Movies like They're Playing with Fire (1984)
The best movies like They're Playing with Fire (1984) are Strange Darling (2024), Buried Alive (1990) and Like Minds (2006). If They're Playing with Fire hooked you with its crime and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Devil All the Time (2020)7.2/10 from 3,829 votes
- NewestBone Lake (2025)Released 2025
Strange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuried Alive (1990)
A married woman and her lover plot to kill her husband to make off with the insurance money. However, their attempt to murder him using poisonous fish toxins backfires in surprising ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Minds (2006)
A forensic psychologist must determine if a minor should be charged with murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story (2023)
The story of Elizabeth Thomas, a 15-year-old high school student who was groomed and abducted by teacher Tad Cummins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this52 Pick-Up (1986)
Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBone Lake (2025)
A couple’s romantic vacation at a secluded lakeside estate is upended when they are forced to share the mansion with a mysterious and attractive couple. In this darkly hilarious and seductive horror story, a dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, bringing terrifying secrets to light and triggering a bloody battle for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeath Game (1977)
George Manning is a well-to-do businessman, husband, and father. While his family is away on his birthday, he invites a pair of rain-soaked young women into his house to wait out an evening thunderstorm. The two girls seduce Manning and ultimately kidnap and torture him in his own home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisDressed to Kill (1980)
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUrban Legend (1998)
A college campus is plagued by a vicious serial killer murdering students in ways that correspond to various urban legends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute 2: School's Out (1998)
When teacher Randall Thomasson is killed during a carjacking, an unexpected visitor shows up at his funeral - his estranged brother, Karl Thomasson. An ex-Green Beret turned mercenary, Karl signs on as a new substitute teacher in order to investigate Randall's murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Raven (2012)
A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet is in pursuit of a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Number 23 (2007)
Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Invisible Man (2020)
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies 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 · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPerfect Stranger (2007)
A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her best friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCheat (2023)
On the surface it's believed to be another urban legend - a supernatural being from the afterlife is violently killing anyone who cheats on their significant other in the small college town of Silvercreek, Pennsylvania. But the town's unusually high suicide rate is finally convincing both locals and college students that everything is not as it seems. When Maeve - a female college student - sleeps with Charlie, the married man of the host family she is staying with, both sense the deadly curse is closing in on them. Unable to get anyone to believe them, Maeve and Charlie seek out a local history student to help find answers and figure out a way to defend themselves. It all comes undone, however, as several people are horrifically killed by the savage being - one-by-one at a rapid pace. Eventually, Maeve, Charlie and the few survivors band together in an attempt to defeat the monster once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
Mary Lou Maloney, Hamilton High's Prom Queen of 1957, is killed during her coronation ceremony due to a prank gone wrong by her jilted boyfriend, Billy Nordham. Thirty years later, teen Vicki Carpenter is in the running for Prom Queen, but accidentally unleashes the vengeful spirit of Mary Lou, who will stop at nothing to be rightfully crowned, even if it means taking Vicki's poor body for a cruise!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGraphic Desires (2023)
When reclusive Franklin cheats on his partner with a mysterious girl he meets on a dating app, it becomes the start of a deadly obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarbarian (2022)
In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPresumed Innocent (1990)
Rusty Sabich is a deputy prosecutor engaged in an obsessive affair with a coworker who is murdered. Soon after, he's accused of the crime. And his fight to clear his name becomes a whirlpool of lies and hidden passions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBerserk! (1967)
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Interpreter (2005)
After Silvia Broome, an interpreter at United Nations headquarters, overhears plans of an assassination, an American Secret Service agent is sent to investigate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fifth Cord (1971)
A journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer who's been targeting people around him, while the police are considering him a suspect in their investigation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Skull (1965)
Esoterica collector Dr Maitland buys an unusual skull from his ordinary source; the artifact is what remains of the Marquis De Sade. Much too soon, Maitland discovers that the skull is turning him into a frenzied killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night of the Generals (1967)
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoad to Nowhere (2010)
A passionate filmmaker creating a film based upon a true crime casts an unknown mysterious young woman bearing a disturbing resemblance to the femme fatale in the story. Unsuspectingly, he finds himself drawn into a complex web of haunting intrigue: he becomes obsessed with the woman, the crime, her possibly notorious past, and the disturbing complexity between art and truth. From the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina to Verona, Rome, and London, new truths are revealed and clues to other crimes and passions, darker and even more complex, are uncovered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCircus of Fear (1966)
A circus becomes the location for stolen loot and murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Devil All the Time (2020)
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoy Kills World (2024)
When his family is murdered, a deaf-mute named Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Double Hour (2009)
A chambermaid and a former cop meet at a speed dating event and a romance develops. But during a romantic getaway things suddenly take a turn for the worse when her mysterious past is revealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like They're Playing with Fire?
The closest matches to They're Playing with Fire are Strange Darling (2024), Buried Alive (1990) and Like Minds (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after They're Playing with Fire?
Start with Strange Darling (2024), the closest match to They're Playing with Fire.
What is the highest-rated movie like They're Playing with Fire?
The Devil All the Time (2020), rated 7.2/10 by 3,829 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like They're Playing with Fire?
Bone Lake (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like They're Playing with Fire?
Yes: Strange Darling (2024), Buried Alive (1990) and Like Minds (2006).
How are movies similar to They're Playing with Fire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside They're Playing with Fire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.