Movies like Poltergeist (1982)
The best movies like Poltergeist (1982) are Bring Her Back (2025), Lights Out (2016) and Insidious (2011). If Poltergeist hooked you with its horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)7.7/10 from 1,031 votes
- NewestInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)Released 2026
Bring Her Back (2025)
Following the death of their father, a brother and sister are sent to live with a foster mother, only to learn that she is hiding a terrifying secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLights Out (2016)
Rebecca must unlock the terror behind her little brother's experiences that once tested her sanity, bringing her face to face with a supernatural spirit attached to their mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsidious (2011)
A family discovers that dark spirits have invaded their home after their son inexplicably falls into an endless sleep. When they reach out to a professional for help, they learn things are a lot more personal than they thought.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou're Not Alone (2020)
After the premature death of her estranged husband, Emma (Winter) regains custody of their young daughter Isla (Jones) and hopes to rebuild their relationship after many years apart. But when an evil entity begins to torment them, mother and daughter are forced to face the inexplicable presence that inhabits the walls of their new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisInsidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThir13en Ghosts (2001)
Arthur and his two children inherit his uncle's estate: a glass house that serves as a prison to twelve ghosts. When the family, accompanied by a nanny and an attorney, enter the house they find themselves trapped inside an evil machine 'designed by the Devil and powered by the dead' to open the Eye of Hell. Aided by a ghost hunter and his rival, a ghost rights activist out to set the ghosts free, the group must do what they can to get out of the house alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOculus (2014)
A woman tries to exonerate her brother's murder conviction by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMartyrs Lane (2022)
Leah, 10, has terrible nightmares. Her mother seems distant somehow, lost in her thoughts. A small, nightly visitor brings Leah comfort, but soon Leah will realize that her little visitor offers knowledge that might be very, very dangerous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParanormal Activity (2009)
After a young, middle-class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but is certainly the most active in the middle of the night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaddy's Head (2024)
A boy and his stepmother fear for their safety after an eerie creature resembling the boy's recently deceased father visits them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisInsidious: Out of the Further (2026)
Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, discovers she can travel into The Further, where she possesses an ability to bring what lives there back to the real world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCobweb (2023)
Eight year old Peter is plagued by a mysterious, constant tapping from inside his bedroom wall—one that his parents insist is all in his imagination. As Peter's fear intensifies, he believes that his parents could be hiding a terrible, dangerous secret and questions their trustworthiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Conjuring (2013)
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
Father and son coroners receive a mysterious unidentified corpse with no apparent cause of death. As they attempt to examine the "Jane Doe," they discover increasingly bizarre clues that hold the key to her terrifying secrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Hill (2006)
Rose, a desperate mother, takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose embarks on a horrific journey to get her back and begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Entity (1982)
A single mom is raped by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist believes the experience stems from childhood trauma, while she knows something supernatural is at play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParanormal Activity 3 (2011)
In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisParanormal Activity 2 (2010)
Just as Daniel and Kristi welcome a newborn baby into their home, a demonic presence begins terrorizing them, tearing apart their perfect world and turning it into an inescapable nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisInsidious: The Red Door (2023)
To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh Lambert and a college-aged Dalton Lambert must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family's dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFriday the 13th (1980)
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Frankenstein's unscrupulous colleague, Dr. Bohmer, plans to transplant Ygor's brain so he can rule the world using the monster's body, but the plan goes sour when he turns malevolent and goes on a rampage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Baron Victor Frankenstein has discovered life's secret and unleashed a blood-curdling chain of events resulting from his creation: a cursed creature with a horrid face — and a tendency to kill.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Frankenstein (1944)
Deranged scientist, Gustav Niemann, escapes from prison and overtakes the director of a traveling chamber of horrors, soon reviving the infamous Count Dracula, the frozen Frankenstein Monster, and the Wolf Man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrankenstein Created Woman (1967)
A deformed tormented girl drowns herself after her lover is framed for murder and guillotined. Baron Frankenstein, experimenting with the transfer of souls, places the boy's soul into her body, bringing Christina back to life. Driven by revenge, she carries out a violent retribution on those responsible for both deaths.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Dr Simon Helder, sentenced to an insane asylum for crimes against humanity, recognises its director as the brilliant Baron Frankenstein, the man whose work he had been trying to emulate before his imprisonment. Frankenstein utilises Helder's medical knowledge for a project he has been working on for some time. He is assembling a man from vital organs extracted from various inmates in the asylum. And the Baron will resort to murder to acquire the perfect specimens for his most ambitious project ever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
Once hounded from his castle by outraged villagers for creating a monstrous living being, Baron Frankenstein returns to Karlstaad. High in the mountains they stumble on the body of the creature, perfectly preserved in the ice. He is brought back to life with the help of the hypnotist Zoltan who now controls the creature. Can Frankenstein break Zoltan's hypnotic spell that incites the monster to commit these horrific murders or will Zoltan induce the creature to destroy its creator?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Rescued from the guillotine by his devoted dwarf Fritz, the Baron relocates to Carlsbruck, where he continues his gruesome experiments.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
Brilliant but arrogant scientist Victor Frankenstein builds a man from spare body parts, only for the monster to come alive and wreak havoc.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Poltergeist?
The closest matches to Poltergeist are Bring Her Back (2025), Lights Out (2016) and Insidious (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Poltergeist?
Start with Bring Her Back (2025), the closest match to Poltergeist.
What is the highest-rated movie like Poltergeist?
Insidious: Out of the Further (2026), rated 7.7/10 by 1,031 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Poltergeist?
Insidious: Out of the Further (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Poltergeist?
Yes: Bring Her Back (2025), Lights Out (2016) and Insidious (2011).
How are movies similar to Poltergeist chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Poltergeist, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.