Movies like The Confession (1970)
The best movies like The Confession (1970) are Escape from Sobibor (1987), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) and Hannibal (2001). If The Confession 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 ratedMesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)7.3/10 from 976 votes
- NewestInto the Blue (2026)Released 2026
- In French22 Bullets (2010)Also in French
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHannibal (2001)
After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling, who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLand of the Blind (2006)
A soldier recounts his relationship with a famous political prisoner attempting to overthrow their country's authoritarian government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this22 Bullets (2010)
A retired mobster goes on a revenge spree after being left for dead with 22 bullets in his body by his former childhood friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (2021)
Based on the true story of the events that led to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder, who was killed during a conflict with police officers who were dispatched to check on him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStorm Warning (1951)
A fashion model witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan while traveling to a small town to visit her sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxfire (1996)
The story of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond after beating up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. They build a solid friendship but their wild ways begin to get out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalking Tall: Lone Justice (2007)
In Dallas, witnesses against a drug-lord are murdered in a safe-house.The testimony of FBI agents becomes the only chance to keep him in prison. They are lodged in another safe-house, but the place is invaded and the agents are executed. However, Kate is only wounded, and her boyfriend Nick believes there is a traitor in the agency and takes her to his ranch to protect her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRed Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)
Yorkshire, 1974. Fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions. When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions that draw them into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Man's Shoes (2004)
A soldier returns to his small town and exacts a deadly revenge on the thugs who tormented his disabled brother while he was away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)
After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats, making him France's most notorious criminal while simultaneously feeding his desire for media attention and public adoration, Mesrine becomes increasingly paranoid and isolated, leading to a dramatic confrontation with the law that ultimately seals his fate as the nation's most infamous public enemy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRed Sparrow (2018)
Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. Dominika emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, she meets a CIA agent who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBronson (2009)
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Infernal Machine (2022)
Reclusive and controversial author Bruce Cogburn is drawn out of hiding by an obsessive fan, forcing the novelist to confront a past that he thought he could escape, and to account for events set in motion by his bestseller decades earlier. Cogburn's search for who is behind the manipulation and mental torment he encounters leads to an emotional roller-coaster ride full of fear and danger, where things are not always as clear as they seem to be, and where past deeds can have dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Valachi Papers (1972)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouth Central (1992)
During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPolar (2019)
When a retiring assassin realizes that he is the target of a hit, he winds up back in the game going head to head with a gang of younger, ruthless killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOldboy (2013)
A man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisTaste of Excitement (1969)
A man has been killed on the Dover/Boulogne car ferry. What is the connection between him and the attempts being made to kill Jane Kerrell, a young girl in her early twenties? As she speeds through the French countryside to the South of France, several attempts are made on her life as she is deliberately forced off the road by another car. But when she reports these attempts, the local Cap Ferrat Police Inspector and the sinister psychiatrist, Dr. Forla believe these attempts are in her imagination and Dr Forla, concludes that Jane is mentally disturbed. At her wits end Jane finds an ally in the young English painter, Paul Hedley who finally believes her life is in danger following an attempt to murder him. When Inspector Malling of Scotland Yard and Mr. Breese arrive in Cap Ferrat trying to uncover the connection between Jane and the murdered man on the ferry, this thrilling puzzle of international intrigue begins to unravel against the backdrop of the French Riviera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Into the Blue (2026)
Philippe Croizon, a 26-year-old metal worker at Fonderies du Poitou, had no idea that his life would be turned upside down on March 5, 1994. On that day, the young father received three 20,000 V shocks while trying to dismantle the TV antenna hanging from the chimney of his house in Saint-Rémy-sur-Creuse. After two months in a coma, he woke up with all four limbs amputated. Thus began what he calls his "second life", which has enabled him to overcome his disability, meet his partner, Suzanna Sabino, and achieve some incredible sporting feats, including a swim across the English Channel in less than 24 hours.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battles Against Hate Speech (TBA)
The film will tell the story of the campaign of antisemitism waged by automotive pioneer Henry Ford throughout the 1920s. It was in 1925 that Aaron Sapiro, a self-made lawyer and activist, sued Ford for libel. After a dramatic court case that gripped the nation, Sapiro forced Ford to shut down his antisemitic newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, and apologize publicly to the Jewish people.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nana (1970)
This adaptation of Emile Zola's novel "NANA," is about the sexual liaisons of a woman who through her relationships with different men, enjoys a life of pleasure and luxury. However, her lavish life-style does not always bring happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Emigrants (2021)
Sweden, 1849. A poverty-stricken family decides to move to America in the hope of finding a better and more prosperous life. Although they know the journey will be dangerous and the pressure of facing a new life in a strange and wild land is great, they are determined to succeed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jonah and the Pink Whale (1995)
A schoolteacher in the small city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra has a passionate affair with his frigid wife's sister—despite the risk of having to confront not only his wife, but also his dubious father-in-law.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Great Solitude (1960)
In southern Moravia, in the native village of Velka Samota, a ministry official returns from Prague to lift the declining JZD he helped establish.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Oslo (2021)
The true story of negotiations between implacable enemies — the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis, Palestinians and one Norwegian couple that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Like Everyone Else (2006)
A teenager fights to clear her name after her small Oklahoma town mistakenly assumes she is practicing witchcraft. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Genocidal Organ (2017)
The war on terror exploded, literally, the day Sarajevo was destroyed by a homemade nuclear device. The leading democracies transformed into total surveillance states, and the developing world has drowned under a wave of genocides. The mysterious American John Paul seems to be behind the collapse of the world system, and it's up to intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd to track John Paul across the wreckage of civilizations and to find the true heart of darkness—a genocidal organ.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Confession?
The closest matches to The Confession are Escape from Sobibor (1987), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) and Hannibal (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Confession?
Start with Escape from Sobibor (1987), the closest match to The Confession.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Confession?
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008), rated 7.3/10 by 976 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Confession?
Into the Blue (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Confession?
Yes: 22 Bullets (2010), Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008) and Into the Blue (2026).
How are movies similar to The Confession chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Confession, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.