Movies like A Tale of Salt and Sea (2019)
The best movies like A Tale of Salt and Sea (2019) are The Surrender (2025), The Transfiguration (2016) and The Spiral (2026). If A Tale of Salt and Sea hooked you with its drama and horror, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBad Tales (2020)6.7/10 from 621 votes
- NewestThe Spiral (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianThe Spiral (2026)Also in Italian
The Surrender (2025)
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Transfiguration (2016)
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy into reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Spiral (2026)
On a stormy night in Rome, Anna arrives at her daughter Alice’s apartment with a devastating confession: their entire family history is built on a lie. Twenty years earlier, after a horrific accident that nearly cost Alice her leg, Anna claims she made a pact with a mysterious Stranger to save her. But the miracle came at a price. What she believed was a single desperate bargain has in fact unleashed a spiraling chain reaction — a domino effect of increasingly dark events that have haunted their lives ever since. Now, the Stranger has come to collect. And Anna is convinced that only Alice can break the spiral and set things right. But at what cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaby Blues (2008)
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMedusa (2020)
After being bitten by a lethal snake, a young woman experiences changes in her senses and appearance, as she sheds her old self and slowly turns into a deadly weapon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaged (2021)
An African American male is imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement after being found guilty of murdering his wife, as he's haunted by internal demons and his dead wife, and pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlowers in the Attic (1987)
After the death of her husband, a mother takes her kids off to live with their grandparents in a huge, decrepit old mansion. However, the kids are kept hidden in a room just below the attic, visited only by their mother who becomes less and less concerned about them and their failing health, and more concerned about herself and the inheritence she plans to win back from her dying father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMimì – Prince of Darkness (2023)
Mimì is an orphaned teenager born with deformed feet who works at a pizzeria in Naples. One fateful day, he meets Carmilla, a young girl convinced she is a descendant of Count Dracula. Together, they decide to escape the cynical and violent world they live in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWerewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Eyes of My Mother (2016)
A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Boy Blue (1998)
Living in rural Texas is a dysfunctional family: an abusive dad, a Vietnam vet with a war wound that's left him impotent; a compliant wife and a son of about 20, two small sons who look a lot like their brother. The dad harbors a secret, and he goes to murderous lengths to keep it hidden. The young man, Jimmy, who has suspicions, but little comes out until a Yankee woman comes to town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagpie (2024)
A couple's lives are thrown into disarray when their daughter is cast opposite a controversial major star.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Tales (2020)
In a small suburb on the outskirts of Rome, the cheerful heat of summer camouflages a stifling atmosphere of alienation. From a distance, the families seem normal, but it’s an illusion: in the houses, courtyards and gardens, silence shrouds the subtle sadism of the fathers, the passivity of the mothers and the guilty indifference of adults. But it’s the desperation and repressed rage of the children that will explode and cut through this grotesque façade, with devastating consequences for the entire community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMad Dog (2021)
Two young people go missing after a rave party in the woods. Meda and Rio, a man defeated by life and an uncompromising captain, are the two cops leading the investigation. It’s an old nightmare coming back to haunt the people from the small village near the forest but, this time, the monster has chosen the wrong person.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Evil (1978)
Shortly after moving into a dark, brooding mansion, a psychologist and his co-workers are terrorized by a horrible evil being.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wasp (2024)
Heather bumps into Carla, having not spoken to her in years, and presents her with a very unexpected proposition that could change both of their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlay Dead (2022)
Criminology student Chloe fakes her own death to break into a morgue, in order to retrieve a piece of evidence that ties her younger brother to a crime gone wrong. Once inside, she discovers that a sadistic coroner is using the corpses for his sick and twisted business, and when he realises that Chloe still has a pulse, a terrifying game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Tale of Salt and Sea?
The closest matches to A Tale of Salt and Sea are The Surrender (2025), The Transfiguration (2016) and The Spiral (2026). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Tale of Salt and Sea?
Start with The Surrender (2025), the closest match to A Tale of Salt and Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Tale of Salt and Sea?
Bad Tales (2020), rated 6.7/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Tale of Salt and Sea?
The Spiral (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like A Tale of Salt and Sea?
Yes: The Spiral (2026), Mimì – Prince of Darkness (2023) and Bad Tales (2020).
How are movies similar to A Tale of Salt and Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Tale of Salt and Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.