Movies like Thesis (1996)
The best movies like Thesis (1996) are Diary (2006), Funny Games (1997) and The Dead Mother (1993). If Thesis 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
- Highest ratedThe Silence of the Lambs (1991)8.3/10 from 18,816 votes
- NewestDangerous Drugs of Sex (2020)Released 2020
- In SpanishThe Dead Mother (1993)Also in Spanish
Diary (2006)
The dour and volatile Winnie likes to make wooden puppets and write in her diary. After her boyfriend Seth leaves her, Winnie becomes increasingly emotionally and psychologically unstable.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Funny Games (1997)
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dead Mother (1993)
Ismael breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later, Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognised him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her, a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfil his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Julia's Eyes (2010)
Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative sight disease, finds her blind sister Sara hung in a basement. Despite all signs pointing to suicide, Julia decides to investigate what she intuitively feels is a murder case.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Saw the Devil (2010)
Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSleep Tight (2011)
César, an unhappy concierge, maintains a peculiar relationship with the very diverse inhabitants of the upper-class apartment building where he works in Barcelona.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShrew's Nest (2014)
Spain, 1950s. Montse's agoraphobia keeps her locked in a sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is the little sister she lost her youth raising. But one day, a reckless young neighbor, Carlos, falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door. Someone has entered the shrew's nest... perhaps he'll never leave.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Skin I Live In (2011)
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this5150 Elm's Way (2009)
Yannick moves to a small, quiet town to study cinema. One day when he fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu and his family had other plans for Yannick. Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatic chess player who wants to rid the world of evil. And even though Ian has done nothing wrong, he is beaten, tortured and tormented before Beaulieu makes him an offer: win at chess and he is free to go. And so Ian is now a pawn in Beaulieu 's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngst (1983)
A killer is released from prison and breaks into a remote home to kill a woman, her handicapped son and her pretty daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSleepless (2001)
An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer whom has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCure (1997)
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn a Glass Cage (1986)
A mysterious teenager named Ángelo cares for Klaus, a German doctor with a dark past who lives trapped in an iron lung.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vanishing (1988)
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation when they stop at a busy service station. Saskia is abducted in broad daylight and three years pass with no answers or closure surrounding her disappearance. Rex has nearly given up all hope when he suddenly begins receiving letters from her abductor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKilling Words (2004)
A mild-mannered psychopath plays mind-games with a woman he has tied to a chair in his basement.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Chaser (2008)
Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp, who's in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by the same client, whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNightcrawler (2014)
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMute Witness (1995)
When a mute makeup/special effects artist working on a low-budget slasher film gets locked in a dilapidated Moscow movie studio late one night, she thinks she witnesses the making of a snuff film. Thus begins a night of terror.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cannibal Man (1972)
A young man, Marco, working as a butcher, accidentally kills a taxi driver. His girlfriend Paula wants to go to the police so he has to kill her too. He then has to kill his brother, his brother’s fiancée and his father, who have become suspicious. He gets rid of the bodies by taking them to a slaughter house.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
Hoping to put to rest years of unease concerning a past case, retired criminal investigator Benjamín begins writing a novel based on the unsolved mystery of a newlywed’s rape and murder. With the help of a former colleague, judge Irene, he attempts to make sense of the past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Stendhal Syndrome (1996)
A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisOpen Your Eyes (1997)
Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIdentity (2003)
Complete strangers stranded at a remote desert motel during a raging storm soon find themselves the target of a deranged murderer. As their numbers thin out, the travelers begin to turn on each other, as each tries to figure out who the killer is.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemories of Murder (2003)
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMartyrs (2008)
A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tortured her as a child leads her and her best friend, also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnguish (1987)
An ophthalmologist's assistant with an unhealthy interest in human eyeballs goes on a killing spree to collect eyeballs for his overbearing mother's collection. Reality soon takes a bizarre turn, both for the characters and the audience.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous Drugs of Sex (2020)
An elite salaryman drunkenly tries to die by suicide, but is saved by a mysterious stranger who holds him captive and sexually torments him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThesis on a Homicide (2013)
Roberto is a Law professor whose life is thrown into chaos when he becomes convinced that one of his best students has committed a brutal murder. Determined to uncover the truth, he begins a personal investigation…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Card Player (2004)
Policewoman Anna Mari is forced to play a dangerous game with the title serial killer. If she loses, she witnesses the maniac's tortured victims having their throats cut in explicit close-up detail via webcam. She teams up with British cop John Brennan to find out the identity of the murderer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Thesis?
The closest matches to Thesis are Diary (2006), Funny Games (1997) and The Dead Mother (1993). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Thesis?
People who watched Thesis most often go on to Diary (2006), Funny Games (1997) and The Dead Mother (1993).
What is the highest-rated movie like Thesis?
The Silence of the Lambs (1991), rated 8.3/10 by 18,816 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Thesis?
Dangerous Drugs of Sex (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Thesis?
Yes: The Dead Mother (1993), Julia's Eyes (2010) and Sleep Tight (2011).
How are movies similar to Thesis chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Thesis, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.