Movies like The Darkness Outside (2022)
The best movies like The Darkness Outside (2022) are The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Mārama (2026) and They Look Like People (2016). If The Darkness Outside 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 ratedTwin Peaks (1989)8.5/10 from 682 votes
- NewestRedwood Diaries (2026)Released 2026
The 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 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 thisThey Look Like People (2016)
Suspecting that people are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRelic (2020)
When elderly mother Edna inexplicably vanishes, her daughter rushes to the family's decaying home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUntil Dawn (2025)
One year after her sister Melanie mysteriously disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they find themselves stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one...only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caller (1987)
One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they're playing a strange mind game and that there's something very wrong about the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Cellar (2022)
When Keira Woods' daughter mysteriously vanishes in the cellar of their new house in the country, she soon discovers there is an ancient and powerful entity controlling their home that she will have to face or risk losing her family's souls forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inhabitant (2022)
Like any other teenage girl, Tara is just surviving high school — yet her father and mother seem strangely distant. Amidst a nearby spree of gruesome ax murders, Tara has sightings of terrifying entities, forcing her to question her own sanity and shocking ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Tall Man (2012)
When her child goes missing, a mother looks to unravel the legend of the Tall Man, an entity who allegedly abducts children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwin Peaks (1989)
An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for the European VHS market and has an alternate, closed ending.)
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDonnie Darko (2001)
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmelia’s Children (2024)
When Edward’s search for his biological family leads him and his girlfriend Ryley to a magnificent villa high in the mountains of Northern Portugal, he is full of excitement at meeting his long-lost mother and twin brother. Finally, he will discover who he is and where he comes from. But nothing is as it seems, and Edward will soon learn that he is linked to them by a monstrous secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisBird Box (2018)
Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Let Go (2019)
A detective suffering from a personal loss receives a call from his recently deceased niece. Being able to communicate across time, the two work together to try and stop the crime before it occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalignant (2021)
Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities with a mysterious tie to her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
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 thisOlder Gods (2023)
After the disappearance of his troubled friend, American Chris Rivers travels to the remote Welsh countryside to investigate what happened – leading him to a dark apocalyptic cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRedwood Diaries (2026)
When strange entries begin appearing in her diary written in handwriting that isn't hers, new student Evie Quinn is pulled into a chilling mystery as the messages reveal secrets, predict impossible events, and point toward a truth someone has desperately tried to bury.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
The Camp (2021)
Grieving a recent tragedy, a young woman and her friends take a camping trip deep in the woods, where they encounter a malevolent force more ancient than the forest itself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & drama
Vela (2023)
Young Xime hopes to restore her grieving family by arranging a Día de Los Muertos altar...meanwhile a looming presence closes in.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
The Woods That Wail (2025)
Three friends head into a notorious haunted forest for a camping trip, but things take a terrifying turn when one friend goes missing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & mystery
Dissonance (2023)
A young boy must relearn piano in order to rekindle the broken relationship between him and his mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
When Day Breaks (TBA)
When Day Breaks is a silent, visually driven meditation on loss, memory, and the fragile thread between the living and the dead. Set against the chaos of armed conflict, a daughter killed as a civilian lingers between life and memory as she observes her mother grief from beyond. Her final presence becomes an unspoken act of comfort, reaching across the divide. What does it mean for the living to hold on? And what does it take to keep living?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Faith's Song (2017)
A young girl's faith is tested, when her parents are suddenly killed in a car accident and she's forced to move in with relatives who don't share her belief in God. A talented singer, who desires to worship God with her songs, she finds herself in a new city, a new school and no friends. With her uncle and others at school challenging her faith, one boy emerges, who seems to see the greatness in her. Now she must come to grips with either fitting in or following God - which could cost her more than just her faith.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Passion of Anna (1969)
A recently divorced man and an emotionally devastated widow begin a love affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUmrika (2015)
When a young village boy discovers that his brother, long believed to be in America, has actually gone missing, he begins to invent letters on his behalf to save their mother from heartbreak, all the while searching for him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChorus (2015)
A separated couple meet again after 10 years when the body of their missing son is found. Amid the guilt of losing a loved one, they hesitantly move toward affirmation of life, acceptance of death, and even the possibility of reconciliation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Darkness Outside?
The closest matches to The Darkness Outside are The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Mārama (2026) and They Look Like People (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Darkness Outside?
Start with The Mothman Prophecies (2002), the closest match to The Darkness Outside.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Darkness Outside?
Twin Peaks (1989), rated 8.5/10 by 682 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Darkness Outside?
Redwood Diaries (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Darkness Outside?
Yes: The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Mārama (2026) and They Look Like People (2016).
How are movies similar to The Darkness Outside chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Darkness Outside, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.