Movies like When Shadows Dance at Night (2021)
The best movies like When Shadows Dance at Night (2021) are Starve Acre (2024), A Story of Derry (2026) and The Eyes of My Mother (2016). If When Shadows Dance at Night hooked you with its drama and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedApocalypto (2006)7.7/10 from 6,792 votes
- NewestA Story of Derry (2026)Released 2026
Starve Acre (2024)
When their son starts acting strangely, a couple unwittingly allow dark and sinister forces into their home, awakening a long-dormant ancient evil rooted deep in the countryside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Story of Derry (2026)
Hundreds of years before Pennywise, three youngsters venture into the Western Wood...where they encounter a terrifying ancient spirit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eyes of My Mother (2016)
A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHis House (2020)
After making a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, a young refugee couple struggle to adjust to their new life in a small English town that has an unspeakable evil lurking beneath the surface.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Surrender (2025)
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisGinger Snaps (2000)
The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger's wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right. Now Brigitte must save her sister and save herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'll Take Your Dead (2018)
William has a simple job: he makes dead bodies disappear. His daughter Gloria has become used to rough-looking men dropping off corpses, and is even convinced that some of them are haunting their house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Go On (2016)
Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMostly Ghostly 3: One Night in Doom House (2016)
Just one enchanted jewel stands between earth and an army of evil spirits led by the devious ghoul, Phears. With the help of his new girlfriend and ghost pals, Max Doyle races to find the crystal and save the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Watcher in the Woods (1980)
After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPresence (2025)
A couple and their children move into a seemingly normal suburban home. When strange events occur, they begin to believe there is something else in the house with them. The presence is about to disrupt their lives in unimaginable ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Harvest (2023)
In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
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 thisMen (2022)
In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to find a place to heal. But someone — or something — from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her, and what begins as simmering dread becomes a fully-formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cursed (2021)
In the late 19th century, a brutal land baron slaughters a Roma clan, unleashing a curse on his family and village. In the days that follow, the townspeople are plagued by nightmares, the baron's son goes missing, and a boy is found murdered. The locals suspect a wild animal, but a visiting pathologist warns of a more sinister presence lurking in the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Babadook (2014)
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpell (2020)
A father survives a plane crash in rural Appalachia, but becomes suspicious of the elderly couple who take him in to nurse him back to health with the ancient remedies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Witch (2016)
In 1630, a farmer relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of a forest where strange, unsettling things happen. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, each family member's faith, loyalty and love are tested in shocking ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidsommar (2019)
Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Host (2006)
A teenage girl is captured by a giant mutated squid-like creature that appears from Seoul's Han River after toxic waste was dumped in it, prompting her family into a frantic search for her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hand That Feeds (2021)
With the passing of his estranged father, Russell inherits the only asset to his name: a bar. As relationships form and Rusty finds himself right at home, he'll soon learn that his inheritance holds a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & drama
OSARU-CHAN (2021)
When two brothers steal a valuable heirloom from an elderly Japanese woman, they unknowingly awaken her demigod son, Osaru, who does not take kindly to thieves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & fantasy
Hannibal Rising (2007)
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Worry, I'm Fine (2006)
A 19-year-old searches for her twin brother after he runs away from home, following a fight with their father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeidi (2005)
Heidi is a happy, outgoing orphan who lives with her grandfather in the idyllic scenery of the Swiss Alps. Heidi makes friends quickly and people know they can always rely on her for help. She loves the freedom of life in the mountains, but she also learns how to take on responsibility. Her cheerful nature helps to show others how to handle the challenges of everyday life and still be happy. Heidi’s honesty and natural charm inspires both courage and a joy of life in everyone she meets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Apocalypto (2006)
Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this2 or 3 Things I Know About Him (2005)
What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ghost in the Family (2002)
Hong Kong horror movie.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Immortal Spirit (1999)
When a cop finds himself stalked by another officer, it turns out to be supernatural forces at work as his colleague is possessed by the spirit of his dead lover who wants him and his family dead as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Like When Shadows Dance at Night and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When Shadows Dance at Night?
The closest matches to When Shadows Dance at Night are Starve Acre (2024), A Story of Derry (2026) and The Eyes of My Mother (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When Shadows Dance at Night?
Start with Starve Acre (2024), the closest match to When Shadows Dance at Night.
What is the highest-rated movie like When Shadows Dance at Night?
Apocalypto (2006), rated 7.7/10 by 6,792 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When Shadows Dance at Night?
A Story of Derry (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like When Shadows Dance at Night?
Yes: Starve Acre (2024), A Story of Derry (2026) and The Eyes of My Mother (2016).
How are movies similar to When Shadows Dance at Night chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When Shadows Dance at Night, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.