Movies like Special Dark (2016)
The best movies like Special Dark (2016) are Pink Flamingos (1972), Vampyres (1974) and Paradise Alley (1978). If Special Dark hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSouth Park (Not Suitable for Children) (2023)7.4/10 from 240 votes
- NewestStrange Darling (2024)Released 2024
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVampyres (1974)
A duo of bisexual female vampires prey on passing motorists, whom they seduce and murder in the English countryside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise Alley (1978)
Three Italian-American brothers, living in the slums of 1940's New York City, try to help each other with one's wrestling career using one brother's promotional skills and another brother's con-artist tactics to thwart a sleazy manager.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMandingo (1975)
Warren Maxwell, the owner of a run-down plantation, pressures his son, Hammond, to marry and produce an heir to inherit the plantation. Hammond settles on his own cousin, Blanche, but purchases a sex slave when he returns from the honeymoon. He also buys his father a new Mandingo slave named Mede to breed and train as a prize-fighter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Death (2014)
A comedy film that looks into the loosely connected lives of people with strange sexual fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPorno (2019)
When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Caesar (1973)
Raised in Harlem, Tommy Gibbs becomes a successful mob boss but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop McKinney.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisScream Blacula Scream (1973)
After an aging voodoo priestess dies, her arrogant son Willis Daniel's believes he is next in line to lead. He is outraged when Lisa, his mother's adopted apprentice is chosen as the leader. Willis seeks revenge by reviving the African prince Blacula — but soon finds that he cannot control him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisShame (2011)
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungle Fever (1991)
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInfinity Pool (2023)
While staying at an isolated island resort, James and Em are enjoying a perfect vacation of pristine beaches, exceptional staff, and soaking up the sun. But guided by the seductive and mysterious Gabi, they venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism, and untold horror. A tragic accident leaves them facing a zero tolerance policy for crime: either you'll be executed, or, if you’re rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad (1977)
Hazel runs a beauty salon out of her house, but makes extra money by providing ruthless women the oppurtunity to perform hit jobs. L.T. is a parasite, and contacts Hazel looking for work after he runs out of money. She is reluctant to use him for a hit, since she prefers using women, but decides to try him on a trial basis. Meanwhile, the cop she pays off wants an arrest to make it look like he's doing his job, but Hazel doesn't want to sacrifice any of her "associates". The sleazy side of life is explored in this delightfully dark and deadpan film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard to Die (1990)
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series of killings six months previously, is at the bottom of the whole thing. Little do they know the real horror that they face in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbout Last Night... (1986)
A man and woman meet and try to have a romantic affair, despite their personal problems and the interference of their disapproving friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrgazmo (1998)
A devout Mormon living in L.A. becomes a pornographic actor after his martial arts moves impress a big-time director.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonday (2021)
A spark on a Friday can lead to a sizzling weekend fling, but what happens when you get to the inevitable Monday?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouth Park (Not Suitable for Children) (2023)
After it's discovered that a teacher at South Park Elementary has an OnlyFans page, Randy is compelled to take a closer look at the seedy underbelly of the world of online influencers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTorso (1973)
A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe White Masai (2005)
A girl, Carola, whose vacation in Kenya takes an interesting turn when she becomes infatuated with a Masai. Carola decides to leave her boyfriend to stay with her lover. There, she has to adapt to the Masai's way of life and get used to their food which includes milk mixed with blood. She also has to face her husband's attitude towards women and what he expects from a wife. Nonetheless, Carola is welcomed warmly into the tribe she has chosen to join.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmanuelle in the Country (1982)
When Selenia arrives in the small Italian village heads start turning and eyes start popping. All males in the town are falling all over themselves trying to get a look -- or a feel -- of the new doctor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Diary of a Sex Addict (2001)
A restaurant owner leads a double life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisArt of Love (2021)
A mysterious, erotic and haunting love story between a writer/professor at Puerto Rico's leading University and an aspiring artist from the immigrant Chinese community.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Noel Clarke vs Ladyboys (2016)
Short fictionalised documentary of Noel Clarke's time in Thailand, played exclusively before Adulthood (2016)
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Love and Bruises (2011)
Hua, a woman in her late twenties, goes against her family to become a teacher in Paris. She falls in love with men who physically abuse her. Will she ever find her true love?
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Cecilia (1983)
After repeatedly flaunting her peerless body to her servants, snobbish aristocrat Cecilia becomes the victim of rape. But the experience triggers a carnal awakening, full of socialite sex parties and woodland orgies. And before long, Cecilia finds her amorous adventures spinning out of control, particularly when her husband decides to join in on the free-love lifestyle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Hole-in-law 2 (2020)
Sang-min's girlfriend Eun-jeong, is a nude model and takes photos with a stranger in a motel naked. Sang-min who doesn't believe in free-spirited Eun-jeong, after drinking in three groups with her close friend Jae-hoon,, comes home. Sang-min, who noticed that Eun-jeong is quietly flirting with Jae-hoon, asks if he wants to do with Jae-hoon while having sex with Eun-jeong. When Eun-jeong actively responded, he made Jae-hoon go into the room where Eun-jeong was sleeping.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Paradise Suite (2015)
The lives of six people, who seem to have nothing more in common than their faraway homelands, become inextricably linked in Amsterdam, the city they have chosen as their new home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Special Dark and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Special Dark?
The closest matches to Special Dark are Pink Flamingos (1972), Vampyres (1974) and Paradise Alley (1978). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Special Dark?
Start with Pink Flamingos (1972), the closest match to Special Dark.
What is the highest-rated movie like Special Dark?
South Park (Not Suitable for Children) (2023), rated 7.4/10 by 240 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Special Dark?
Strange Darling (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Special Dark?
Yes: Pink Flamingos (1972), Vampyres (1974) and Paradise Alley (1978).
How are movies similar to Special Dark chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Special Dark, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.