Movies like Bates Motel (1987)
The best movies like Bates Motel (1987) are Sometimes They Come Back (1991), The Boy (2015) and Ghost Stories (2018). If Bates Motel hooked you with its horror and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStuart: A Life Backwards (2007)7.4/10 from 234 votes
- NewestMārama (2026)Released 2026
Sometimes They Come Back (1991)
Desperate for a job to help him support his family, Jim Norman takes a position teaching high school in the town where his brother was murdered in front of him by teenage bullies twenty-seven years before. The teens who committed the crime are long dead, but now the kids in Jim's new class keep dying and being replaced by new students who look like the deceased hoodlums.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Boy (2015)
An intimate portrait of a 9 year old sociopath as he discovers his taste for killing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhost Stories (2018)
Professor Philip Goodman devotes his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans. His skepticism soon gets put to the test when he receives news of three chilling and inexplicable cases -- disturbing visions in an abandoned asylum, a car accident deep in the woods and the spirit of an unborn child. Even scarier -- each of the macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to the professor's own life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarrie (2002)
An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl's lonely life is dominated by relentless bullying at school and an oppressive religious fanatic mother at home. When her tormentors pull a humiliating prank at the senior prom, she unleashes a horrifying chaos on everyone, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGerald's Game (2017)
When her husband's sex game goes wrong, Jessie (who is handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house) faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Frost (1990)
Frost is arrested and committed for murder after he is apprehended burying his victims in the garden. However, even while under psychiatric care and tight hospital security, it becomes obvious that Mr. Frost is not all he seems to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil's Rejects (2005)
The murderous, backwoods Firefly family take to the road to escape the vengeful Sheriff Wydell, who is not afraid of being as ruthless as his target.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStuart: A Life Backwards (2007)
Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Don't Know Jack (2010)
Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBug (2007)
In Oklahoma, Agnes, a lonely waitress living in an isolated and dilapidated roadside motel, meets Peter, a quiet and mysterious man with whom she establishes a peculiar relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Battery (2012)
In rural Connecticut, baseball players Ben and Mickey are trying to survive a zombie plague. They are forced to form a battery: a catcher and a pitcher who work together to outwit the batter, the one who hits the ball. And the batter in this case just happens to be a zombie. Tough Ben and gentle Mickey frequently disagree on the best way to go about the situation. Then they suddenly hear a human voice through their walkie-talkies. Is salvation nearby, like Mickey thinks, or is Ben’s suspicion justified?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNefarious (2023)
On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Echo (2008)
An ex-prisoner moves to an old apartment, where one gets to see in the middle of a domestic problem between a police officer, his wife and his daughter. When he tries to intervene, he will be caught in a mysterious curse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisMārama (2026)
1859. When a young Māori woman is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, she uncovers her horrific colonial heritage and is compelled to confront and destroy the titled Englishman who devastated her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCandyman (1992)
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this1922 (2017)
A simple yet proud rancher conspires to murder his wife for financial gain, convincing his teenage son to participate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Bad Seed (2018)
A widower suspects that his seemingly perfect adolescent daughter is a heartless killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaughter of the Mind (1969)
Professor Samuel Hale Constable is a government expert in the field of cybernetics. He and his wheelchair-bound wife Lenore became parents late in life, only to lose their daughter Mary before she reached adolescence. Now their daughter's spirit seems to be reaching out to her grief-stricken father from beyond the grave, encouraging him to give up the important project on which he's been working.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)
Thymian Henning, an innocent young girl, is raped by the clerk of her father's pharmacy. She becomes pregnant, is rejected by her family, and must fend for herself in a harsh, cruel world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild in the Streets (1968)
Musician Max Frost lends his backing to a Senate candidate who wants to give 18-year-olds the right to vote, but he takes things a step further than expected. Inspired by their hero's words, Max's fans pressure their leaders into extending the vote to citizens as young as 15. Max and his followers capitalize on their might by bringing new issues to the fore, but, drunk on power, they soon take generational warfare to terrible extremes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Svenska livstycken (1981)
Eleven short films - by eleven different directors - edited together as a feature film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Things 4 (2017)
Monsters are real, they came from outer space and they are here to destroy the world - unless we can stop them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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 drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat if... (2010)
Fifteen years ago, Ben Walker made a decision to leave his college sweetheart and ultimately his faith, in order to pursue a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a high-paying career and a trophy fiancé, he is visited by an angel, who gives him a glimpse into what his life would look like had he followed his calling.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Encounters (1989)
Four nerve-wracking psychological thrillers in short film format. Cruel games with drastic endings. Each time a woman is involved, a knife, a murder...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)
In the late 18th century, two newlyweds move into the stately mansion of the Fengriffen family. The young bride is victim of terrifying visions and apparitions, threatening her very sanity. A London psychiatrist comes to her help and uncovers the terrible secret that haunts the estate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bates Motel?
The closest matches to Bates Motel are Sometimes They Come Back (1991), The Boy (2015) and Ghost Stories (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bates Motel?
Start with Sometimes They Come Back (1991), the closest match to Bates Motel.
What is the highest-rated movie like Bates Motel?
Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007), rated 7.4/10 by 234 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bates Motel?
Mārama (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Bates Motel?
Yes: Sometimes They Come Back (1991), The Boy (2015) and Ghost Stories (2018).
How are movies similar to Bates Motel chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bates Motel, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.