Best movies like Terror in the Family
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Deena Marten wants the same freedom every teenager craves. But when she can't have her way, her rebellious temperament erupts in violence. Her parents, Stephanie and Todd, fear her new boyfriend, Garret, 17, is the cause. Distraught, Stephanie turns to alcohol, and Todd escapes in his work. They're unaware their Boy Scout son Adam, 13, sips from a vodka bottle hidden in his bedroom. And the problems in this dysfunctional family continue to worsen.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 730
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying
Best tv shows and movies like Terror in the Family (1996):
Similar in 83%
The Twilight of the Golds (1996)
Plot Summary:
When Suzanne Stein has a genetic analysis done on her unborn child, she discovers that although she has a healthy baby, the child will most likely be born gay, like her brother, David. She must decide whether to keep the child, or to have an abortion. Her family enters a crisis about love and acceptance as she makes this difficult choice. Written by Phil Fernando.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: cult classic, sentimental, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, crying
Similar in 80%
Little Vera (1988)
Plot Summary:
A story about a young woman, Vera, who is somebody, living the life of a troubled teenager in the time right before the end of the Soviet Union. She lives in a very small Russian apartment with her mother and father, however being this close to each other makes the living get rough. Their daily life is plagued with massive amounts of alcohol (mainly vodka) and when she tries to escape her home life, she meets up with a boyfriend, Sergei who then moves into her already small apartment after sleeping with her. Every day little Vera has to go through hell just to get by, which even involves her going against her own morals after her father has done something extremely wrong.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: serious, rough, suspense, disturbing, cynical, realistic, independent film
Similar in 87%
Runaways (2003)
Plot Summary:
Steve Moore is sixteen and lives with his younger sister, mother Cheryl and her boyfriend John, in a modest house in Bakersfield, California. An abusive and often intoxicated man, John rules the household, and though his attacks on Steve result in emergency hospital visits, Cheryl's loyalty is to her boyfriend. To protect her relationship with John, she "ditches" her son, having him arrested and locked in a correctional "mental" facility, before coercing her older brother Burt, who lives in Hollywood, to take him. Steve quickly discovers that Burt cannot even provide temporary lodging, but an administrator at his new high school directs him to a shelter for runaway kids where he soon learns to navigate his way.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 126
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film, psychological, sincere, humorous
Similar in 84%
The Architect (2006)
Plot Summary:
An architect engages in conflict with an activist who lives in a dangerous complex the architect designed.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, melancholic, absurd, sincere, realistic, crying, independent film
Similar in 84%
Wildflower (1991)
Plot Summary:
One day Sammy and his younger sister Ellie happen upon a cabin where Alice, a young, partially deaf girl with epilepsy is being kept by her abusive stepfather. The three soon become friends and hope to get Alice an education and help her escape from the torture she undergoes daily. However, Alice's stepfather soon finds out about the friendship Alice has struck up and punishes her brutally. This story of friendship and youth shows that everyone is human and deserves to be treated so, no matter their disability or weakness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, serious, realistic, inspirational
Similar in 87%
Hard Sun (2014)
Plot Summary:
After the death of her parents, a young woman assumes primary guardianship of her special needs brother. But as she attempts to balance her new life with her brother and her own blossoming romance, it becomes painfully clear that life will only make room for one.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 72
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, independent film
Similar in 82%
The Run of the Country (1995)
Plot Summary:
An Irish lad (Matt Keeslar) who fled from his oppressive, widowed father (Albert Finney) falls for a girl (Victoria Smurfit) from an affluent family.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 443
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Ireland, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, sexy, thought provoking, brutal, enigmatic
Similar in 80%
The American Standards (2008)
Plot Summary:
At a crossroads in his life, Doc Jennings goes home to celebrate his mother's birthday and uncovers dramatic family secrets. Lies, affairs and afflictions bubble to the surface of his seemingly perfect family. Can they come back together or is it too late?.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 654
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating
Similar in 90%
Stella (1990)
Plot Summary:
Barmaid Stella Claire and blueblood Stephen Dallas have very little in common -- except they've fallen in love. When their relationship fails, Stella decides to raise the child they had, Jenny, alone. But Jenny and Stella are far from the perfect mother-daughter pair.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, sentimental, captivating, sad, touching, realistic, sexual, erotic, romantic
Similar in 82%
Bridge to Silence (1989)
Plot Summary:
A woman with a hearing problem tries to get het life back together after a car accident that killed her husband.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Lost Holiday: The Jim & Suzanne Shemwell Story (2007)
Plot Summary:
In Idaho, an estranged couple are trapped in a blizzard while on vacation just before Christmas.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 297
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 88%
Crutch (2004)
Plot Summary:
An autobiographical film taken from the experiences of writer-director Rob Moretti, CRUTCH is a coming-of-age tale about a young man's struggle with family problems and substance abuse. Behind a facade of suburban middle class perfection, David's home life is falling apart. As he tries to cope with the impossible situation, the troubled and impressionable teenager falls under the spell of Kenny, a georgous, thirty-something, has-been actor turned theatre coach. When Kenny's "support" escalates into seduction, David slowly decends into an abyss of drinking and drug addition from which he must escape if he is to survive. CRUTCH is a dramatic tale of the confusion of youth and the difficulties in finding oneself.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
The Prince of Tides (1991)
Plot Summary:
A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, emotional, sad, inspirational, thought provoking, stylized, romantic drama, therapeutic, sentimental
Similar in 87%
The Good Mother (1988)
Plot Summary:
After finding a sexually liberated boyfriend, a divorced woman gets sued over daughter's custody, by her ex, who claims that her lover has a bad influence on the kid.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, gloomy, erotic, sentimental, light
Similar in 89%
According to Greta (2009)
Plot Summary:
Greta is a waitress who falls for an ambitious cook at the restaurant where they work. But as their summer romance heats up, she has to overcome the concerns of her grandparents about her boyfriend's criminal past.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, teen, touching, psychological, romantic, thought provoking, social, emotional, independent film
Similar in 90%
A Better Life (2011)
Plot Summary:
A gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, thought provoking, inspirational, hood, independent film, romantic, captivating
Similar in 81%
Dandelion (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small town of rolling fields and endless skies, isolated 16 year old Mason lives in a world where families exist in fragmented silence and love seems to have gone missing. Then Mason meets Danny, a sensitive and troubled girl, and their tender bond is soon tested after a fatal accident and a series of complications takes Mason away for something he didn't do.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, touching, sentimental, independent film, teen, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Treading Water (2001)
Plot Summary:
Casey (Angela Redman) has rejected her privileged upbringing and restores old boats for a living. She lives a cozy life with her beautiful social worker girlfriend Alex (super sexy Nina Landey) until her stuffy family demands that she come home for Christmas – without Alex.Casey is a longshorewoman who seems to have everything she wants; she and her girlfriend Alex are very much in love. But there’s nothing like the holidays to bring out the drama of the average family. Casey lives just across the bay from her upper crust New England family. The proximity seems no accident: Casey can’t quite let go, despite her family’s judgmental and inescapable hold on her otherwise independent and unconventional life. When the family reunites for Christmas, the unwrapping of presents takes a back seat to the unraveling of emotions.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 435
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, biting, suspense, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999)
Plot Summary:
An amnesiac youth tries to piece together his past, but what he discovers may jeopardize his future.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 76%
Friends (2000)
Plot Summary:
A story about a girl named Priya (Preity Zinta) who is the apple of her parents' eyes. She defied the Indian culture when she got pregnant out of marriage by Saif Ali Khan.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: India
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 89%
Shattered Spirits (1986)
Plot Summary:
Martin Sheen plays an alcoholic father who loses his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 355
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: spiritual, sincere, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 83%
When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Plot Summary:
An airline pilot and his wife are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. While the woman enters detox, her husband must face the truth of his enabling behavior.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, romantic, intense, psychological, touching, sad, retro, spiritual, romantic drama
Similar in 88%
The Truth About Jane (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jane, a high school teenager, tries to deal with the discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl who makes her discover her true sexuality, which is only the start of Jane's troubles when Jane's unaccepting mother, Janice, struggles with her surprising revelation of brought forth by her only daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, touching, serious, disturbing, crying, emotional, realistic, talky, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
A Long Way Home (2003)
Plot Summary:
Family members struggle to heal their emotional wounds after an incident of sexual abuse.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, emotional, realistic, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Fifteen and Pregnant (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, sincere, talky, ridiculous
Similar in 82%
Desert Bloom (1986)
Plot Summary:
The story involves Rose Chismore's youth. She flashes back and remembers her coming-of-age. Her recollections are sometimes less than sweet, particularly those of her troubled and alcoholic step-father. Her memories of Robin, her first-love, are much happier and she also recalls her colorful Aunt Starr -- who's visit is fun but also detrimental to her family's health. The setting of 1950s Las Vegas' bomb testing is increasingly significant to the development of the story.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, sincere, serious, realistic, light, thought provoking, enigmatic, feel good
Similar in 83%
Here on Earth (2000)
Plot Summary:
A rich college kid is taught a lesson after a joy ride ends up destroying a country restaurant.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, sincere, romantic, sad, crying, sex comedy, romantic drama, serious
Similar in 76%
The Greatest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, captivating, realistic, serious, emotional, breathtaking, cult classic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 75%
Bounce (2000)
Plot Summary:
A man switches plane tickets with another man who dies in that plane in a crash. The man falls in love with the deceased one's wife.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, romantic, melancholic, touching, talky, sincere, romantic drama, independent film, serious
Similar in 77%
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young woman who has been in and out from rehab for the past 10 years returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: independent film, emotional, serious, talky, sincere, romantic, philosophical, thought provoking, offbeat, intellectual