocative and powerful confrontation that frees her. -- from official website
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Transfiguration (2016)
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSee No Evil (1971)
In the English countryside, Sarah Rexton, recently blinded in a horse riding accident, moves in with her uncle's family and gallantly adjusts to her new condition, unaware that a killer stalks them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSightless (2020)
After an attack renders her blind, Ellen withdraws from the world to recover. But soon she plunges into paranoia, unable to convince anyone that her assailant has returned to terrorize her by hiding in plain sight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Evil (1978)
Shortly after moving into a dark, brooding mansion, a psychologist and his co-workers are terrorized by a horrible evil being.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhisper (2007)
Sinister things begin happening to kidnappers who are holding a young boy for ransom in a remote cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWatcher (2022)
As a serial killer stalks the city, Julia — a young actress who just moved to town with her husband — notices a mysterious stranger watching her from across the street.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWake Up (2024)
A group of young activists set out to make an environmental statement by vandalizing a home superstore as it closes. But their plan goes terribly wrong when they become trapped inside and must face a deranged security guard with a gruesome passion for primitive hunting. As the night fills with violence and terror, the teenagers find themselves in a desperate fight for their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDressed to Kill (1980)
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStake Land (2010)
Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed in an empty pit of economic and political disaster. A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely north to Canada, the continent's New Eden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMade Me Do It (2017)
College student Ali Hooper and her little brother are attacked by a masked maniac, and the key to them surviving the night lies in unlocking a secret from the killer's past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
WΔZ (2007)
There is something horribly wrong with the bodies found in the dark city streets. Some are mutilated while others have the Price equation (wΔz = Cov (w,z) = βwzVz) carved into their flesh. Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner Helen Westcott unearth the meaning of the odd equation and realise each victim is being offered a gruesome choice: kill your loved ones, or be killed. Before long it becomes clear that the perpetrator has suffered a similar fate and is now coping by seeking a way to solve this philosophical dilemma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSorority Row 2 (TBA)
Sequel to Sorority Row (2009).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Never 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 & thriller
Amsterdamned (1988)
A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam's canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city's best detective, who doesn't suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Ride (2006)
Ten years after he brutally murdered two girls, a killer escapes from a mental institution and returns to his turf, the theme park attraction called Dark Ride. About to crash his path are a group of college kids on a road trip who stumble across the park.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisVacancy 2: The First Cut (2008)
Three young people check into the Meadow View Inn for a night's rest, fully unaware of the inn's sick-minded employees and their nefarious intentions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Card Player (2004)
Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Night of the Drones (TBA)
Buenos Aires is hit by a epidemic that turns people into drones. Elena, a young woman unhappy with her life, struggles to hide the fact that she's sick from those close to her: Tomás, her boyfriend, and Simón, a friend of his with whom she's having an affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Boogeyman 2 (2007)
A young woman attempts to cure her phobia of the boogeyman by checking herself into a mental health facility, only to realize too late that she is now helplessly trapped with her own greatest fear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Afraid of the Dark and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Afraid of the Dark?
The closest matches to Afraid of the Dark are Before I Wake (2016), Savaged (2014) and The Return (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Afraid of the Dark?
Start with Before I Wake (2016), the closest match to Afraid of the Dark.
What is the highest-rated movie like Afraid of the Dark?
Dressed to Kill (1980), rated 6.9/10 by 1,211 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Afraid of the Dark?
40 Acres (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Afraid of the Dark?
Yes: Before I Wake (2016), Savaged (2014) and The Return (2006).
How are movies similar to Afraid of the Dark chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Afraid of the Dark, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.