Best movies like Cape Fear

Similar in 82%

Secret Ceremony (1968)

Plot Summary:

A tormented rich girl hires a sex worker to act as her mother.

Similar in 82%

The Butcher (1970)

Plot Summary:

An unlikely friendship between a dour, working class butcher and a repressed schoolteacher coincides with a grisly series of Ripper-type murders in a provincial French town.

Similar in 85%

The Fan (1981)

Plot Summary:

A record store clerk is an obsessed fan of an actress of stage and screen (Lauren Bacall). However when his letters are rejected, the fan strikes out at the actresses friends, then at her.

Similar in 86%

Extremities (1986)

Plot Summary:

A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In fact, the man does use the information in her bag and comes to her apartment with the intent of rape, but she sprays him in the face with insect repellent, and then holds him captive. She is then faced with deciding whether to go to the police who might not believe her and release him, or to kill him.

Similar in 81%

Mother's Boys (1993)

Plot Summary:

Sexy but unstable wife and mother Jude walked out on her family three years ago. Now, just as suddenly, she is back. But her husband, Robert, has fallen in love with Callie, an assistant principal at his sons' school. He asks Jude for a divorce. She responds by trying to turn her three boys against Callie, then by slashing herself and blaming her rival and finally by drawing her 12-year-old, Kes, into a murderous plot.

Similar in 76%

Unlawful Entry (1992)

Plot Summary:

After a break-in at their house, a couple gets help from one of the cops that answered their call. He helps them install the security system, and begins dropping by on short notice and unofficial patrol, and spends a lot of time discussing the couple's problems with the wife. The husband begins wondering if they're getting too much help.

Similar in 84%

The Hand (1981)

Plot Summary:

Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.

Similar in 82%

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Plot Summary:

After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.

Similar in 88%

The Collector (1965)

Plot Summary:

Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money, and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girl friend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar, and stalks his victim over several days.

Similar in 88%

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

Plot Summary:

A suburban family chooses seemingly sweet Peyton Flanders as their newborn's nanny. Only much later does the infant's mother, Claire Bartel, realize Peyton's true intentions -- to destroy Claire and replace her in the family. The nail-biting suspense builds quickly in this chilling psychological thriller about deception and bitter revenge.

Similar in 82%

Single White Female (1992)

Plot Summary:

Attractive Manhattanite Allison Jones has it all: a handsome beau, a rent-controlled apartment, and a promising career as a fashion designer. When boyfriend Sam proves unfaithful, Allison strikes out on her own but must use the classifieds to seek out a roommate in order to keep her spacious digs.

Similar in 79%

10 to Midnight (1983)

Plot Summary:

Based on the real-life Richard Speck murders, amoral, nearly psychotic killer Warren Stacey (Gene Davis) is a serial killer who has murdered a number of women; he stabs them while they are naked to minimize leaving any physical evidence. Police detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is convinced of Stacey’s guilt and, over the objections of his partner, plants evidence to get him behind bars. When Stacey is released on a technicality, he threatens to go after Kessler and his family, leaving Kessler to defend himself against a killer with little help from the police.

Similar in 79%

Jagged Edge (1985)

Plot Summary:

San Francisco heiress Page Forrester is brutally murdered in her remote beach house. Her husband Jack is devastated by the crime but soon finds himself accused of her murder. He hires lawyer Teddy Barnes to defend him, despite the fact she hasn't handled a criminal case for many years. There's a certain chemistry between them and Teddy soon finds herself defending the man she loves.

Similar in 89%

Devil's Pond (2003)

Plot Summary:

What starts out as a romantic honeymoon on a deserted island turns into a horrible nightmare as Julianne discovers that her new husband is psychotic.

Similar in 89%

Misery (1990)

Plot Summary:

Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.

Similar in 86%

The Call (2013)

Plot Summary:

Jordan Turner is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgment and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But when teenager Casey Welson is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911, Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save her, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.

Similar in 76%

The Good Son (1993)

Plot Summary:

A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle, and befriends his cousin who's the same age. But his cousin begins showing increasing signs of psychotic behavior.

Similar in 89%

Single White Female 2: The Psycho (2005)

Plot Summary:

A warped woman takes deadly measures to help a new roommate get rid of her problems.

Similar in 90%

A Time to Kill (1996)

Plot Summary:

A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.

Similar in 80%

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Plot Summary:

A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.

Similar in 89%

One Hour Photo (2002)

Plot Summary:

Sy "the photo guy" Parrish has lovingly developed photos for the Yorkin family since their son was a baby. But as the Yorkins' lives become fuller, Sy's only seems lonelier, until he eventually believes he's part of their family. When "Uncle" Sy's picture-perfect fantasy collides with an ugly dose of reality, what happens next "has the spine-tingling elements of the best psychological thrillers!".

Similar in 83%

Fatal Attraction (1987)

Plot Summary:

A married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

Similar in 90%

Fear (1996)

Plot Summary:

A 16 year old girl takes up with a charming young man who quickly shows his colors when he beats a friend simply for walking with her and then goes totally ballistic after she tries to break up with him.

Similar in 83%

Stoker (2013)

Plot Summary:

After India's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.

Similar in 85%

Cape Fear (1991)

Plot Summary:

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Similar in 85%

Red Dragon (2002)

Plot Summary:

Former FBI Agent Will Graham, who was once almost killed by the savage Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter, now has no choice but to face him again, as it seems Lecter is the only one who can help Graham track down a new serial killer.

Similar in 78%

Copycat (1995)

Plot Summary:

An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.

Similar in 80%

Secret Window (2004)

Plot Summary:

Mort Rainey, a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his ex-wife, is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity.

Similar in 89%

Alone (2020)

Plot Summary:

A recently widowed traveler is kidnapped by a cold blooded killer, only to escape into the wilderness where she is forced to battle against the elements as her pursuer closes in on her.

Similar in 90%

Hannibal (2001)

Plot Summary:

After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling, who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.