Movies like West of Memphis (2012)
The best movies like West of Memphis (2012) are The Witness (2015), The Menendez Brothers (2024) and O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes (2015). If West of Memphis hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)8.1/10 from 621 votes
- NewestThe Menendez Brothers (2024)Released 2024
The Witness (2015)
A brother's journey to unravel the truth about the mythic death and little known life of Kitty Genovese, who was reportedly murdered in front of 38 witnesses and has become the face of urban apathy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Menendez Brothers (2024)
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisO.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes (2015)
Provides unique access inside Simpson's civil trial and his rare deposition tapes. Fred Goldman and members of the civil trial legal team, including Daniel Petrocelli, are interviewed exclusively for the special.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Devil in the Ozarks (2023)
A brazen sexual assault shocks a small town, but goes unsolved for 20 years, until a nearby murder produces a suspect with matching DNA.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)
2001 French documentary about the murder trial of a 15 year old black teen accused of murder in Jacksonville, Florida. Winner of 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thin Blue Line (1988)
One night in November 1976, after his car breaks down on a road outside Dallas, Randall Dale Adams accepts a ride from teenager David Harris. Harris is driving a stolen vehicle and, later that night, when Dallas police officer Robert Wood pulls the car over to check its headlights, he is shot and killed. A jury believes Adams is the killer, but stylized reenactments and interviews with key figures, conflicting testimonies and evidence are presented to argue that Adams was framed by a corrupt justice system, ultimately leading to his exoneration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl in the Picture (2022)
A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrong Island (2017)
Examining the violent death of the filmmaker’s brother and the judicial system that allowed his killer to go free, this documentary interrogates murderous fear and racialized perception, and re-imagines the wreckage in catastrophe’s wake, challenging us to change.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmanda Knox (2016)
This gripping, atmospheric documentary recounts the infamous trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of Seattle native Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of a British exchange student in Italy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Central Park Five (2012)
In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, this is the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHell Camp: Teen Nightmare (2023)
Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisTickled (2016)
Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn’t stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisValentine Road (2013)
On February 12, 2008, in Oxnard, California, eighth-grade student Brandon McInerney shot his classmate Larry King twice in the back of the head during first period. When Larry died two days later, his murder shocked the nation. Was this a hate crime, one perpetrated by a budding neo-Nazi whose masculinity was threatened by an effeminate gay kid who may have had a crush on him? Or was there even more to it?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (2016)
In 1994, four women were accused, tried, and convicted of the heinous sexual assault of two young girls—as one newscaster puts it, “the modern version of the witchcraft trials.” Twenty years later, the four women have maintained their innocence, insisting that the accusations were entirely fabricated, and borne of homophobic prejudice and a late-’90s mania about covens, cults, and child abuse.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Pig Farm (2011)
The life and murders of one of the worst serial killers in history, Robert Pickton who went unchallenged for decades.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Devil's Knot (2013)
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGive Up Tomorrow (2011)
When a teenager from a political family in the Philippines is accused of a double murder, the country’s entire judicial system is put to the test after years of alleged corruption.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2012)
A further investigation into the arrest of three teenagers convicted of killing three young boys in Arkansas who spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released after new DNA evidence indicated they may be innocent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue Conviction (2017)
There's a new detective agency in Dallas, Texas, started by three exonerated men, with decades in prison served between them. True Conviction is a character-driven documentary that follows these change-makers as they rebuild their lives and families, learn to investigate cases, and work to support one another.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMister Organ (2022)
Following reports of fraudulent car clamping in Auckland, journalist and filmmaker David Farrier opens an investigation that pushes him to the limits of his sanity in this incredible true story of psychological warfare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Fear of 13 (2015)
After 23 years on Death Row a convicted murderer petitions the court asking to be executed, but as his story unfolds, it becomes clear that nothing is what it seems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJuvenile Court (1973)
Before the Memphis Juvenile Court are a complex variety of cases: foster home placement, drug abuse, armed robbery, child abuse, and sexual offenses. Sequences illustrate such issues as community protection versus the desire for rehabilitation, the range and the limits of the choices available to the court, the psychology of the offender, and the constitutional and procedural questions involved in administering a juvenile court.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Truth vs. Alex Jones (2024)
Filmed over four years with unprecedented access, this documentary chronicles the riveting courtroom drama of two defamation lawsuits brought by Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims' families against Alex Jones and his website, InfoWars.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Seven Five (2015)
Meet the dirtiest cop in NYC history. Michael Dowd stole money and dealt drugs while patrolling the streets of '80s Brooklyn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDream/Killer (2015)
In 2005, 20-year-old Ryan Ferguson was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. dream/killer is the story of how his father Bill embarked on 10-year campaign to prove Ryan’s innocence. The film is chock-full of incredible characters. From the questionable District Attorney Kevin Crane, and the highly-confused witness Chuck Erickson, to the high-powered Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner, the doc depicts both a highly flawed justice system, as well as one that can work brilliantly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClass Action Park (2020)
Class Action Park explores the legend, legacy, and truth behind the 1980s water park in Vernon, New Jersey that long ago entered the realm of myth. Known for its dangerous, unsupervised rides and lack of regulation, guests of Action Park expected to walk away with injuries and were lucky if they made it out alive. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, original animations, recordings, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story of Action Park.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like West of Memphis?
The closest matches to West of Memphis are The Witness (2015), The Menendez Brothers (2024) and O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after West of Memphis?
People who watched West of Memphis most often go on to The Witness (2015), The Menendez Brothers (2024) and O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes (2015).
What is the highest-rated movie like West of Memphis?
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008), rated 8.1/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like West of Memphis?
The Menendez Brothers (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like West of Memphis?
Yes: The Witness (2015), The Menendez Brothers (2024) and O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes (2015).
How are movies similar to West of Memphis chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside West of Memphis, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.