Movies like The Friend (2022)
The best movies like The Friend (2022) are The Return (2006), The Bad Seed (1956) and The House That Jack Built (2018). If The Friend hooked you with its horror and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Stand Alone (1999)7.4/10 from 613 votes
- NewestOlder Gods (2023)Released 2023
The Return (2006)
Joanna Mills has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father, and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bad Seed (1956)
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe House That Jack Built (2018)
Failed architect, engineer and vicious murderer Jack narrates the details of some of his most elaborately orchestrated crimes, each of them a towering piece of art that defines his life's work as a serial killer for twelve years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaged (2021)
An African American male is imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement after being found guilty of murdering his wife, as he's haunted by internal demons and his dead wife, and pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore I Wake (2016)
An orphaned child's dreams—and nightmares—manifest physically as he sleeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCastle Freak (1996)
John Reilly discovers that his family's newly inherited castle in Italy is haunted by a relentless, bloodthirsty creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Children (2008)
A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHorns (2013)
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZ (2019)
A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI'll Take Your Dead (2018)
William has a simple job: he makes dead bodies disappear. His daughter Gloria has become used to rough-looking men dropping off corpses, and is even convinced that some of them are haunting their house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHereditary (2018)
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about her ancestry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Babadook (2014)
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Minds (2006)
A forensic psychologist must determine if a minor should be charged with murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlapface (2022)
A boy deals with the loss of his mother by creating a relationship with a dangerous monster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHalloween Ends (2022)
Four years after the events of Halloween in 2018, Laurie has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOlder Gods (2023)
After the disappearance of his troubled friend, American Chris Rivers travels to the remote Welsh countryside to investigate what happened – leading him to a dark apocalyptic cult.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClown (2014)
A loving father finds a clown suit for his son's birthday party, only to realize the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its wearer into a killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Entity (1982)
A single mom is raped by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist believes the experience stems from childhood trauma, while she knows something supernatural is at play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuper Dark Times (2017)
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost World (1925)
The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHannibal Rising (2007)
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead in 3 Days (2006)
When Nina and her high school friends receive eerie text messages declaring that they will all die within three days, they dismiss it as a hokey prank - until one by one, the pals start turning up dead in the alpine countryside. With the cops stymied, Nina and her remaining friends must scour their past for clues to identify the madman before he kills them all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Stand Alone (1999)
After completing jail time for beating up a man who tried to seduce his mentally-handicapped teenage daughter, the Butcher wants to start life anew. He institutionalizes his daughter and moves to the Lille suburbs with his mistress, who promises him a new butcher shop. Learning that she lied, the Butcher returns to Paris to find his daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSigns (2002)
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
Ever since killing the Fisherman one year ago, Julie James is still haunted by images of him after her. When her best friend Karla wins free tickets to the Bahamas, Julie finds this a perfect opportunity to finally relax. But someone is waiting for her. Someone who she thought was dead. Someone who is out again for revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHalloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Chrissie and her friends set out on a road trip for a final fling before one is shipped off to Vietnam. Along the way, bikers harass the foursome and cause an accident that throws Chrissie from the vehicle. The lawman who arrives on the scene kills one of the bikers and brings Chrissie's friends to the Hewitt homestead, where young Leatherface is learning the tools of terror.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirst Bite (2020)
Alex is struggling in a venue bathroom as she finds herself ill at a metal concert.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & thriller
The Hand That Feeds (2021)
With the passing of his estranged father, Russell inherits the only asset to his name: a bar. As relationships form and Rusty finds himself right at home, he'll soon learn that his inheritance holds a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Friend?
The closest matches to The Friend are The Return (2006), The Bad Seed (1956) and The House That Jack Built (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Friend?
Start with The Return (2006), the closest match to The Friend.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Friend?
I Stand Alone (1999), rated 7.4/10 by 613 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Friend?
Older Gods (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Friend?
Yes: The Return (2006), The Bad Seed (1956) and The House That Jack Built (2018).
How are movies similar to The Friend chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Friend, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.