Movies like Children's Play (2001)
The best movies like Children's Play (2001) are Night of Dark Shadows (1971), Lady in a Cage (1964) and The Car (1977). If Children's Play hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)7.4/10 from 2,401 votes
- NewestMr. K (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchSaloum (2023)Also in French
Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
Recently married, Quentin and Tracy Collins have just moved into Collinwood, a New England estate that has long been in the Collins family and which Quentin has just inherited. They soon find themselves plagued by spirits of past residents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in a Cage (1964)
A woman trapped in a home elevator is terrorized by a group of vicious hoodlums.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Car (1977)
The Utah community of Santa Ynez is being terrorized by a mysterious black coupe that appears out of nowhere and begins running people down. After the car kills off the town sheriff, Captain Wade Parent is determined to stop the murderous driver.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCelia (1989)
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaloum (2023)
Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear of Rain (2021)
A teenage girl living with schizophrenia begins to suspect her neighbor has kidnapped a child. Her parents try desperately to help her live a normal life, without exposing their own tragic secrets, and the only person who believes her is Caleb – a boy she isn’t even sure exists.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. K (2025)
Mr. K, a traveling magician, finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of his hotel. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDonovan's Echo (2011)
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Go On (2016)
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLet's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Organization (1971)
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne & Two (2015)
In an isolated farmhouse, located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a mysterious wooden wall, Zac and Eva, two siblings gifted with extraordinary abilities, endure every day the wrath of their strict father while witnessing how a cruel sickness lurks their beloved mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Cellar (2022)
When Keira Woods' daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNext of Kin (1982)
After Linda inherits a retirement home, she witnesses a series of strange events which seem connected to a dark and unspeakable evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarjorie Prime (2017)
A service which creates holographic projections of late family members allows an elderly woman to spend time with a younger version of her deceased husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStormageddon (2015)
What happens when you ask the most powerful computer program, run by the most powerful computers, to follow, listen and predict human behavior? The program learns, becomes sentient and begins to behave like a human. When a master computer program, Echelon, takes over America's entire online system, our country is threatened to be brought to its knees. Hacking into DARPA, Echelon gains the ability to manipulate the weather, create earthquakes, and cause a level of destruction unlike anything the country could ever imagine. But how do you stop a computer program when it has control over any and every defense you have?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightbooks (2021)
Alex, a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by a witch in her modern, magical New York City apartment. His original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping him safe as he desperately tries to find a way out of this twisted place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Witch (2008)
A mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Asphyx (1972)
Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHusbandhood (2016)
In January of 2014, five filmmakers suddenly disappear while shooting in the nearby Drigh Lake Larakana woods. One week later, their camera was found.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
The Bloody Way of Ehraman (2021)
A film crew travels out to a village in Anatolia to shoot a movie. But after each were affected by a dream they saw, the remaining four team members decide to stay and investigate the incident.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Momo (1986)
Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a powerful international corporation starts stealing everybody’s time, nobody has any time left for her, let alone their friends or families. Momo, together with Master Hora, the custodian of time, are the only ones who can go up against the time thieves before all is lost forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWilly's Wonderland (2021)
When his car breaks down, a quiet loner agrees to clean an abandoned family fun center in exchange for repairs. He soon finds himself waging war against possessed animatronic mascots while trapped inside Willy's Wonderland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Side of the Moon (1990)
It is the year 2022. A mysterious systems failure causes the crew of a spaceship to be stranded on the dark side of the moon, while rapidly running out of fuel and oxygen. They are surprised to discover a NASA space shuttle floating in space, and board it in the hope of salvaging some supplies. One by one, the crew is possessed and killed, and it is up to Paxton Warner to find the links between the dark side of the moon, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Devil himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHellraiser: Inferno (2000)
A detective solves the puzzle box that releases the diabolical demon, Pinhead. As those around him begin to meet tragic fates, he sets out to conquer the horrifying villain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisScrooge (1951)
Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman, until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gifted: Original Sin (2024)
Set 6 months before the events of "The Gifted", Barbara and Vicky find themselves in Las Vegas to clean up loose ends of the past, propelling them toward their fate that is foreseen by a woman named Chica.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Twenty-eight weeks after the spread of a deadly rage virus, the inhabitants of the British Isles have lost their battle against the onslaught, as the virus has killed everyone there. Six months later, a group of Americans dare to set foot on the Isles, convinced the danger has passed. But it soon becomes all too clear that the scourge continues to live, waiting to pounce on its next victims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Children's Play and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Children's Play?
The closest matches to Children's Play are Night of Dark Shadows (1971), Lady in a Cage (1964) and The Car (1977). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Children's Play?
Start with Night of Dark Shadows (1971), the closest match to Children's Play.
What is the highest-rated movie like Children's Play?
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), rated 7.4/10 by 2,401 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Children's Play?
Mr. K (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Children's Play?
Yes: Saloum (2023).
How are movies similar to Children's Play chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Children's Play, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.