Movies like The Illusion of Control: The Beginning (2017)
The best movies like The Illusion of Control: The Beginning (2017) are Black Widow (1987), The MacKintosh Man (1973) and Hider in the House (1989). If The Illusion of Control: The Beginning hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Good Neighbor (2022)6.7/10 from 215 votes
- NewestThe Call (2026)Released 2026
Black Widow (1987)
Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But since Catherine is seemingly a master of disguise and has multiple identities, Alexandra can't prove anything with conventional detective work. With no other option, she goes undercover, pursuing the same man as Catherine, and hoping that Catherine will slip up and reveal her true identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe MacKintosh Man (1973)
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor; only, someone finds him out and exposes him to the gang...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHider in the House (1989)
A deranged man hides in the attic of a new house and becomes obsessed with the unsuspecting family that moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStalked by My Doctor (2015)
When a teenage girl is miraculously saved by a heart surgeon, the doctor begins to flirt with her. Her father doesn’t believe her and unbeknownst to all, the doctor is obsessed with the girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOther Side of the Box (2018)
A couple receives a mysterious package from an old friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost Recon: Alpha (2012)
Ghost Recon: Alpha sees a team led by Ghost Leader infiltrate a trade at a Russian depot between a general and a mysterious other figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Other (2025)
Unable to conceive, a couple seeks to build a family with a young orphan, survivor of tragic childhood. But their act of love turns to horror when they realize the violence in their foster's past has returned to destroy the new family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Ranger (2023)
A Texas Ranger is recruited by British Intelligence to track down a dangerous terrorist and stop him from attacking London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCriminal (2004)
Needing a new partner capable of intricate cons, Richard Gaddis, recruits Rodrigo, a crook with a perfect poker face. The two plan a big-time scam: selling a fake Silver Certificate to currency collector William Hannigan. Rodrigo distrusts his new associate, but needs money to help out his ill father. The situation becomes more complicated when Rodrigo falls for Gaddis' sister, Valerie, drawing another player into the game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaddy's Little Girl (2014)
After the police find Derek’s daughter brutally murdered on the beach, he vows to make the culprit suffer for his actions, even if that person is ‘part of the family.’ With careful research into the history of torture, Derek prepares himself and his basement for a week of brutal tactics that will make his daughter’s killer feel the pain that he has inflicted upon so many others. In a time when stranger danger is ever present, a single father learns that it’s the ones you trust most who have to be watched the closest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Sister (2015)
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a fatal attraction to Zoe's brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOff the Grid (2025)
After a morally-bankrupt company tries to weaponize a brilliant scientist's revolutionary technology, he goes off the grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHunting Grounds (2025)
Desperate to find refuge for her children, Chloe Marvino runs away from her Mafia tied husband, and finds shelter in a cabin with a recluse drifter named Jake. But as her husband's henchmen draw closer to her, it turns out that Jake is the biggest enemy of them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnow Steam Iron (2017)
“Snow gently falls on the blood-stained streets of a seedy out-of-time New York City. Steam envelopes the nightmare unfolding within its narrow alleys. Iron is the will of the one who would dare to resist… fight… survive.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChief of Station (2024)
After learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kovak Box (2006)
David Norton is used to being in control. As a best-selling author, he decides the fate of his characters, their lives and their deaths. But what happens when his fictional world becomes all too real?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDangerous (2021)
A reformed sociopath heads to a remote island after the death of his brother. Soon after his arrival, the island falls under siege from a deadly gang of mercenaries, and when he discovers their role in his brother’s demise, he sets out on a relentless quest for vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLunatique (2016)
Lunatique is a sci-fi short film about a lonely woman who fights daily for survival in a post apocalyptic world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Call (2026)
Through a series of increasingly desperate phone calls, a mother's world unravels as her gay son is pursued and harassed by his former school bullies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Break-In On Amelia Street (2024)
Ross Fableton, an extroverted, confident, but hypercritical college student (22), wants nothing to do with his new, introverted, and standoffish stepbrother Ryan (20), and the feeling is mutual. When their parents go on vacation in an attempt to force the stepbrothers to interact, Ross and Ryan's sniping and pettiness reaches a boiling point - just as robbers break into the house. If Ross and Ryan can't overcome their sibling rivalry to try take down the robbers, this dangerous situation could have fatal consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Absolution, Parsin (2022)
The imagined perpetrator in a famously unsolved true-crime case, “Who Put Bella Down the Wych Elm”, is confronted about his past by an unearthly Bison in this Stop-Motion animated short film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Kibble (2022)
A young man is dared by his friends to trek deeper into dangerous territory, with bait, in order to finally once and for all prove or disprove the legendary rumors surrounding an abandoned barn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Midland (2015)
A young woman lures a man into a night of forced indoctrination.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Symmetropia (2017)
A man receives the most intense immersion therapy for an irrational fear (symmetry) ever. He’s blindfolded and driven to a forest where all the trees look the same, so that he is surrounded by symmetry. Also he is listening to tape of palindromes being read out loud.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Jungle (2021)
A young woman awakens to find herself in the midst of a living nightmare.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Je ne veux pas être sage (1998)
An insane face-off between two smart serial killers. This thriller supsense is 100% intense: sensitive souls beware!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Illusion of Control: The Beginning?
The closest matches to The Illusion of Control: The Beginning are Black Widow (1987), The MacKintosh Man (1973) and Hider in the House (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Illusion of Control: The Beginning?
Start with Black Widow (1987), the closest match to The Illusion of Control: The Beginning.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Illusion of Control: The Beginning?
The Good Neighbor (2022), rated 6.7/10 by 215 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Illusion of Control: The Beginning?
The Call (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Illusion of Control: The Beginning chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Illusion of Control: The Beginning, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.