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Movies like Deadline (1980)

The best movies like Deadline (1980) are Special Effects (1984), It's Alive (1974) and Deadly Blessing (1981). If Deadline hooked you with its horror and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Special Effects (1984)

    Reality and illusion collide as megalomaniacal filmmaker Chris Neville murders a young would-be actress, then sets about making a feature about the deed, casting the deceased's clueless husband as the patsy, and finding a dead ringer to play the late actress.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller

  2. It's Alive (1974)

    The Davises are expecting a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing people whenever scared. And it's easily scared.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Deadly Blessing (1981)

    When a former member of a religious cult dies in a mysterious accident, Martha, who now lives alone and close to the cult's church, begins to fear for her life and the lives of her visiting friends.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  4. The Fan (1981)

    A record store clerk is an obsessed fan of an actress of stage and screen. However, when faced with rejection, the fan strikes out in increasingly violent ways.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror

  5. The Carpenter (1988)

    A carpenter, who was executed in the electric chair, comes back to finish his dream house, now inhabited by a young married couple.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  6. Incubus (1981)

    In a small town in Wisconsin, a young teenage boy claims he has dreams of young women being brutally raped and murdered. A doctor and the local sheriff discover that the boy's dreams are real and that a sinister cult might be behind the brutal murders. They must track down the vicious killer, who may be the indestructible incarnation of a demon spawned from hell.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  7. Cellar Dweller (1988)

    A book artist, Whitney Taylor, is doomed to repeat history in a most grotesque way when she unleashes a demon after drawing it.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  8. Eyes of a Stranger (1981)

    A TV newswoman catches a pervert watching her sister who cannot see, hear or speak.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  9. Don't Answer the Phone! (1980)

    A Vietnam veteran that spends his days photographing pretty girls, and his nights strangling them, sets sights on the patients of a radio psychiatrist.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  10. The Shining (1980)

    Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  11. The Brood (1979)

    A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalised wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Night School (1981)

    A Boston police detective investigates a series of gruesome decapitations of various college coeds, committed by a helmeted, black-leather clad serial killer.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  13. The Nesting (1981)

    A New York writer of gothic fiction finds her mansion full of ghosts from a brothel massacre.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  14. The Vagrant (1992)

    A business man buys a house, but he has a hard time trying to get rid of its previous tenant, a dirty bum.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  15. Crawlspace (1986)

    A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  16. Retribution (1987)

    After a depressed artist miraculously survives a suicide attempt, a series of horrific murders leads him to realize he may have been possessed by the vengeful spirit of a murdered gangster.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  17. I, Madman (1989)

    A bookshop clerk starts seeing the disfigured killer from her favorite 1950s pulp novels come to life and start killing people around her.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  18. The Hand (1981)

    Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  19. The Kindred (1987)

    Amanda's deathbed request to her son, John, was for him to destroy all the lab notes etc. from her last experiment. She also blurts out he had a brother. At the funeral John meets Melissa, who claims to be his mother's biggest fan. Together with some of John's friends they go to Amanda's house, but none are prepared for what they find there.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Pin (1988)

    Pin, a plastic medical dummy, has been the fixation of Leon since youth. Now grown up and orphaned in an accident, Leon brings Pin home to live with him and his sister Ursula, much to her reluctance. Soon, however, Leon's fixation on Pin spirals out of control, and Ursula must face the devastating consequences.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  21. Body Parts (1991)

    A criminal psychologist loses his arm in a car crash, and becomes one of three patients to have their missing limbs replaced by those belonging to an executed serial killer. One of them dies violently, and disturbing occurrences start happening to the surviving two.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller

  22. The Evil (1978)

    Shortly after moving into a dark, brooding mansion, a psychologist and his co-workers are terrorized by a horrible evil being.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror

  23. The Mangler (1995)

    A laundry-folding machine has been possessed by a demon, causing it to develop homicidal tendencies.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  24. Nightmare (1981)

    A drug-treated schizophrenic plagued by horrible nightmares is released from the hospital and goes on a killing spree.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  25. Graveyard Shift (1990)

    John Hall is a drifter who wanders into a small town in Maine. He needs a job and decides to seek employment at the community's top business: a large textile mill. He is hired to work the "graveyard shift" -- from around midnight to dawn -- and, along with a few others, he is charged with cleaning out the basement. This task strikes the workers as simple enough, but then, as they proceed deeper underground, they encounter an unspeakable monstrosity intent on devouring them all.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror

  26. Antichrist (2009)

    A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  27. Bird 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 & thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. Cargo (2017)

    After being infected in the wake of a violent pandemic and with only 48 hours to live, a father struggles to find a new home for his baby daughter.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  29. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

    After a catastrophic car crash, a young woman wakes up in a survivalist's underground bunker, where he claims to have saved her from an apocalyptic attack that has left the outside world uninhabitable.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  30. Baby Blues (2008)

    On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this

Like Deadline and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Deadline?

The closest matches to Deadline are Special Effects (1984), It's Alive (1974) and Deadly Blessing (1981). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Deadline?

People who watched Deadline most often go on to Special Effects (1984), It's Alive (1974) and Deadly Blessing (1981).

What is the highest-rated movie like Deadline?

The Shining (1980), rated 8.2/10 by 19,665 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Deadline?

Bird Box (2018) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Deadline?

Yes: Special Effects (1984), It's Alive (1974) and Deadly Blessing (1981).

How are movies similar to Deadline chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Deadline, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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