Best movies like Pan's Labyrinth
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Living with her tyrannical stepfather in a new home with her pregnant mother, 10-year-old Ofelia feels alone until she explores a decaying labyrinth guarded by a mysterious faun who claims to know her destiny. If she wishes to return to her real father, Ofelia must complete three terrifying tasks.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 694000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, War
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, surreal, dark fantasy, atmospheric, gothic, stylized, serious, emotional, suspenseful, captivating
Best tv shows and movies like Pan's Labyrinth (2006):
Similar in 84%
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Plot Summary:
Joe, a young American soldier, is hit by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed in a fate worse than death - a quadruple amputee who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Unbeknown to his doctors, he remains conscious and able to think, thereby reliving his life through strange dreams and memories and unable to distinguish whether he is awake or dreaming. He remains frustrated by his situation, until one day when Joe discovers a unique way to communicate with his caregivers.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, thought provoking, surreal, political, psychological, atmospheric, controversial, black and white, emotional
Similar in 85%
The Shape of Water (2017)
Plot Summary:
An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 441000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, fairy tale, romantic, biting, disturbing, ambiguous ending, dark fantasy, visually stunning, surreal, erotic
Similar in 88%
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Plot Summary:
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts -- Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander -- crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 108000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Germany, USA, Australia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, stylized, dark fantasy, light, talky, captivating, fairy tale, melancholic, sad
Similar in 84%
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
Plot Summary:
Set in pre- World War II era. A young man is on a strange train to see his dying father in a sanatorium. But the place is going to ruin and recalls a lot of memories from the past. He is beset by soldiers from the past, colonial black mercenaries, girls from his early life, and his parents. It is an interior adventure, with unusual atmospheric flair and extraordinary sets.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Poland
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychological, psychedelic, dark, mindfuck, disturbing, existential, philosophical, slasher
Similar in 77%
Sucker Punch (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 250000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: surreal, sexy, visual, atmospheric, exciting, dark fantasy, stylized, mythical, psychological, mind bending
Similar in 83%
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Plot Summary:
A teenager finds himself transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures intent on destroying them.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 185000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Belgium, Canada
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: dark fantasy, fairy tale, gothic, entertaining, exciting, atmospheric, stylized, serious, mystical, touching
Similar in 78%
Eraserhead (1977)
Plot Summary:
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 125000
Genere: Fantasy, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: surreal, avant garde, art house, psychological, disturbing, psychedelic, experimental, atmospheric, black and white, dark
Similar in 78%
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Plot Summary:
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor named Basie, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirits, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: sad, emotional, heartbreaking, period piece, touching, realistic, inspirational, historical drama, sincere, philosophical
Similar in 87%
Paperhouse (1988)
Plot Summary:
Anna is becoming lost in the loneliness of her own world when she discovers she can visit another, a house she has drawn herself and occupied by a young disabled boy. But as she discovers more of the links between her fantasy world and the mundane present, she is drawn only deeper into a dream turning into a nightmare.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: scary, disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, surreal, tense, intense, serious, creepy
Similar in 77%
The Tree of Life (2011)
Plot Summary:
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 182000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: surreal, philosophical, artsy, atmospheric, visually stunning, contemplative, thought provoking, art house, visual, touching
Similar in 75%
Tale of Tales (2015)
Plot Summary:
From the bitter quest of the Queen of Longtrellis, to two mysterious sisters who provoke the passion of a king, to the King of Highhills obsessed with a giant Flea, these tales are inspired by the fairytales by Giambattista Basile.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Italy, France, UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, dark fantasy, atmospheric, stylized, disturbing, surreal, anthology, dark, costume drama, tense
Similar in 87%
Mirrormask (2005)
Plot Summary:
In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a 15-year old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, surreal, offbeat, visually stunning, mindfuck, visually appealing, cerebral, visual, cult classic
Similar in 81%
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Angela Carter's fairy tales. Young Rosaleen dreams of a village in the dark woods, where Granny tells her cautionary tales in which innocent maidens are tempted by wolves who are hairy on the inside. As Rosaleen grows into womanhood, will the wolves come for her too?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: gothic, fairy tale, sexy, surreal, atmospheric, dark fantasy, scary, dark, cult classic, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Plot Summary:
Alice, an unpretentious and individual 19-year-old, is betrothed to a dunce of an English nobleman. At her engagement party, she escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage and falls down a hole in the garden after spotting an unusual rabbit. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called 'Underland,' she finds herself in a world that resembles the nightmares she had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens and knights, and frumious bandersnatches. Alice realizes that she is there for a reason – to conquer the horrific Jabberwocky and restore the rightful queen to her throne.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 435000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: USA, Italy, Canada, Japan, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, atmospheric, surreal, gothic, visually appealing, exciting, colorful, captivating, visual, stylized
Similar in 84%
Coraline (2009)
Plot Summary:
When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 257000
Genere: Animation, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: gothic, surreal, dark fantasy, dark, scary, stylized, bleak, offbeat, disturbing, visually appealing
Similar in 83%
The Fall (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 116000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA, South Africa, India
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: surreal, offbeat, fairy tale, visual, visually stunning, touching, visually appealing, mind bending, light, psychological
Similar in 88%
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Plot Summary:
A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 516000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: gothic, fairy tale, surreal, touching, sentimental, atmospheric, dark fantasy, sad, visually stunning, visual
Similar in 88%
Tideland (2005)
Plot Summary:
Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, psychedelic, bleak, dark fantasy, atmospheric, psychological, controversial, cult classic, mindfuck
Similar in 79%
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Plot Summary:
A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, surreal, psychological, disturbing, experimental, adult animation, stylized, mindfuck, mind bending, scary
Similar in 88%
Enter the Void (2009)
Plot Summary:
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, art house, visually stunning, philosophical, atmospheric, meditative, disturbing, surreal, cerebral, mindfuck
Similar in 88%
The Holy Mountain (1973)
Plot Summary:
A Mexican master leads a Christ figure and other disciples to a mountain of immortal wise men. The scandal of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky's flood of sacrilegious imagery and existential symbolism in The Holy Mountain is a spiritual quest for enlightenment pitting illusion against truth. The Alchemist (Jodorowsky) assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Mexico
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, avant garde, disturbing, art house, mindfuck, mind bending, experimental, atmospheric, stylized
Similar in 90%
Ink (2009)
Plot Summary:
Invisible forces exert power over us in our sleep. A mercenary named Ink, on a literal nightmare mission, captures the spirit of 8-year-old Emma in the dream world. To save her, the dream-givers marshal all their resources, focusing on saving the soul of Emma's tragically broken father.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark fantasy, atmospheric, mind bending, enigmatic, fairy tale, serious, clever, visually appealing, independent film
Similar in 75%
Crimson Peak (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds… and remembers.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 156000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: gothic, dark fantasy, gothic horror, atmospheric, suspense, dark, twist ending, suspenseful, scary, fairy tale
Similar in 88%
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Plot Summary:
Jesse Aarons trained all summer to become the fastest runner in school, so he's very upset when newcomer Leslie Burke outruns him and everyone else. Despite this and other differences, including that she's rich, he's poor, and she's a city girl, he's a country boy, the two become fast friends. Together, they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants and rule as king and queen.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 169000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, tear jerker, sad, touching, heartbreaking, fairy tale, sentimental, teen, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 78%
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Plot Summary:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 239000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, sad, heartbreaking, sentimental, tear jerker, serious, crying, thought provoking, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Plot Summary:
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverending Story. The book tells the tale of Atreyu, a young warrior who, with the help of a luck dragon named Falkor, must save Fantasia from the destruction of The Nothing.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, feel good, light, surreal, touching, scenic, offbeat, atmospheric, epic, melancholic
Similar in 83%
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Plot Summary:
Siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter step through a magical wardrobe and find the land of Narnia. There, the they discover a charming, once peaceful kingdom that has been plunged into eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion, Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular, climactic battle to be free of the Witch's glacial powers forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 420000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, atmospheric, exciting, epic, scenic, christian film, entertaining, visually stunning, action adventure, fantasy adventure
Similar in 79%
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Plot Summary:
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 71000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, art house, stylized, gothic, disturbing, mindfuck, visual, visually stunning, mind bending
Similar in 81%
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Plot Summary:
Frodo and Sam are trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn search for the orc-captured Merry and Pippin. All along, nefarious wizard Saruman awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 17000000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: New Zealand, USA
Duration: 179 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, epic, captivating, exciting, dark fantasy, scenic, heroic, breathtaking, visually stunning, cult classic