Movies like Susan Slade (1961)
The best movies like Susan Slade (1961) are The Horse Whisperer (1998), The Bigamist (1953) and December Boys (2007). If Susan Slade hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMy First Summer (2020)8.0/10 from 290 votes
- NewestEcho Valley (2025)Released 2025
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bigamist (1953)
San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDecember Boys (2007)
For many years, four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent have watched their younger comrades find new parents, and realize that they may never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys away on a seaside vacation, where they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who would make perfect parents. The youths compete with one another to be the one Teresa and Fearless decide to adopt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife Itself (2018)
As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDuel in the Sun (1946)
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDown in the Valley (2005)
On a trip to the beach, a teenage girl named Tobe meets a charismatic stranger named Harlan, who dresses like a cowboy and claims to be a former ranch hand. The pair feel an instant attraction and begin a relationship, but her father, a lawman, is suspicious of her lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy First Summer (2020)
Isolated on a remote property, 16-year-old Claudia finds her world transformed when a spirited girl named Grace wanders into her garden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCharlie St. Cloud (2010)
Accomplished sailor Charlie St. Cloud has the adoration of his mother Claire and his little brother Sam, as well as a college scholarship that will lead him far from his sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown. But his bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. After high school classmate Tess returns home unexpectedly, Charlie grows torn between honoring a promise he made four years earlier and moving forward with newfound love. As he finds the courage to let go of the past for good, Charlie discovers the soul most worth saving is his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPalm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
Seventeen-year-old Lea spends her summer break tanning in her backyard, and drifting between tiptoeing around her needy mother, and aimlessly trailing her best friend and boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom, a seductive man twice her age who promises an alternative to Lea's unsatisfying adolescent life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Derby Stallion (2005)
An alcoholic former horse-trainer perceives in a fifteen-year-old boy a unique gift of horsemanship and makes it possible for the boy to conceive his dream and pursue it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDouble Mommy (2016)
After taking a break for the summer before their senior year, Ryan and Jess rekindle their relationship, and find out that Jess is pregnant with twins. When Ryan's mother demands a paternity test, they find out that Ryan is only the father of one baby... The other father is Ryan's best friend Brent, who Ryan discovers date-raped Jess at a party over the summer. With college recruiters and an overbearing father looming over Brent's head, he will stop at nothing to make sure that he clears his name--even if it means getting rid of Jess and her babies!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFifteen and Pregnant (1998)
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. A courageous young girl confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Beauty (2020)
Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
A runaway orphan, young Sonora, persists in a menial job mucking stables in Doc Carver's travelling stunt show. Her great wish is to become a death-defying "diving girl," but Doc refuses her pleas. Undaunted, Sonora's gutsy resolve finally convinces him to give her a break. On the brink of stardom, however, a cruel twist of fate threatens to destroy her dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this3 Women (1977)
Two co-workers, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship after becoming roommates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarnie (1964)
Marnie is a beautiful but emotionally withdrawn thief, stealing from employers before disappearing under new identities. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, discovers her secret, his fascination turns to obsession, and he blackmails her into marriage, convinced he can cure her. But as he probes deeper into Marnie’s fractured mind, long-buried fears and compulsions begin to surface.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEcho Valley (2025)
Kate lives a secluded life—until her troubled daughter shows up, frightened and covered in someone else's blood. As Kate unravels the shocking truth, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagnolia (1999)
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirty Dancing (1987)
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Summer of Sangaile (2015)
Sangaile, a 17-year-old spending the summer at her parents’ lakeside villa, becomes drawn to a free-spirited girl she meets at a nearby aeronautical show. As they grow closer, she begins to confront her fears and embrace a connection that encourages her to pursue her passion for flight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWrooklyn Zoo (2024)
Eighteen-year-old Kosa is the best skater in Wrocław. He has a beautiful girlfriend, great friends, an adored grandfather and a clear plan for the future - he wants to win a prestigious skateboarding competition with a lot of money at stake and a trip to Los Angeles. Everything changes dramatically when, during a carefree vacation, Kosa meets Zora - a magnetic Romani girl, with whom magic and a passionate feeling that he has never experienced before enters the boy's life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
The Moon-Spinners (1964)
Young English girl Nikky and her aunt arrive at the Moon-Spinners, a hotel on Crete, to a less than enthusiastic welcome. The coolness of the owner is only out-done by the surliness of her brother Stratos, recently back from London. But then there is nice English lad Mark to make friends with, at least until Stratos and his pal take a shot at him one night. When Nikky helps him hide she finds the Greeks are after her too.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisSay That You Love Me (2006)
Fatou is a teenager yearning for attention and love in Sweden's suburbs. When she is gang raped by some class mates her whole world starts falling apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fighting Elegy (1966)
Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Blood Relative (2017)
After a botched robbery, a local crime syndicate sends a rookie enforcer to take care of a loose end. When the hit goes sideways and his civilian girlfriend ends up missing, her brother, Rodd, a mild-mannered guidance counselor, conducts an exhaustive search through the city to find her. With the support of a martial artist instructor, Bruce, the pair consistently becomes overwhelmed by a violent outfit of criminals looking to silence them. However, Rodd has a mysterious and dangerous past of his own, and with the help of his friend, they formulate a plan to take on the organization in this nail-biting action thriller.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dressage (2019)
Golsa is a 16-year-old girl living with her family in a small town near Tehran. She spends most of her time hanging out with a group of friends. One day the group decide on a course of action the consequences of which will have unexpected results and turn their little bit of fun into something far more complicated.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fortuna (2018)
Fortuna, a 14-year-old Ethiopian girl, has had no news of her parents since they crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Together with other refugees, she is given shelter for the winter in a Swiss catholic monastery. While she waits for her fate to be decided by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna finds out she is pregnant. The choice she will have to make and the arrival of the refugees will give rise to concern within the religious community and will challenge their concept of Christian charity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Meadow Bridge (2017)
Meadow Bridge is a coming-of-age story that follows Darcy, a fourteen-year-old girl growing up in a small West Virginia town in the late 1990s. It's a story about growing up on the edge of poverty and possibility - about trying to reach out into the bigger world, while wrestling with where you're from.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Susan Slade and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Susan Slade?
The closest matches to Susan Slade are The Horse Whisperer (1998), The Bigamist (1953) and December Boys (2007). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Susan Slade?
Start with The Horse Whisperer (1998), the closest match to Susan Slade.
What is the highest-rated movie like Susan Slade?
My First Summer (2020), rated 8.0/10 by 290 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Susan Slade?
Echo Valley (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Susan Slade?
Yes: The Horse Whisperer (1998), The Bigamist (1953) and December Boys (2007).
How are movies similar to Susan Slade chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Susan Slade, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.