Movies like The Mermaid and the Whale (2016)
The best movies like The Mermaid and the Whale (2016) are Tag (2018), Village of the Damned (1995) and Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 (2022). If The Mermaid and the Whale hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Love Hypothesis (2026)7.9/10 from 738 votes
- NewestThe Love Hypothesis (2026)Released 2026
Tag (2018)
For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they’ve been playing since the first grade. This year, the game coincides with the wedding of their only undefeated player, which should finally make him an easy target. But he knows they’re coming...and he’s ready.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVillage of the Damned (1995)
An American village is visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long to realize that the kids are not human or humane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 (2022)
Zed and Addison are beginning their final year at Seabrook High in the town that’s become a safe haven for monsters and humans alike. Zed is anticipating an athletic scholarship that will make him the first Zombie to attend college, while Addison is gearing up for Seabrook’s first international cheer-off competition. Then suddenly, extraterrestrial beings appear around Seabrook, provoking something other than friendly competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Love Hypothesis (2026)
Olive Smith, a biology PhD candidate, and Dr. Adam Carlsen, a hotshot professor and well-known tyrant, enter into a fake relationship, seeing each of their carefully calculated theories on love get thrown into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Object of My Affection (1998)
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Parenting (2025)
Boyfriends Josh and Rohan plan a weekend getaway to introduce their parents, only to discover that their rental is home to an ancient demon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Game Plan (2007)
Bachelor football star Joe Kingman seems to have it all. He is wealthy and carefree, and his team is on the way to capturing a championship. Suddenly, he is tackled by some unexpected news: He has a young daughter, the result of a last fling with his ex-wife. Joe must learn to balance his personal and professional lives with the needs of his child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProm Pact (2023)
It's prom season, and high school senior Mandy and her best friend and fellow outsider Ben are surrounded by over-the-top "promposals." Mandy is only focused on getting into her dream school Harvard, but as she starts tutoring basketball all-star Graham, she must re-evaluate whether her dream school is worth the cost of everything she believes in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLook Both Ways (2022)
On the night of her college graduation, Natalie's life splits into parallel realities after she takes a pregnancy test. What will life and love bring?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Build a Better Boy (2014)
After inadvertently inputting the qualities of the ideal boyfriend into a high-tech government computer, two social outcasts named Mae and Gabby must contend with Albert, a cybernetic sweetheart with only one directive: to treat Mae to the perfect highschool romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Back-Up Plan (2010)
When Zoe tires of looking for Mr. Right, she decides to have a baby on her own. But on the day she's artificially inseminated, she meets Stan, who seems to be just who she's been searching for all her life. Now, Zoe has to figure out how to make her two life's dreams fit with each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElephant Song (2015)
A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeadsight (2018)
A man with partial blindness and a young pregnant police officer must work together to escape a deadly virus that has spread across Grey County.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Other Zoey (2023)
Highly intelligent computer major Zoey Miller is uninterested in romantic love, but her life is turned upside down when Zack, the school's soccer star, gets amnesia and mistakes Zoey for his girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Gay Movie (2006)
Andy is your typical All-American eighteen-year-old gay virgin. Like everyone else, he's dying to have sex. Totally out of the closet and mad-crazy horny, this naïve high school senior is caught in that awkward vortex between child and adult. Much to the dismay of his mom (who wonders why all her carrots and cucumbers keep disappearing), Andy spends much of his private time practicing for the big moment when he'll finally take the plunge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)
Trying to rescue her home planet from destruction, a gorgeous extraterrestrial named Celeste arrives on Earth and begins her scientific research. She woos quirky scientist Dr. Steve Mills, a widower with a young daughter. Before long, Celeste finds herself in love with Steve and her new life on Earth, where she experiences true intimacy for the first time. But when she loses sight of her mission, she begins to question where she belongs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)
Two star-crossed freshmen – a zombie, Zed and a cheerleader, Addison – each outsiders in their unique ways, befriend each other and work together to show their high school and the Seabrook community what they can achieve when they embrace their differences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonkey Business (1952)
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidelined: The QB and Me (2025)
Dallas, a burdened but headstrong dancer, is determined to get into the best dance school in the country—her late mother’s alma mater. However, that dream is suddenly derailed when the cheeky yet secretly grieving football star, Drayton, crashes into her life with a unique story of his own. Will the two of them be able to grow into their dreams together, or will their dreams be sidelined?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Mermaid and the Whale?
The closest matches to The Mermaid and the Whale are Tag (2018), Village of the Damned (1995) and Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 (2022). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Mermaid and the Whale?
Start with Tag (2018), the closest match to The Mermaid and the Whale.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Mermaid and the Whale?
The Love Hypothesis (2026), rated 7.9/10 by 738 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Mermaid and the Whale?
The Love Hypothesis (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like The Mermaid and the Whale?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to The Mermaid and the Whale chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Mermaid and the Whale, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.