Movies like Who Killed Santa Claus? (1941)
The best movies like Who Killed Santa Claus? (1941) are Dead Man's Folly (1986), Thirteen at Dinner (1985) and Deadly Circuit (1983). If Who Killed Santa Claus? hooked you with its crime and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFanny and Alexander (1982)7.8/10 from 933 votes
- NewestHierarchy (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchDeadly Circuit (1983)Also in French
Dead Man's Folly (1986)
During a murder hunt game at a country house, to which Hercule Poirot is invited as an "expert", a real murder occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen at Dinner (1985)
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound at the base of his neck. It will take the precise Poirot to sort out the lies from the alibis - and find the criminal before another victim dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeadly Circuit (1983)
A P.I. is obsessed with a cute woman, who seduces and kills rich men around W. Europe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaigret Sets a Trap (1958)
Four women are murdered, each knifed and, despite torn garments, remain virtuous. As famed police inspector Jules Maigret pieces the clues together, he comes to realise that for the elusive man that he suspects to be unmasked, he has to set a trap.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Limits of Control (2009)
A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crime is Mine (2023)
In 1930s Paris, Madeleine, a pretty, young, penniless, and talentless actress, is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by her best friend, Pauline, a young, unemployed lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. A new life of fame and success begins, until the truth comes out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSong of the Thin Man (1947)
While attending a glamorous jazz cruise on New York’s East River, Nick and Nora Charles witness the fatal shooting of a wealthy patron. When suspicion falls on a young bandleader and his musicians, the couple steps in to clear their friends and uncover the real killer. Their investigation leads through a lively world of jazz clubs, radio personalities, high society, and backstage rivalries, where almost everyone has a secret and the next clue may be hidden in the music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage (1986)
Faced with two false confessions and numerous suspects after a despised civil magistrate is found shot in the local vicarage, Detective Inspector Slack reluctantly accepts help from Miss Marple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShadow of the Thin Man (1941)
While attending a major horse race with their young son, Nick Jr., Nick and Nora Charles witnesse a shocking murder from the crowded grandstand. What first appears to be an isolated killing soon leads to a maze of corruption, blackmail, gambling scandals, and criminal intrigue. As Nick investigates, he encounters suspicious bookmakers, dishonest officials, rival gangsters, and a mysterious killer determined to stay ahead of the law. Nora, as always, is never far from the action, bringing her quick wit and fearless curiosity to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInspector Lavardin (1986)
Inspector Lavardin is called to a provincial village to investigate a murder – only to find that one of his ex-lovers is the victim’s widow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Thin Man (1939)
Nick and Nora Charles are back - and this time, they have a baby, a wealthy new client, and another murder to solve! Retired detective Nick is enjoying family life with Nora and their young son, Nick Jr., when eccentric industrialist Colonel MacFay asks for protection after receiving threatening messages. When MacFay is found dead at his isolated estate, Nick and Nora spring into action, questioning a houseful of suspicious guests and uncovering greed, blackmail, family secrets, and a dangerous inheritance plot. With their trademark wit and sophistication, the glamorous couple balances parenthood, parties, and peril as they race to expose the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Days and a Life (2019)
Christmas 1999, in a peaceful little village in the Ardennes. The life of a young boy named Antoine will soon be devastated by three tragic events : the death of a dog, the vanishing of a child, and a big ravaging storm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Lies (1999)
In a small Breton town, a 10-year-old girl is found murdered. René, her art teacher, a professional painter, is the last person to have seen her alive. The inspector in charge of the investigation immediately questions him. In this small provincial town where people all know each other and regularly meet at the Bar des Amis, René is increasingly unsettled by the other inhabitants' suspicions and by the inspector's investigation. Children stop coming to him for lessons. His wife, Viviane, a district nurse, protects him and supports him with her love. However, a self-centred media-star writer adds to René's confusion...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Deadly Mission (2008)
A washed-up Marseilles cop (Auteuil) earns a chance at redemption by protecting a woman from the man who killed her parents as he is about to be released from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWitness in the City (1959)
Industrialist Pierre Verdier kills his mistress Jeanne Ancelin by throwing her off a train. Her husband, Ancelin, decides to take revenge on his wife's murderer, who has been acquitted by justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSymphony for a Massacre (1963)
A band of gangsters devise a plan to steal a game contested between two drug gangs of drug traffickers: the five fraudsters will face bigger problems than them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOh Mercy (2019)
A police chief in northern France tries to solve a case where an old woman was brutally murdered on Christmas Eve. However, in a neighborhood rife with crime, everyone seems to be a suspect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHierarchy (2025)
In an undisclosed area of Texas after two adoptive brothers become entangled in criminal activity, forced to evade law enforcement and the greedy Russian mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Black Book (2023)
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mermaid for Christmas (2019)
Filled with warmth, humor, whimsy, and just a touch of magic, A Mermaid for Christmas combines classic Christmas themes with an escapist fantasy element that only a mermaid can provide!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Samantha Caine is a small-town schoolteacher and mom with no memory of her life before washing up on a beach eight years ago. After a car accident and a violent home invasion trigger flashes of her past, she discovers she used to be a deadly CIA assassin. Teaming up with a wisecracking private investigator, Samantha must return to her old ways to take down the people who tried to erase her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Christmas (1974)
As the residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to harass them with a series of obscene phone calls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this8 Women (2002)
Eight women gather to celebrate Christmas in a snowbound cottage, only to find the family patriarch dead with a knife in his back. Trapped in the house, every woman becomes a suspect, each having her own motive and secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Demon Of Serling (2023)
Reagan Rossi discovers his neighbor-Mr. Yarley-is a local serial killer dubbed 'The Demon of Serling', and the two men embark on a night of enlightenment leading to bleak and darkly funny consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Bad Santa (2003)
You'd better watch out - Willie T. Soke is coming to town, and he doesn't care if you've been naughty or nice. Willie's favorite holiday tradition is to fill his sacks with loot lifted from shopping malls across the country. But this year his plot gets derailed by a wisecracking store detective, a sexy bartender, and a kid who's convinced Willie is the real Santa Claus.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReindeer Games (2000)
After assuming his dead cellmate's identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Mistletoe Bough (1904)
During a game of hide and seek, a new bride hides in a chest and remains undiscovered until a strange visitation thirty years later.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrancers (1984)
Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archenemy, Whistler, who turns people into zombies, before the fiend is able to kill all the ancestors of the future's governing council.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Who Killed Santa Claus? and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Who Killed Santa Claus??
The closest matches to Who Killed Santa Claus? are Dead Man's Folly (1986), Thirteen at Dinner (1985) and Deadly Circuit (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Who Killed Santa Claus??
Start with Dead Man's Folly (1986), the closest match to Who Killed Santa Claus?.
What is the highest-rated movie like Who Killed Santa Claus??
Fanny and Alexander (1982), rated 7.8/10 by 933 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Who Killed Santa Claus??
Hierarchy (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Who Killed Santa Claus??
Yes: Deadly Circuit (1983), Maigret Sets a Trap (1958) and The Crime is Mine (2023).
How are movies similar to Who Killed Santa Claus? chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Who Killed Santa Claus?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.