Movies like Dollhouse (2012)
The best movies like Dollhouse (2012) are Mammal (2016), Ill Manors (2012) and Suburbia (1984). If Dollhouse hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRequiem for a Dream (2000)8.0/10 from 11,475 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Mammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIll Manors (2012)
Ensemble film revolving around characters living in Forest Gate, London. Over the course of a few days, six inter-linking stories explore issues of drug use, prostitution and urban poverty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFanny Lye Deliver'd (2019)
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWalking Tall: Lone Justice (2007)
In Dallas, witnesses against a drug-lord are murdered in a safe-house.The testimony of FBI agents becomes the only chance to keep him in prison. They are lodged in another safe-house, but the place is invaded and the agents are executed. However, Kate is only wounded, and her boyfriend Nick believes there is a traitor in the agency and takes her to his ranch to protect her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuckiest Girl Alive (2022)
A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem for a Dream (2000)
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
In the late 1980s, Pat Tate journeys from peddling pills in Marbella to his time in prison, where he solidifies his power before his release to reclaim his turf.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl padrino: The Latin Godfather (2004)
In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrimes of Passion (1984)
Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoffy (1973)
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConvict (2014)
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaby Snatcher (1992)
A woman is delighted to have given birth to a baby girl but her life is turned into a nightmare when she goes missing. The police mount a frantic search but to the woman's horror she finds out that it's herself who is the main suspect.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
42plus (2007)
When the beautiful, efficient and successful Christine, 42, arrives at their summer beach home with her husband and teenage daughter, a young hitchhiker catches her eye. What follows is the story of a woman who frees herself, tears her life into pieces and puts it back together in a different order.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not (2002)
A talented art student named Angélique is passionately in love with Dr. Loïc Le Garrec, a handsome married man whom she believes will leave his wife. When he eventually decides to stay in his marriage, it causes Angélique to spiral. However, as the story shifts from Angélique's perspective to Loïc's, the surprising truth about their relationship is revealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDo Fish Do It? (2002)
16-year old Jan is absent-mindedly strolling through the streets when he's run over by roller-skating Nina. As fast as she has stormed into his life, however, she rushes off again. Nina is 15 years old and full of crazy ideas. She lives together with her brother, her father and his new girlfriend. Her mother isn't in touch much. That's why there is the unconventional Angel whose own daughter disappeared years ago and who is Nina's best friend and substitute mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Apartment Troubles (2014)
Two codependent roommates, on the verge of eviction, flee New York for the promise of sunshine in Los Angeles where their friendship is tested by a chance at fame, a fortune teller and an amorous wealthy aunt.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
She's Missing (2019)
When her best friend goes missing at a rodeo, Heidi goes on a search across the desert, digging up secrets and encountering the violence of life on the road.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Queen of Niendorf (2017)
The summer holidays have just begun in Brandenburg, but ten-year-old Lea isn’t going to camp this year with her friends as she normally would. One afternoon she spots five boys lifting a large blue oil barrel over the fence of a paint factory and driving away with their loot on a bicycle trailer. Lea's curiosity is piqued. The next chance she gets, she follows the boys and discovers they built a raft on a small lake. The raft is the boys' property and under no circumstances girls are allowed in their gang. But Lea wants to be part of it very badly and takes them up on a dare. Soon summer is full of adventure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Half-Cocked (1994)
A group of high school teens steal a van full of music equipment and pretend to be a band called "Truckstop" in order to stay on the road. When the band starts playing gigs, their sound is largely inconsistent and incoherent, however, over time the band becomes increasingly competent in their musicianship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Time You Had Fun (2015)
When Ida, cheeks streaked by mascara tears, unexpectedly shows up at her sister's, the staid Alison bargains her way out of mom duty for the night and the two head off to an Eastside wine bar. There, they run into Will and the freshly divorced, sweatpants-attired Clark. After some slightly inebriated commiserating about mismanaged marriages and other adult concerns, the foursome head out into the night, careening from downtown lofts to pot dispensaries to midnight swims and back again, determined to prove they still have what it takes to have a good time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forever's Gonna Start Tonight (2011)
Sonya, a 17-year-old Russian immigrant, lives in a claustrophobic Brooklyn apartment with her dad and his ever-growing menagerie of cats. When the Landlady threatens to kick them out, Sonya is forced to make an unimaginable decision to protect her aging father and herself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Dollhouse?
The closest matches to Dollhouse are Mammal (2016), Ill Manors (2012) and Suburbia (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Dollhouse?
Start with Mammal (2016), the closest match to Dollhouse.
What is the highest-rated movie like Dollhouse?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 11,475 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Dollhouse?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Dollhouse?
Yes: Mammal (2016), Ill Manors (2012) and Suburbia (1984).
How are movies similar to Dollhouse chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dollhouse, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.