Movies like Heretic (1986)
The best movies like Heretic (1986) are The Scarlet and the Black (1983), All the Way (2016) and Adventures of a Mathematician (2021). If Heretic hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedOnce Upon a Time in the West (1968)8.3/10 from 5,132 votes
- NewestPrizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)Released 2022
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll the Way (2016)
Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures of a Mathematician (2021)
The warmhearted story of Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. Stan deals with the difficult losses of family and friends all while helping to create the hydrogen bomb and the first computer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
A story set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCocaine Godmother (2017)
At the age of 17, Griselda Blanco, made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos. Living in Queens with her three sons, Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners. Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMunich - The Edge of War (2021)
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShattered Glass (2003)
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Book of Daniel (2013)
Taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 605 B.C., Daniel is forced to serve the most powerful king in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. Faced with imminent death, Daniel proves himself a trusted Advisor and is placed among the king's wise men. Threatened by death at every turn Daniel never ceases to serve the king until he is forced to choose between serving the king or honoring God. With his life at stake, Daniel has nothing but his faith to stand between him and the lions' den.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRichard Jewell (2019)
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)
At the turn of the 19th century, Pugilism was the sport of kings and a gifted young boxer fought his way to becoming champion of England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEight Men Out (1988)
Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJulia (1977)
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pentagon Papers (2003)
This compelling political drama is based on the true story of high-ranking Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who, during the Nixon era, strove to preserve American democracy by leaking top-secret documents to the New York Times and Washington Post. The documents in question would eventually become famous as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the true reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisBelfast (2021)
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGod's Outlaw (1986)
A dramatized biography of William Tyndale, the 16th Century reformer determined to translate the Bible into English, which illegal act set him at odds with the Catholic Church, Sir Thomas More and King Henry VIII.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Bonifatius - Mönch und Prediger (2022)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Martin Luther, Heretic (1983)
Martin Luther inspires a breakaway from the Roman Catholic church and is the founder of Protestantism.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Luther (1974)
A 16th-century clergyman's view breaks the Catholic Church apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Brother (2000)
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinona (2020)
Seems like an ordinary trip to a remote beach. Four young women enjoy the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the sea and one another's company. None of them is "Winona"
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Head or Tails (2016)
Lilly convinces her best friend René to join her on a nocturnal trespassing adventure. The two young women break into a zoo and enter an idiosyncratic animal kingdom where the boundaries between fear and desire begin to blur.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Human Touch (2017)
Two withdrawn individuals constantly seeking human connection, role-play their first accidental encounters
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Three Brothers (1915)
Three brothers: Bob, Will and Charlie, all are in love with Mae. Bob, the eldest, is sullen and revengeful, and Mae is afraid of him. Will, the middle brother, is a happy-go-lucky boy with whom she falls in love, and Charlie, the youngest, sacrifices his own feelings for Will, who loves Charlie devotedly. Will and Mae are engaged. During his absence in the city, where he is trying to get a hold in business, so that he and Mae can marry, Bob makes violent love to his brother's fiancée. Charlie comes to her rescue. Learning of the episode, Will later has word sent home that he is dead, and Mae marries Charlie. Some time after this, Will cannot resist coming home to see his mother and Charlie, though he intends that Mae shall not know of his return. Before he can slip away, however, an incident occurs in which he is called upon to save Charlie's life. His presence and his heroism become known to Mae. The inference is that she had a good deal of a struggle to overcome vain regrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Heretic?
The closest matches to Heretic are The Scarlet and the Black (1983), All the Way (2016) and Adventures of a Mathematician (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Heretic?
Start with The Scarlet and the Black (1983), the closest match to Heretic.
What is the highest-rated movie like Heretic?
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), rated 8.3/10 by 5,132 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Heretic?
Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Heretic chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Heretic, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























