Movies like The Sadness (2021)
The best movies like The Sadness (2021) are Contracted: Phase II (2015), What We Become (2015) and The Crazies (2010). If The Sadness hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTrain to Busan (2016)7.8/10 from 8,917 votes
- NewestThe Elixir (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseThe Bridge Curse (2020)Also in Chinese
Contracted: Phase II (2015)
Picking up directly where the previous film left off, the story follows Riley, one of the last people to come in contact with Samantha, as he scrambles to track down those responsible for the outbreak before the highly contagious disease not only consumes his body, but the world as we know it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhat We Become (2015)
A family of four is quarantined in their home as a virulent strand of the flu spreads into town and they are forced to the extreme to escape alive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Crazies (2010)
Four friends find themselves trapped in their small hometown after they discover their friends and neighbors going quickly and horrifically insane.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRammbock: Berlin Undead (2010)
When lovelorn Michael arrives in Berlin to return a set of keys to his ex-girlfriend, Gabi, as an excuse to see her again, he finds her apartment empty save for a couple of plumbers making repairs to the central heating. Just as Michael learns from the plumber’s apprentice, Harper, that Gabi has popped out for a while but will return soon, the apprentice is attacked by his boss who has unexpectedly and inexplicably transformed into a raging madman. Together, Michael and Harper manage to bundle the crazed plumber out of the apartment and barricade themselves safely inside. Within minutes, they find themselves trapped in apartment block under siege from a horde of similarly insane people, apparently hungry for human flesh.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this[REC]⁴ Apocalypse (2014)
Ángela Vidal, the young television reporter who entered the building with the firemen, manages to make it out alive. But what the soldiers don't know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility, a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days. An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides, has been especially equipped for the quarantine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like this28 Days Later (2002)
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. Carried by animals and humans, the virus turns those it infects into homicidal maniacs -- and it's absolutely impossible to contain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisContracted (2013)
A young woman contracts what she believes to be an STD—but it ends up being a far worse disease.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this#Alive (2020)
As a grisly virus rampages a city, a lone man stays locked inside his apartment, digitally cut off from seeking help and desperate to find a way out.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInfection (2019)
Film about an epidemic outbreak of a new rabies virus in Venezuela and a father trying to save his son from contagion. A Russian man is in Caracas under the influence of the Krokodil drug, when he gets infected with the rabies virus and starts an epidemic of aggressive and cannibalistic beings. Doctor Adam Vargas is in the midst of all this, when he begins a journey within a ravaged Venezuela to save his son from being infected.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this[REC] (2007)
A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like this[REC]² (2009)
The action continues from [REC], with the medical officer and a SWAT team outfitted with video cameras are sent into the sealed off apartment to control the situation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQuarantine (2008)
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisCarriers (2009)
A deadly virus has spread across the globe. Contagion is everywhere, no one is safe, and no one can be trusted. Four friends race through the back roads of the American West on their way to a secluded utopian beach in the Gulf of Mexico where they could peacefully wait out the pandemic. Their plans take a grim turn when their car breaks down on an isolated road starting a chain of events that will seal their fates.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Elixir (2025)
An elixir unleashes the undead in a village. A family at odds with one another must unite and fight to survive as their hometown collapses.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPontypool (2009)
When disc jockey Grant Mazzy reports to his basement radio station in the Canadian town of Pontypool, he thinks it's just another day at work. But when he hears reports of a virus that turns people into zombies, Mazzy barricades himself in the radio booth and tries to figure out a way to warn his listeners about the virus and its unlikely mode of transmission.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this[REC]³ Genesis (2012)
A pair of newlyweds must fight to survive when their wedding reception descends into chaos and carnage when their guests become infected by a virus that turns them into hungry zombies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Night Eats the World (2018)
After waking up to find himself all alone in an apartment where a massive party was being held the night before, Sam is immediately forced to face a terrifying reality: the living dead have invaded the streets of Paris.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrain to Busan (2016)
When a zombie virus pushes Korea into a state of emergency, those trapped on an express train to Busan must fight for their own survival.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCargo (2017)
After being infected in the wake of a violent pandemic and with only 48 hours to live, a father struggles to find a new home for his baby daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
In the future, a strange fungus has changed nearly everyone into thoughtless, flesh-eating monsters. When a scientist and a teacher find a girl who seems to be immune to the fungus, they all begin a journey to save humanity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like this28 Years Later (2025)
Twenty-eight years after the Rage virus outbreak, a heavily-defended island survives connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShiver (2008)
Santi, a young high-school student with a serious physical reaction to sunlight, is forced by his health to move with his single mother to a shadowy, isolated village in the mountains of Spain where the inhabitants begin to reveal themselves as strangely xenophobic. When terrible, violent events begin to occur, Santi becomes first a pariah at school and then strongly suspected by the police of hideous murders. Santi himself, however, wonders if he is not the next victim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDomain (2017)
After a deadly virus wipes out most of humanity, the survivors are forced to wait alone in self-sustaining bunkers while the viral threat runs its course. Able to communicate through a networked video interface, the survivors wait for years and slowly become a motley family of sorts. But their fragile social ecosystem is shattered when, one by one, they start mysteriously disappearing from their bunkers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMiss ZOMBIE (2013)
A doctor and his family receive an unexpected delivery from an old friend at their remote country home - a large wooden crate containing a gun, a female zombie and an instruction sheet telling them not to feed her meat. The family is concerned, of course, but she seems harmless enough. Perhaps she can help clean up outside?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisVirus: 32 (2022)
A virus is unleashed and a chilling massacre runs through the streets of Montevideo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Refugee (2021)
A story of a family seeking shelter in a neighbor’s bunker while the American economy is in collapse and the nation under martial law. There they find the danger inside is potentially greater than the danger outside.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisInfested (2023)
Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bridge Curse (2020)
Four years after five students mysteriously committed suicide after taking part in a courage test on the ghost bridge in Donghu university, a reporter and a cinematographer are back to that place and try to get everything clear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToxic (2020)
In the middle of a mysterious insomnia epidemic that slowly takes on catastrophic dimensions, Laura (39) and Augusto (42) flee the city in their motorhome to get away from the chaos. As they move down the route, the world becomes an increasingly strange and dangerous place. Finally, Laura reveals a story that changes everything. The road is depopulating, the silence grows and it is increasingly difficult to differentiate the reality from the dream.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlease Don't Feed the Children (2025)
After a viral outbreak ravaged the country’s adult population, a group of orphans heads south in search of a new life, only to find themselves at the mercy of a deranged woman harboring a dangerous secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
![[REC]⁴ Apocalypse (2014) poster](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/vbflx4rDj3YrRAAk4HSWsEgZVlK.jpg)
![[REC] (2007) poster](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/hgyJR4sgMsee6xMFM3xYiG6cDCh.jpg)
![[REC]² (2009) poster](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/n9okN1DnWQWI2fuByXTrv9DCL7u.jpg)
![[REC]³ Genesis (2012) poster](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/tI1534q0Up7PBcLdXdFerLmIXn3.jpg)
Like The Sadness and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Sadness?
The closest matches to The Sadness are Contracted: Phase II (2015), What We Become (2015) and The Crazies (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Sadness?
People who watched The Sadness most often go on to Contracted: Phase II (2015), What We Become (2015) and The Crazies (2010).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Sadness?
Train to Busan (2016), rated 7.8/10 by 8,917 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Sadness?
The Elixir (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like The Sadness?
Yes: The Bridge Curse (2020).
How are movies similar to The Sadness chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Sadness, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.