Movies like The Spiked Switch (1916)
The best movies like The Spiked Switch (1916) are Black Widow (1987), Cornered (1945) and Maniac (1963). If The Spiked Switch hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSafety Last! (1923)7.7/10 from 613 votes
- NewestGehenna (2025)Released 2025
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 thisCornered (1945)
A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSafety Last! (1923)
When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNightfall (1956)
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConflict (1945)
Unhappily married Richard Mason concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife so that he'll be free to marry her sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleep, My Love (1948)
A woman wakes up in the middle of the night on board a train, but she can't remember how she got there. Danger and suspense ensue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhile the City Sleeps (1956)
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Between (1953)
A British woman on a visit to post-war Berlin is caught up in an espionage ring smuggling secrets into and out of the Eastern Bloc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Voyage (1960)
The S. S. Claridon is scheduled for her five last voyages after thirty-eight years of service. After an explosion in the boiler room, Captain Robert Adams is reluctant to evacuate the steamship. While the crew fights to hold a bulkhead between the flooded boiler room and the engine room and avoid the sinking of the vessel, the passenger Cliff Henderson struggles against time trying to save his beloved wife Laurie Henderson, who is trapped under a steel beam in her cabin, with the support of the crew member Hank Lawson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickup on South Street (1953)
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisQuicksand (1950)
Young auto mechanic Dan Brady takes $20 from a cash register at work to go on a date with blonde femme fatale Vera Novak. Brady intends to put the money back before it is missed, but the garage's bookkeeper shows up earlier than scheduled. As Brady scrambles to cover evidence of his petty theft, he fast finds himself drawn into an ever worsening "quicksand" of crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lamp (1950)
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Cheated Himself (1950)
A veteran homicide detective who has witnessed his socialite girlfriend kill her husband sees his inexperienced brother assigned to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Name on the Bullet (1959)
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSide Street (1950)
A struggling young father-to-be gives in to temptation and impulsively steals an envelope of money from the office of a corrupt attorney. Instead of a few hundred dollars, it contains $30,000. When he decides to return the money, things go wrong - and that is only the beginning of his troubles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Film Lost To Time (2024)
A film buff's obsession with an elusive, possibly nonexistent film spirals into a dangerous descent, blurring the line between reality and madness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Red Glove (1919)
On the American frontier in the last decades of the 19th century, Billie is a female cowboy who fights a series of bad men in this film serial.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
C.O.D. (1932)
A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Witch (1933)
The first talkie from the Philippines.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Silver Greyhound (1932)
A King’s Messenger has important documents stolen by a female spy. The plot follows the messenger’s uncle as he takes action to track down the culprit, retrieve the papers, and unmask the spy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Gehenna (2025)
In this recently found and restored banned underground classic from 1984, four girls go into a bathroom to hide in the middle of a war and, after an impulsive act by one of them, they find themselves trapped there. As panic gives way to despair, tragedy approaches.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
A Lesson in Bridge (1914)
The fascinating game of bridge has completely ensnared Mrs. Willis, the pretty young wife of a Wall Street clerk, and money that should have been spent to pay household bills is squandered on cards.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Skull (1913)
Just as the bead clerk and his assistants are closing up the jewelry store for the day, a package containing a very costly necklace arrives by special messenger. The large safe deposit vault has been closed for the night and the time clock set. The head clerk is fearful to leave the necklace in the store and so decides to take it home. His actions have been closely watched by one of the junior clerks, with sinister and stealthy glances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Zigzag (1963)
After a traumatic event leaves a young woman with hysterical blindness and amnesia, "The Blind Hunter" (George Nader) steps in to protect her from a brutal killer. Her memories are finally unlocked by an eerie piano melody of the Visayan love song Dandansuy, leading to a climactic showdown along the dangerous, winding Kennon Road near Baguio City.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
A Prowler in the Heart (1973)
A mystery novelist meticulously creates an alibi to keep her husband from being convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Spiked Switch?
The closest matches to The Spiked Switch are Black Widow (1987), Cornered (1945) and Maniac (1963). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Spiked Switch?
Start with Black Widow (1987), the closest match to The Spiked Switch.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Spiked Switch?
Safety Last! (1923), rated 7.7/10 by 613 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Spiked Switch?
Gehenna (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Spiked Switch?
Yes: Black Widow (1987), Cornered (1945) and Maniac (1963).
How are movies similar to The Spiked Switch chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Spiked Switch, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.