Movies like a short film about growing up (2019)
The best movies like a short film about growing up (2019) are The Experiment (2010), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) and Experimenter (2015). If a short film about growing up hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Green Mile (1999)8.5/10 from 20,135 votes
- NewestPoppin-Play Kitchen (2026)Released 2026
The Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExperimenter (2015)
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
Victor Frankenstein is a promising young doctor who, devastated by the death of his mother during childbirth, becomes obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. His experiments lead to the creation of a monster, which Frankenstein has put together with the remains of corpses. It's not long before Frankenstein regrets his actions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnthinkable (2010)
The government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons for which the whereabouts are unknown. It's up to a seasoned interrogator and an FBI agent to find out exactly where the nukes are.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLocked (2025)
When Eddie breaks into a luxury SUV, he steps into a deadly trap set by William, a self-proclaimed vigilante delivering his own brand of twisted justice. With no means of escape, Eddie must fight to survive in a ride where escape is an illusion, survival is a nightmare, and justice shifts into high gear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHollow Man (2000)
Cocky researcher Sebastian Caine is working on a project to make living creatures invisible. Determined to achieve the ultimate breakthrough, Caine pushes his team to move to the next phase — using himself as the subject. The test is a success, but when the process can't be reversed and Caine seems doomed to future without flesh, he starts to turn increasingly dangerous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Damned (1962)
An American tourist and a troubled young woman are chased by her gang leader brother to a top secret British government facility that conducts experiments on children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Lights (2012)
Two investigators of paranormal hoaxes, the veteran Dr. Margaret Matheson and her young assistant, Tom Buckley, study the most varied metaphysical phenomena with the aim of proving their fraudulent origins. Simon Silver, a legendary blind psychic, reappears after an enigmatic absence of 30 years to become the greatest international challenge to both orthodox science and professional sceptics. Tom starts to develop an intense obsession with Silver, whose magnetism becomes stronger with each new manifestation of inexplicable events. As Tom gets closer to Silver, tension mounts, and his worldview is threatened to its core.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wave (1981)
A teacher conducts an experiment in an American high school where students learn how easy it is to be seduced by the same social forces which led to the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTau (2018)
Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMK Ultra (2022)
Set during the true and unconscionable Central Intelligence Agency MK ULTRA drug experimentations in the early 1960s. The journey of Ford Strauss, a brilliant psychiatrist, whose moral and scientific boundaries are pushed to the limit as he is recruited to run a subsect of the program in a rural Mississippi Mental Hospital.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisCanary Black (2024)
Top level CIA agent Avery Graves is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe President's Analyst (1967)
At first, Dr. Sidney Schaefer feels honored and thrilled to be offered the job of the President's Analyst. But then the stress of the job and the paranoid spies that come with a sensitive government position get to him, and he runs away. Now spies from all over the world are after him, either to get him for their own side or to kill him and prevent someone else from getting him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Man Who Laughs (1928)
When a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Crush (1993)
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPossessor (2020)
Tasya Vos, an elite corporate assassin, uses brain-implant technology to take control of other people’s bodies to terminate high profile targets. As she sinks deeper into her latest assignment, Vos becomes trapped inside a mind that threatens to obliterate her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHypnotic (2023)
A detective becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program while investigating a string of reality-bending crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiet Earth (1985)
After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFunny Games (2008)
When Ann, husband George, and son Georgie arrive at their holiday home they are visited by a pair of polite and seemingly pleasant young men. Armed with deceptively sweet smiles and some golf clubs, they proceed to terrorize and torture the tight-knit clan, giving them until the next day to survive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisControl (1987)
An experiment of psychological effects under stressful conditions in a shelter. When fifteen strangers are put into a nuclear shelter to see how long they can survive without interaction with the outside, things work out fine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
William (2019)
Two cutting-edge scientists give 'birth' to a Neanderthal—the first to walk the earth for some 35,000 years—in order to attempt to answer these questions. Part 'normal' child, part science experiment, William’s 'parents' struggle with the best way to raise him. As William grows toward adulthood, he is educated in the human experiences of love and intimacy. But his primitive impulses begin to emerge the more he tries to conform to human expectations, leading to tragic consequences for him and his loved ones.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Mrigjal (2022)
Young ambitious man gets trapped in loop of his own greed
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Psycho Storm Chaser (2021)
When a massive hurricane threatens the Brody Peninsula, Abby Fields, a full-time nurse to a housebound coma patient, is forced to stay behind to care for her. This puts her directly in the hurricane's path, but even worse - it puts her directly in the path of Dr. Carl Highstrom, a storm chasing serial killer who uses storms to cover up his heinous crimes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Stray Dogs (2020)
After a man's beloved dog passes, he embarks on a backpacking trip with his brother to bury his dog where he found him. Along the way they encounter a stranger on the run who turns their world upside down. The brothers must unite in order to survive and finish the mission.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Poppin-Play Kitchen (2026)
"Welcome back, Boys and Girls!" Step into the delightfully doll-like world of Poppin-Play Kitchen! Your adorable hosts, P-chan, C-chan and U-chan, are dead ready to give you a culinary adventure of a lifetime! Left at the mercy of larger-than-life Stage Hands, impossible recipes, and an invisible audience, can our lovely hosts survive this bizarre cooking show? …Or will they 'POP' under pressure? Only one way to find out. Let's Get Cooking!
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Green Mile (1999)
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisVertigo (1958)
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCube (1998)
A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like a short film about growing up?
The closest matches to a short film about growing up are The Experiment (2010), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) and Experimenter (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after a short film about growing up?
Start with The Experiment (2010), the closest match to a short film about growing up.
What is the highest-rated movie like a short film about growing up?
The Green Mile (1999), rated 8.5/10 by 20,135 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like a short film about growing up?
Poppin-Play Kitchen (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like a short film about growing up?
Yes: The Experiment (2010), The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) and Experimenter (2015).
How are movies similar to a short film about growing up chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside a short film about growing up, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.