Movies like The Cruel History of Prisoners (1976)
The best movies like The Cruel History of Prisoners (1976) are Frank and Penelope (2022), God Is a Bullet (2023) and Strange Darling (2024). If The Cruel History of Prisoners hooked you with its thriller and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStrange Darling (2024)6.9/10 from 1,104 votes
- NewestWardriver (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseStar of David: Beauty Hunting (1979)Also in Japanese
Frank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGod Is a Bullet (2023)
Vice detective Bob Hightower finds his ex-wife murdered and daughter kidnapped by a cult. Frustrated by the botched official investigations, he quits the force and infiltrates the cult to hunt down the leader with the help of the cult’s only female victim escapee, Case Hardin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManiac (1963)
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Spit on Your Grave (2010)
A beautiful woman from the city, Jennifer Hills, rents an isolated cabin in the country to write her latest novel. Soon, a group of local lowlifes subject her to a nightmare of degradation, rape, and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar of David: Beauty Hunting (1979)
The life of Tatsuya, a young man of proper yet mysterious descent, whose outward respectability hides his urges for rape and torture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous Game: The Legacy Murders (2022)
A family reunion at a remote mansion takes a lethal turn when they are trapped inside and forced to play a deadly survival game where only one will make it out alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWardriver (2026)
He’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlood Punch (2014)
Milton, a college dropout, was only supposed to cook meth for one day. Broken out of rehab by a brash young woman and her trigger-happy ("ex") boyfriend and driven to a remote cabin the woods, Milton finds himself drawn into a dangerous love triangle gone haywire. The couple's deadpan half-truths spin around Milton like a song on repeat. They seem to read him like an open book, until a mysterious message opens his eyes to his cursed existence. With unlimited ammunition, any hunting tool they could desire, and an ever-growing body count, for what did Milton really sign up?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKillers (2014)
A psychotic executive triggers a journalist's dark side, and they begin to form a strange bond through the internet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Cold Light (2026)
Fresh out of prison, Ava's attempt to reclaim her drug operation collapses when she witnesses a brutal crime, forcing her to flee into a nightmarish underworld where allies are scarce and enemies multiply by the minute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies 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 horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCharacter (2021)
A kind man aspires to become a manga writer, but villains and evil deeds do not come easily to him, for he has little experience or natural inclination for them. Things take a surprise turn when he comes across a family who were described as idealized that are no more. He uses the real-life situation for his work.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShades of Desire (2023)
After her twin sister Aubrey goes missing, Jennifer uncovers the scandalous, secret double-life that Aubrey leads - and that has put both of them in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlash/Back (2022)
In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dark Mirror (1946)
A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRace with the Devil (1975)
Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouthbound (2015)
On a desolate stretch of desert highway, weary travelers — two men on the run from their past, a band on their way to the next gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation — are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales of terror and remorse on the open road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisHappily Ever After (1974)
A woman takes revenge on the three college men who abused her a decade earlier.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Embryo Hunts in Secret (1966)
A man keeps his girlfriend tied up in his small apartment and tortures her. She is undressed, subjected to various types of bondage, whipped, and tortured with a razor blade.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSiren the Ghost Story (1993)
Minayo plays the legendary "Siren," a ghost who lives forever by sucking men's life force. She skillfully seduces men using her body as bait, and those who fall prey to her turn into mummified corpses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Siren the Ghost Story Again (1994)
Disappearances... What if a magical fairy beyond human knowledge is lurking in the shadows of incidents that could occur in our daily lives? Mysterious disappearances and slaughters in a seemingly peaceful and ordinary port town are so bizarre that all the bodies found have been mummified. Detective Junpei investigates this mysterious case. His father, who was also a detective, disappeared 20 years ago while investigating another strange case.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Siren the Ghost Story Forever (1995)
Suddenly, men abandon their jobs and families and come to the sea for no reason at all. Their disappearance was connected to an incredibly powerful force. One chilly day, when Cassiopeia shines strangely, two men suddenly arrive at the beach house "Kaijotei," asking to be allowed to stay here. The two men, who did not know each other and had no relation to each other, were drawn to the same beach for unknown reasons. Kazuhiko and Ayako, two lovers who run a beach pavilion, have no choice but to accept the two men, who are not moving even with their leverage, since it is out of season and there are no bathers. A few days later, a new man named Furuta arrives. Furuta is an expert in astronomical observation, and he senses something unusual in the way the stars have been shining these past few days.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Siren the Ghost Story Returns (1996)
The Internet, where anyone can easily come and go. In this virtual cyber world, a magical being with a will lives.... A strange rumor whispered among net surfers. It was a rumor that if one accessed the address "siren", he/she could experience virtual sex with a beautiful girl living in the Internet. In reality, however, those who access the address invariably disappear mysteriously. Ohtaka, who works for a computer software production company, heard this story from a colleague and at first thought it was ridiculous. One day, however, he goes missing, leaving behind a note with the address of "siren".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Boss Girl Mafia: Flesh Punishment (Lynch) (1980)
Two young delinquent girls survive on the streets by selling themselves as high school students. But the local girl gang catches them working their territory and brings them to their boss. After they witness a girl getting brutally punished for not obeying their rules the two are given a choice. Join or suffer the consequences. Thus begins a battle of wills and razors as two headstrong women clash.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Boogers of the Antichrist (2020)
This movie was to be as absurd as Antfarm Dickhole, but Bill Zebub’s research inspired new story ideas. This will still be an unusual tale, but it will be a bit deeper than planned. Then again, Bill Zebub usually adds deeper levels for those who want to explore. It might be safe to call this a spoof of occult horror. That was the original idea. It is more than a parody however.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Bad Detective: Missing (2019)
Mi-ri's friends, who work in a private detective office, leave on a trip to South East Asia. But suddenly, Mi-ri loses contact with her friends, and their whereabouts are unknown. Mi-ri is sure they have been abducted and asks a detective for help... The detective looks into the case, but where will he find Mi-ri's friends?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Afternoon Affair: Rear Window (1972)
For a girl who works in a 3rd rate bar, Ayuko is full of vanity. Nomura, her patron, is besotted by her and it is their habit that they cannot reach a climax unless they peek at a couple, across the way, making love. Intent on climbing up in the world, Ayuko uses all her wiles to get her patron, who is putty in her hands, to move her from her grubby apartment house to a dreamboat of a place. She then tries to find a place to work more befitting her new home but all the elite night clubs will have nothing to do with her and with time heavy on her hands, the devil finds mischief for idle hands to do.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Cruel History of Prisoners?
The closest matches to The Cruel History of Prisoners are Frank and Penelope (2022), God Is a Bullet (2023) and Strange Darling (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Cruel History of Prisoners?
Start with Frank and Penelope (2022), the closest match to The Cruel History of Prisoners.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Cruel History of Prisoners?
Strange Darling (2024), rated 6.9/10 by 1,104 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Cruel History of Prisoners?
Wardriver (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Cruel History of Prisoners?
Yes: Star of David: Beauty Hunting (1979), Killers (2014) and Character (2021).
How are movies similar to The Cruel History of Prisoners chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Cruel History of Prisoners, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.