Movies like The Scent of the Night (1998)
The best movies like The Scent of the Night (1998) are The Big Fake (2025), Little Caesar (1931) and Piranhas (2019). If The Scent of the Night hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)7.5/10 from 562 votes
- NewestThe Big Fake (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianThe Big Fake (2025)Also in Italian
The Big Fake (2025)
Toni Chichiarelli arrives in Rome with the dream of becoming a painter, but his talent leads him elsewhere — from art galleries to state secrets. Between art, crime, and power, his signature ends up everywhere — even in the history of Italy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Caesar (1931)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPiranhas (2019)
A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day of the Owl (1968)
Set in Sicily, this violent crime drama tells the tale of an Italian cop who heads to a small island town to look into the death of a construction supplier. Once there he is shocked by the influence the Mafia has over the people and even himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNostalgia (2022)
Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys Cry (2018)
Mirko and Manolo are best friends and live in the suburbs of Rome. They both live in poor conditions with their single parents, are still in school and struggle with occasional odd jobs to make ends meet. Together they share dreams of women, of sex and money, of a better life to come. Then, after killing a man in a hit-and-run one night, they get involved with the local mafia and their lives change dramatically.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOdds Against Tomorrow (1959)
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky Luciano (1973)
Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, therefore becoming the only boss. But a few years later he is put into jail. In 1946, he got a pardon and is sent back to Sicilia. There, he begins becoming one of the chief of the Mafia. The US Army seems to refrain from interfering.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Hundred Days in Palermo (1984)
In the late 1970s and early 80s, assassinations in Sicily get the attention of Communist deputy, Pio La Torre, who appeals to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa to become prefect in Palermo and take on the Mafia. Dalla Chiesa approaches the job with the same focus and methods he used in hunting down the Red Brigade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDonnie Brasco (1997)
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Newton Boys (1998)
The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)
This South African movie tracks the rise of a once-petty criminal to the heights of the criminal underworld. After cutting his teeth on hijacking, before moving onto bigger game, an ambitious man hits a setback when most of his gang are shot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Immortal (2019)
After reuniting with his first mentor Bruno and receiving his latest mission, an exiled Ciro is left to fearlessly confront whatever comes his way, navigating a new chapter of gang warfare while grappling with devastating memories of loss and trauma. Weaving between his past as an orphan in Naples' cruel underworld and present as a hardened, cunning assassin with nothing left to lose, Ciro is plunged into the cold, dark depths of a world where immortality is just another form of damnation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime Novel (2005)
After serving prison time for a juvenile offense, Freddo gathers his old buddies Libano and Dandi and embarks on a crime spree that makes the trio the most powerful gangsters in Rome. Libano loves their new status, and seeks to spread their influence throughout the underworld, while the other two pursue more fleshly desires. For decades, their gang perpetrates extravagant crimes, until paranoia threatens to split the friends apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuburra (2015)
A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll the Money in the World (2017)
The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdagio (2023)
Tangled up with blackmail and crooked cops, the son of a former gangster seeks out his father's old friends, who risk everything to save him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFree Hand for a Tough Cop (1976)
A cop recruits a criminal and his cohorts to help track down a violent crime lord who has kidnapped the ill daughter of a rich family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHenry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBully (2001)
A group of teenagers in South Florida enact a murder plot against their mutual bully, Bobby, who has emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them for years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChopper (2000)
The true and infamous story of Australia's notorious criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read and his years of crime, interest in violence, drugs and prostitutes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn My Daughter's Name (1992)
A mother takes the law into her own hands after her daughter's murderer is acquitted on a technicality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGettysburg (1993)
In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt Could Happen to You (1994)
Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Alamo (2004)
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEscape from Alcatraz (1979)
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Scent of the Night?
The closest matches to The Scent of the Night are The Big Fake (2025), Little Caesar (1931) and Piranhas (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Scent of the Night?
Start with The Big Fake (2025), the closest match to The Scent of the Night.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Scent of the Night?
The Asphalt Jungle (1950), rated 7.5/10 by 562 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Scent of the Night?
The Big Fake (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Scent of the Night?
Yes: The Big Fake (2025), Piranhas (2019) and The Day of the Owl (1968).
How are movies similar to The Scent of the Night chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Scent of the Night, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.