Movies like Zawal (2021)
The best movies like Zawal (2021) are Light It Up (1999), The House on Carroll Street (1988) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). If Zawal hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Good Lie (2014)7.5/10 from 637 votes
- NewestNot Without Hope (2025)Released 2025
Light It Up (1999)
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDevil's Pond (2003)
After a brief courtship, Julianne marries her handsome boyfriend, Mitch. To celebrate their honeymoon, the couple travel to a remote cabin on a small island. When they arrive, however, Mitch becomes aggressive and physically abusive, and Julianne soon realizes he's not the ideal husband she once thought he was. Knowing that Mitch doesn't plan on ever letting her leave the island, Julianne, who is afraid of water, must find a way to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoot Camp (2008)
A group of troubled teens are sent to a rehabilitation program housed in a remote camp on the island of Fiji. What their parents believe is a state-of-the-art deluxe institution in a beautiful natural environment turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Company You Keep (2012)
A former Weather Underground activist goes on the run from a journalist who discovers his identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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 · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Legend (2007)
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Omega Man (1971)
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutbreak (1995)
A deadly airborne virus finds its way into the USA and starts killing off people at an epidemic rate. Col. Sam Daniels' job is to stop the virus spreading from a small town, which must be quarantined, and to prevent an over reaction by the White House.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuce (2019)
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to light, putting a strain on family bonds while igniting intense debates on race and identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSongbird (2020)
During a pandemic lockdown, Nico, a young man with rare immunity, must overcome martial law, murderous vigilantes and a powerful family to reunite with his love, Sara.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Lie (2014)
A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStolen Girl (2025)
In 1993, Maureen’s six-year-old daughter Amina is snuck out of the country by her ex-husband, Karim. After years of unsuccessful attempts to find her, Maureen intersects with a professional retriever of internationally abducted children who promises to help her find Amina in exchange for her collaboration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTower Block (2012)
A year after witnessing a murder, residents of Tower Block 31 find themselves being picked off by a sniper, pitting those lucky enough to be alive into a battle for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Nightcomers (1972)
Prequel to the Henry James classic "Turn of the Screw" about the events leading up to the deaths of Peter Quint and Ms. Jessel, and the slow corruption of the children in their care.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeadline (1971)
A terrifying drama about what might happen in a disaster situation. An airplane loaded with bacteriological weapons crashes in the south of Sweden, causing an epidemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Contagion (2011)
As an epidemic of a lethal airborne virus - that kills within days - rapidly grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Chapter Two (2019)
27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIrresistible (2006)
A wife and mother is consumed by the thought that her husband's co-worker is trying to win him away from her and their family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Legion (1937)
When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDog Eat Dog! (1964)
Three thieves rip off a shipment of used money being sent back to the US. As they are escaping the robbery (after having taken a hostage), they wind up on an island in a hotel with an apparently crazed manager and a building full of demented residents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Fortuna (2018)
Fortuna, a 14-year-old Ethiopian girl, has had no news of her parents since they crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Together with other refugees, she is given shelter for the winter in a Swiss catholic monastery. While she waits for her fate to be decided by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna finds out she is pregnant. The choice she will have to make and the arrival of the refugees will give rise to concern within the religious community and will challenge their concept of Christian charity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Feed Me (2013)
Feed Me is a story about a young family in a suburban area in Southern California. The father, Jason (Cameron Graham), is an ambitious executive who keeps getting promoted in a large corporation. The mother, Christy (Mitra Avani), is a step aerobics instructor, who dedicates her life to caring for her 4 years old daughter Alicia (Duna DiVito). However, everything changes when Alicia suddenly starts disappearing every night. Jason contemplates his job security in devoting a great deal of time to this disturbing family issue. Christy believes that she can save her daughter by developing her medium skills. Alicia seems to remember nothing when she reappears, and malevolent forces may be placing her in a state between the unconscious to the subconscious.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Zawal?
The closest matches to Zawal are Light It Up (1999), The House on Carroll Street (1988) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Zawal?
Start with Light It Up (1999), the closest match to Zawal.
What is the highest-rated movie like Zawal?
The Good Lie (2014), rated 7.5/10 by 637 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Zawal?
Not Without Hope (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Zawal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Zawal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.