Best movies like Public Access
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies related to Public Access? Leverage your familiarity to help others toward tv shows and films you've seen that might interest them as well. Aid in increasing the network of individuals proposing videos to each other. We welcome your participation!
Plot Summary:
Brewster seems to be an almost too perfect example of idyllic small-town America, with everyone living in peace and harmony. So when newcomer Whiley Pritcher starts up his own local cable TV show with the question "what's wrong with Brewster?", there surely can't be any deep dark secrets in the town that are just waiting to come to the surface - or can there? And when the question becomes "who's wrong with Brewster?" things start getting seriously nasty.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 973
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, talky, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychological, sexy, thought provoking, clever
Best tv shows and movies like Public Access (1993):
Similar in 79%
Iron Maze (1991)
Plot Summary:
In Corinth, a dying town 15 miles from Pittsburg: One evening, a Japanese businessman, who wanted to tear down the closed iron mills to build an amusement park, is found half dead in his mill. Bellboy Barry admits to have done it - in self defense. Chief Ruhle interrogates him and Sugito's young wife and business partners, but it takes a while, until he gets through the maze of apparently contradictory statements.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 746
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, erotic, psychological, tense, mind bending, serious, realistic, suspenseful, sexual
Similar in 89%
The Suspect (2013)
Plot Summary:
Two African American social scientists pose as bank robbers in an effort to understand the racial dynamics of small-town law enforcement. However, their experiment takes an unplanned turn.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, captivating, clever, realistic
Similar in 81%
A Man in Uniform (1993)
Plot Summary:
Henry Adler lives in Ontario by himself, regularly visits his gruff and critical father, and works in a bank; he's also an actor. He finds new purpose in life when he's cast as a cop in a realistic TV show. He gets into the part, borrowing the uniform from wardrobe, and walking around the city streets. Soon he's talking to bank customers as if he's a cop; this gets him in trouble with his boss, but Henry doesn't care. He falls for one of the actresses, Charlie, and they practice together. Henry's quirks and his intensity creep her out, though, and she breaks off all contact. He's desolate. Things come to a head when one of LA's finest mistakes Henry for a real cop.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 645
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, psychological, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, suspense, psycho film
Similar in 79%
Annie's Garden (1997)
Plot Summary:
In front of his 15-year-old son, a father loses his temper and strikes his younger daughter, thinking she's trying to run away from him. Jump ahead ten years: the dad is dead, the mom is gone, and the son, Luke, is raising his now grown sister, Annie. He's overprotective, and she seems blood simple, a coquette and an innocent. He runs the diner in town, and one day, Lisa, a callow writer-to-be, comes through from Manhattan, keeping a journal, looking for interesting people. She takes a shine to Annie and then to the muscular and well-read Luke. But what is their secret, how many of the townsfolk are in on it, and what will Lisa do when it all becomes clear?.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 321
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
The Kate Logan Affair (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young psychologically unstable young police woman named Kate Logan and a married Frenchman find themselves caught up in a dramatic twisted affair.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 747
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, sincere, sexy, psychedelic, contemplative
Similar in 86%
Spark (1998)
Plot Summary:
An urban black couple (Terrence Howard, Nicole Parker) traveling via back roads from Chicago to LA has a car breakdown in a backwater town where everyone is white trailer trash and racial epithets are common graffiti. The film tries to examine the thoughts of the lower class that they get involved in and the loud mouth impetuosity of the black man which ultimately leads the couple into greater problems.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tension, suspense
Similar in 87%
All Mistakes Buried (2015)
Plot Summary:
A lone, struggling addict takes on a dangerous underground criminal ring in his small Southern town to retrieve a stolen pendant he believes will save his marriage.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 408
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 82%
Water's Edge (2003)
Plot Summary:
Robert wanted an escape from the big city. He thought a small town by the water's edge would give him a new start. He couldn't have been more wrong. This little town has dirty secrets, and Robert just found the worst of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 726
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, realistic, surprise ending
Similar in 90%
Beyond the Farthest Star (2015)
Plot Summary:
A twist of fate brings the national spotlight to a forgotten Texas town and a once famous preacher has an opportunity to regain his former glory or seize one last chance to restore his fractured family. Narrated by his fifteen-year-old daughter, Beyond the Farthest Star tells the story of Pastor Adam Wells, a minister driven by the prospect of achieving greatness as the next nationally syndicated TV Evangelist who must decide whether to give up his opportunity at “celebrity” and, even his own life, in order to become something even greater… A loving husband and father to his wife and daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Drama, Family, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, christian film, independent film
Similar in 88%
Out of the Black (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two brothers struggle to uncover the truth behind the mining accident that killed their father and bankrupted the town.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, tense, suspense, talky
Similar in 84%
Secrets of Eden (2012)
Plot Summary:
Based on Chris Bohjalian’s New York Times best-selling novel, “Secrets of Eden” centers on Stephen Drew, an adored small-town minister, and the brutal and sadistic murder-suicide of Alice and George Hayward, the town’s most beloved parishioners. Dark secrets begin to surface.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, realistic, serious, captivating
Similar in 81%
Saving Grace B. Jones (2009)
Plot Summary:
In a 1950s-era Missouri town the life of a couple is thrown into chaos when the husband's sister is released from the local asylum and comes to live with the family.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 374
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, suspenseful, realistic, independent film
Similar in 82%
Ambushed (1998)
Plot Summary:
Jim Natter, the leader of a violent Kuk Klux Klan lodge, is shot dead. His teenage son Eric Natter is found nearby, and taken into police custody for his protection pending the investigation. While four cops drive him to a safe-house, they are ambushed. Three of them shot dead, including Deputy Lawrence, and his black partner Jerry Robinson is accused of the murders.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 746
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending
Similar in 83%
Eye of the Stranger (1993)
Plot Summary:
A stranger comes into town and causes a stir when he stands up for the townfolk, in the face of the intimidation tactics from Mayor Howard Baines. The scheming mayor wants to buy up all the local properties, and has hired two thugs to help 'persuade' the owners to sell.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 83%
A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992)
Plot Summary:
After sixteen years of marriage and four children, Betty Broderick's high-powered attorney husband decides to leave her for a younger woman with whom he's been having an affair. Hurt by his betrayal and feeling helpless against his legal expertise, Betty begins a campaign of vandalism and verbal assault. Her rage consumes her and ultimately leads to a terrible and violent act.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, biting, suspense, ridiculous
Similar in 78%
Blood Crime (2002)
Plot Summary:
For burned-out Seattle cop Daniel Pruitt, a camping trip turns hellish when his wife, Jessica, is savagely attacked in the forest. En route to the hospital, the Pruitts collide with a semi, and Jessica identifies the driver as her assailant. Enraged, Pruitt pummels the man. Once at the ER, however, she changes her mind and names a male nurse as her attacker. But before Pruitt can make amends, he learns that his victim, the son of Sheriff Morgan McKenna, is dead.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 670
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 86%
The Runaway (2000)
Plot Summary:
At the birth of two boys, one white and one black, a mysterious and powerful Conjure Woman (Maya Angelou) prophesies that they will start the change. Growing up as best friends in rural Georgia in the 1940s, the boys make a discovery that leads the town's new sheriff, Frank Richards (Dean Cain), to reopen the investigation of the unsolved murders of three black men. While the town would prefer that the truth remain hidden, the sheriff pursues the case, determined to see justice prevail. The Runaway is a stirring story of how friendship, determination and conviction can generate racial change in one heart or an entire town.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 322
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Tucked Away (2007)
Plot Summary:
On the surface, Ray Ryan has it all. He's a successful advertising executive with a new promotion. He has a nice home and a beautiful fiancée. Underneath it all is a dark secret he's finding harder to hide. Ray's nightmares are giving way to visions of his abusive father, unlocking a suppressed violence he's unable to control. When ray brutally assaults a man in a parking lot, it leads to an investigation by an aging detective with a connected past. Neither is prepared as the secrets begin to unfold over a thirty-year-old murder they've both struggled to keep buried.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 84%
Bucksville (2011)
Plot Summary:
In a small, wooded town, a young man struggles to leave a secret militia started by his father.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 80%
Lured Innocence (2000)
Plot Summary:
A reporter sent to cover a murder trial discovers a web of deceit stemming from a torrid affair.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 443
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, mind bending, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
Samuel Bleak (2013)
Plot Summary:
In a quiet southern town, several lives are changed forever when an isolated mute with a dark secret is admitted to a mental institution.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 354
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, suspense, psychological, tense, captivating, bleak, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Night Eyes (1990)
Plot Summary:
A Beverly Hills home-security guard is seduced by a rock star's wife he monitors by video.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 753
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sexy, rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, cult classic, independent film, sexual, erotic, hot
Similar in 84%
Ricochet River (2001)
Plot Summary:
hree teenagers looking for adventure find more than they expected in this coming-of-age drama. High school seniors Wade (Jason James Richter) and Lorna (Kate Hudson) have spent all their lives in the small logging town of Calamus Grove, a conservative place where change comes slowly. Jesse Howl (Douglas Spain), a teenager of Native American ancestry, has just moved to Calamus Grove, and soon finds he doesn't fit in this close-knit community. Wade and Lorna go out of their way to befriend Jesse, and soon find that they're also regarded as outcasts among their peers. Eager to get away from the narrow minds which are stifling them, the three friends grab a car and take off for a summer road trip that turns out to be full of lessons in life and love. Ricochet River was based on the novel by Robin Cody.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film, talky
Similar in 78%
First Snow (2006)
Plot Summary:
A psychic's ominous reading sends a man into a tailspin.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, intense, atmospheric, tense, philosophical, offbeat, psychotronic, twisted, bleak
Similar in 78%
The Klansman (1974)
Plot Summary:
A small southern town has just been rocked by a tragedy: a young woman has been violently raped. The white town fathers immediately declare that the attacker had to be black, and place the blame on Garth, a young black man. Assuming that the men in white sheets aren't intent on holding a fair and impartial trial, Garth takes to the woods as the Klansmen lynching party hunts him down.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, tense, sincere, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, campy
Similar in 78%
Deadline (2012)
Plot Summary:
Deadline is the story of the murder of an African American youth in rural Alabama that has gone uninvestigated, unsolved, and unpunished for almost twenty years. That changes when Nashville Times reporter Matt Harper (Steve Talley) meets an idealistic young blueblood bent on discovering the truth. Harper undertakes the investigation despite the opposition of his publisher, violent threats from mysterious forces, a break-up with his fiancée, and his father's cancer diagnosis.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 88%
One False Move (1991)
Plot Summary:
Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, tense, suspenseful, independent film, atmospheric, disturbing, intense, rough, serious
Similar in 84%
Living in Fear (2001)
Plot Summary:
A man returning to his childhood home for the reading of a will is met with hostility. Do the townsfolk know more about him than his new wife?.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 401
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Final Cut (1998)
Plot Summary:
A group of friends gather for a wake, and are shown a video shot by Jude (Jude Law) and starring them before he dies. Things go rapidly downhill.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, clever, cynical, suspense, psychological, psychological thriller, experimental, tech noir
Similar in 76%
He Never Died (2015)
Plot Summary:
Jack is a solitary man with a mysterious past. His strange habits will soon become stranger when his past catches up with him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: dark, enigmatic, bleak, melancholic, bloody, humorous, harsh, splatter, stylized, intense