Movies like Cruising (2012)
The best movies like Cruising (2012) are Porno (2019), King Cobra (2016) and Querelle (1982). If Cruising hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedShame (2011)6.9/10 from 3,567 votes
- NewestStraight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026)Released 2026
- In GermanWhere Are You Going, Habibi? (2015)Also in German
Porno (2019)
When a group of naive teens working at a movie theater in a small Christian town discover a mysterious film hidden in its basement, they unleash an alluring succubus who gives them a sex education…written in blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing Cobra (2016)
It’s 2006, YouTube is in its infancy, and internet porn is still behind a paywall. Taking the stage name Brent Corrigan, a fresh-faced, wannabe adult video performer is molded into a star by Stephen, a closeted gay porn mogul who runs the skin flick empire Cobra Video from his seemingly ordinary suburban home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisQuerelle (1982)
French sailor Querelle arrives in Brest and starts frequenting a strange whorehouse. He discovers that his brother Robert is the lover of the lady owner, Lysiane. Here, you can play dice with Nono, Lysiane's husband: if you win, you are allowed to make love with Lysiane; if you lose, you have to make love with Nono... Querelle loses on purpose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirlHouse (2014)
In an attempt to make some extra cash while away at College, Kylie moves into a house that streams content to an X-rated website. After a deranged fan hacks in to determine the house's location, she finds herself in a terrifying fight for her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAuto Focus (2002)
A successful TV star during the 1960s, former "Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane projects a wholesome family-man image, but this front masks his persona as a sex addict who records and photographs his many encounters with women, often with the help of his seedy friend, John Henry Carpenter. This biographical drama reveals how Crane's double life takes its toll on him and his family, and ultimately contributes to his death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYour Friends & Neighbors (1998)
Restless and unhappy, two couples get caught up in infidelity and deception. Barry is a sullen businessman married to Mary, a writer who is unsatisfied with their relationship. Mary begins an affair with Jerry, a smug theater professor and husband of her friend, Terri, who is also a writer. Adding to the adulterous mix are Cary, a callous doctor, and Cheri, an art-gallery assistant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisShortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Overnight (2015)
Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, are new to Los Angeles. A chance meeting at the park introduces them to the mysterious Kurt, Charlotte, and Max. A family “playdate” becomes increasingly interesting as the night goes on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisOrgazmo (1998)
A devout Mormon living in L.A. becomes a pornographic actor after his martial arts moves impress a big-time director.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFifty Shades Freed (2018)
Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShame (2011)
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPretty Persuasion (2005)
A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAl Capone (1959)
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Death (2014)
A comedy film that looks into the loosely connected lives of people with strange sexual fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere Are You Going, Habibi? (2015)
Ibrahim, a young German of Turkish descent, leads a double life, living with his tradition-bound family and spending his days looking for a respectable job. But outside his parent's apartment, Ibo (as he's called by his family and friends) is a confident gay man who works in a sex shop and is on the hunt for Mr. Right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlesh + Blood (1985)
A band of medieval mercenaries take revenge on a noble Lord who cheated them by kidnapping his son's fiancée. As the plague and warfare cut a swathe of destruction throughout the land, the mercenaries hole up in a castle and await their fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManiac (1980)
A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, kills and mutilates young women and local models on the streets of New York City.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography (1998)
Every image in The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography comes from gay erotic videos produced in Eastern Europe since the introduction of capitalism. The video provides a glimpse of young men responding to the pressures of an unfamiliar world, one in which money, power and sex are now connected.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Title 18 (2022)
An experimental short film made as part of a multi-media triptych, originally screened alongside a fashion collection and an art-installation. Drawing from Papa Yorick’s (Director and fashion designer) thesis “Men Are My Cumrag”, the film reenacts eight mainstay gay porn scripts, incorporating and parodying tropes and clichés, that explore masculine identities within the gay porn industry, through a satirical and critical lens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Straight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026)
When Janek, a straight Polish guy watches gay porn for the first time, his world is turned upside down. Battling with unsettling new thoughts, he is put into a journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Knife+Heart (2018)
In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisWithout a Mom (2011)
Two gay dads fumble to provide their straight son with meaningful support after the loss of his first real love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
All Boys (2009)
A look behind the scenes of the Czech gay porn boom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Goodbye Seventies (2020)
In the 1970s, the golden age of gay pornography in New York City, a promising chorus boy is injured and told he will never dance again. Distraught and unimpressed with the "art" films playing seedy Times Square theaters, he gets his friends and lovers together and they start making their own hardcore movies. Against all odds the films are wildly successful until drugs, AIDS and cheap video technology bring it all crashing down
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Seeing Heaven (2011)
A beautiful young escort suffers from trip-like dreams he doesn't understand. These visions are shared by his clients, both scaring and exciting them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Mondo Homo: A Study of French Gay Porn in the '70s (2014)
Between 1975 and 1983 a new kind of film could be seen in French cinema : home-grown gay pornography. The films were shot in 16mm and most of them were passed and given certificates by the CNC (National Cinema Centre). They were screened in a small number of Parisian cinemas dedicated to gay pornographic films : Le Dragon, La Marotte and Le Hollywood Boulevard as well as several in the provinces. They were essentially the work of three production companies : Les Films de La Troïka (Norbert Terry), AMT Productions (Anne-Marie Tensi) and Les Films du Vertbois (principally Jacques Scandelari). The genre met an untimely end with the advent of video, the last being made in 1983 "Mon ami, mon amour (My friend, my lover)". Since then, gay pornography has not been screened in French cinemas. This film is the result of five years of painstaking research and investigation. It features extensive interviews with the directors and actors illustrated by numerous extracts from their films.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Gay Porn: Guided Tour (2014)
An unusual journey into the heart of gay porn, a universe populated by a host of planets, which professionals commonly call niches. These are all fantasies of inclined tastes and libidos. Olivier Ghis tries to understand where these famous niches come from and what desires they meet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Cruising?
The closest matches to Cruising are Porno (2019), King Cobra (2016) and Querelle (1982). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Cruising?
Start with Porno (2019), the closest match to Cruising.
What is the highest-rated movie like Cruising?
Shame (2011), rated 6.9/10 by 3,567 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Cruising?
Straight Guy Watches Gay Porn for the First Time (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Cruising?
Yes: Where Are You Going, Habibi? (2015).
How are movies similar to Cruising chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Cruising, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.