Best movies like Nightmare Alley

Similar in 87%

Windfall (2022)

Plot Summary:

A man breaks into a tech billionaire's empty vacation home, but things go sideways when the arrogant mogul and his wife arrive for a last-minute getaway.

Similar in 83%

U Turn (1997)

Plot Summary:

When Bobby's car breaks down in the desert while on the run from some of the bookies who have already taken two of his fingers, he becomes trapped in the nearby small town where the people are stranger than anyone he's encountered. After becoming involved with a young married woman, her husband hires Bobby to kill her. Later, she hires Bobby to kill the husband.

Similar in 75%

Widows (2018)

Plot Summary:

Set in contemporary Chicago, amidst a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities take fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.

Similar in 80%

The Devil All the Time (2020)

Plot Summary:

In the 1960s after World War II in Southern Ohio, bizarre, compelling and mentally disturbed people suffer from the war's psychological damages.

Similar in 89%

Internal Affairs (1990)

Plot Summary:

Keen young Raymold Avila joins the Internal Affairs Department of the Los Angeles police. He and partner Amy Wallace are soon looking closely at the activities of cop Dennis Peck whose financial holdings start to suggest something shady. Indeed Peck is involved in any number of dubious or downright criminal activities. He is also devious, a womaniser, and a clever manipulator, and he starts to turn his attention on Avila.

Similar in 79%

Ghost Story (1981)

Plot Summary:

Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.

Similar in 88%

Panic Room (2002)

Plot Summary:

Trapped in their New York brownstone's panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders - Burnham, Raoul and Junior - during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.

Similar in 84%

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Plot Summary:

Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past in 1969. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption... before everything goes to hell. A young concierge greets the strangers: a down-on-his-luck priest, a singer, an impressionable Southern girl and her older sister, a vacuum cleaner salesman, and a charismatic cult leader.

Similar in 90%

The Black Dahlia (2006)

Plot Summary:

Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert are former boxers-turned-cops in 1940s Los Angeles and, when an aspiring young actress turns up dead, Blanchard and Bleichert must grapple with corruption, narcissism, stag films and family madness as they pursue the killer.

Similar in 80%

Narc (2002)

Plot Summary:

An undercover narc dies, the investigation stalls, so the Detroit P.D. brings back Nick Tellis, fired 18-months ago when a stray bullet hits a pregnant woman. Tellis teams with Henry Oak, a friend of the dead narc and an aggressive cop constantly under the scrutiny of internal affairs. They follow leads and informants turn up dead.

Similar in 86%

Blue Ruin (2013)

Plot Summary:

The quiet life of a beach bum is upended by dreadful news. He sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance but proves an inept assassin and finds himself in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.

Similar in 82%

Wild at Heart (1990)

Plot Summary:

Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula's mom has hired to kill Sailor.

Similar in 87%

Derailed (2005)

Plot Summary:

When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, they are forced to turn the tables on him to save their families.

Similar in 85%

A Simple Plan (1998)

Plot Summary:

Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over $4 million in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. Their simple plan to retain the money while avoiding detection opens a Pandora's box when the fear of getting caught triggers panicked behavior and leads to virulent consequences.

Similar in 88%

Marathon Man (1976)

Plot Summary:

A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

Similar in 78%

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Plot Summary:

Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

Similar in 86%

Nightcrawler (2014)

Plot Summary:

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Similar in 84%

Joker (2019)

Plot Summary:

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

Similar in 83%

Carlito's Way (1993)

Plot Summary:

A Puerto-Rican ex-con, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of NYC.

Similar in 87%

Solace (2015)

Plot Summary:

A psychic doctor, John Clancy, works with an FBI special agent in search of a serial killer.

Similar in 79%

American Hustle (2013)

Plot Summary:

A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.

Similar in 75%

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 87%

Prisoners (2013)

Plot Summary:

When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?.

Similar in 89%

The Sixth Sense (1999)

Plot Summary:

A psychological thriller about an eight year old boy named Cole Sear who believes he can see into the world of the dead. A child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe comes to Cole to help him deal with his problem, learning that he really can see ghosts of dead people.

Similar in 86%

The Bone Collector (1999)

Plot Summary:

Rookie cop, Amelia Donaghy reluctantly teams with Lincoln Rhyme – formerly the department's top homicide detective but now paralyzed as a result of a spinal injury – to catch a grisly serial killer dubbed 'The Bone Collector'. The murderer's special signature is to leave tantalizing clues based on the grim remains of his crimes.

Similar in 89%

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Plot Summary:

Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the violent pursuit of money and justice collide.

Similar in 86%

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Plot Summary:

Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.

Similar in 81%

The Departed (2006)

Plot Summary:

To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop curries favor with the mob kingpin, a career criminal rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there's a mole among them.

Similar in 75%

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Plot Summary:

FBI trainee, Clarice Starling ventures into a maximum-security asylum to pick the diseased brain of Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist turned homicidal cannibal. Starling needs clues to help her capture a serial killer. But her Faustian relationship with Lecter soon leads to his escape, and now two deranged killers are on the loose.

Similar in 81%

Se7en (1995)

Plot Summary:

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.