Best movies like The Elizabeth Smart Story
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of the kidnapping of teenager Elizabeth Smart,in June 2002, by two people, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, suspense, psychological, rough, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like The Elizabeth Smart Story (2003):
Similar in 90%
Unbowed (2011)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by the true story of Kim Kyung-ho, a math professor who was arrested for shooting a crossbow at the presiding judge of his appeal against unfair dismissal.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 662
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, tense, suspenseful, suspense, psychological
Similar in 77%
Because I Love You (2012)
Plot Summary:
An unlikely romance occurs when a kidnapped victim falls in love with one of her abductors.
IMDB Rating: 3.2
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, suspense, humorous
Similar in 78%
Girl Fight (2011)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by a true story, Girl Fight recounts the harrowing story of a 16-year-old, stellar high school student whose life spirals downward when her former friends conspire to upload onto the Internet a shocking video of them beating her up.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, tense, suspense, disturbing, sad, crime drama
Similar in 75%
She Made Them Do It (2013)
Plot Summary:
"She Made Them Do It" follows the twisted life of Sarah Pender (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) a charismatic, intelligent young woman who would become one of the country’s most sought after fugitives.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama, crime thriller
Similar in 79%
The Preppie Connection (2015)
Plot Summary:
A student at a private school uses his connections to establish a drug trafficking network.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Puerto Rico, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense
Similar in 88%
A Killer Among Friends (1992)
Plot Summary:
The film tells why a girl was killed by two of her best friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: unusual plot structure, suspense, enigmatic, suspenseful, neo noir, slasher, teen
Similar in 78%
Beaten (2004)
Plot Summary:
Justina is a fifteen years old girl who lives with her mother and stepfather in Mexico City. In her sexual-awakening, she starts flirting with the only man in her life, her stepfather, causing the accidental murder of her mother and stepfather. Shocked, she runs away from home, crazy, just dressed with her nightgown. Ivan, a police detective who practices torture as daily routine and is reduced to the rank of street cop, looks for her all night long.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, suspense, suspenseful, neo noir
Similar in 86%
Adam: His Song Continues (1986)
Plot Summary:
Follows the true story of John and Reve Walsh who, after their child was murdered, fought to raise national awareness of the problem of missing children.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
?nos (2017)
Plot Summary:
Creation of the Slovak republic in 1993 and first years of its existence are marked with mafia connected to the highest places of the new government. True story about the hijacking of the son of the first president of the Slovak republic.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 496
Genere: Drama
Country: Slovakia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political thriller, psychological, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping (1993)
Plot Summary:
Three young men decide to make easy money by mass kidnapping. After careful preparations, they hijack the school bus and take 26 children and the driver as hostages. However, the bravery and the wit of the old driver could spoil their plan for the perfect crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 296
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
Rivals (2000)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl becomes entangled in a volatile relationship with a pair of high-school lovers.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 594
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, psychological, suspense, dark, teen, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 86%
We Have Your Husband (2011)
Plot Summary:
American-born Jayne Valseca, her husband Eduardo, the son of a legendary Mexican newspaper publisher, and their two children live an idyllic life on their 1,000 acre ranch outside of a peaceful Mexico town. But in the summer of 2007, their peaceful life is turned into a real-life nightmare when Eduardo is ambushed and kidnapped by strangers. With kidnapping becoming a pervasive and lucrative business in Mexico, Jayne is at the mercy of the kidnappers when they demand millions for the husband's safe release. She's pushed to the limit to do everything she possibly can to raise the money necessary to bring Eduardo back alive. As Eduardo is starved and tortured, he looses hope of ever seeing his family again but despite the dire and bleak times, Jayne refuses to give up and decides to turn the tables on the kidnappers and makes demands of her own. The film is based on a true story from the book, We Have Your Husband: One Woman's Terrifying Story of a Kidnapping in Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 77%
I Know My First Name Is Steven (1989)
Plot Summary:
7-year old Steven Stayner is kidnapped a few days before Christmas by Kenneth Parnell. Under the belief that Parnell has been given legal custody of him, and that his family has moved away, he stays with Parnell for seven years, enduring repetitive sexual abuse the entire time. Finally, at fourteen, he returns home to his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, suspenseful, emotional, thought provoking, sad, tense, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
An American Crime (2007)
Plot Summary:
The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: disturbing, harsh, serious, bleak, brutal, psychological, suspense, suspenseful, emotional, sad
Similar in 89%
Eden (2012)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Chong Kim who, as a young teen, was abducted into the sex trade, and the complicated moral choices she had to make in order to survive as her situation grew more desperate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, serious, suspenseful, bleak, sexy, disturbing, crime drama, captivating, independent film
Similar in 78%
The Executioner's Song (1982)
Plot Summary:
In this fact-based film, Gary Gilmore, an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker, a teenage single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 88%
Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993)
Plot Summary:
The pious John List regularly goes to church and is respected by his neighbours. But one day the police finds his wife Helen and their three children slayed in their house - obviously by John, who left two letters for the police and his priest and disappeared. Chief Richland is disgusted by the murder and starts an intensive investigation. In flashbacks we learn about the history of the disaster.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 250
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Too Young to Die? (1990)
Plot Summary:
An abused 15 year old is charged with a murder that carries the death penalty in this fact-based story.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, retro, neo noir, sad, cult classic, teen, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Nightmare in Columbia County (1991)
Plot Summary:
The recounting of a terrible crime that wracked a family and galvanized police in South Carolina in the 1980's. Southern beauty pageant winner Dawn Smith is targeted by a sadistic stalker whose obsession with her leads him to kidnap her younger sister.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 385
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, mind bending, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 87%
Kings of South Beach (2007)
Plot Summary:
This fact-based crime thriller details the downfall of Miami's hottest nightclub. Chris Troiano owns the trendiest nightclub in all of South Beach; a place where the line always winds down the block and only the most beautiful people make it past the velvet rope.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 76%
Nine Dead (2009)
Plot Summary:
Communication is the key to the survival for nine strangers who have been kidnapped by a masked gunman and told that one of them will die every ten minutes until they discover how they are all connected. Who of the nine lives and who dies?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, surprise ending, serious, suspenseful, scary, rough, twist ending, suspense, mind bending, psychological thriller
Similar in 89%
Dungeon Girl (2008)
Plot Summary:
A shocking story of captivity and survival inspired by actual events.
IMDB Rating: 1.5
IMDB Votes: 941
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: rough, disturbing, psychological, serious, realistic, scary, bleak, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Kidnapped: The Hannah Anderson Story (2015)
Plot Summary:
On the afternoon of August 3, 2013, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson was abducted after finishing cheerleading practice in a San Diego suburb. When the bodies of her mother and brother were found in the burned home of family friend James DiMaggio later that day, an AMBER Alert was issued, and a frantic multi-state manhunt for Hannah began. For a week she was kept prisoner by the increasingly unstable DiMaggio as they made their way across the state. One week later, the two were found in Idaho and DiMaggio was killed in a shootout with FBI agents, leaving Hannah as the sole survivor. As the dust settled, questions began to emerge about the nature of the relationship between Hannah and her kidnapper...and what really happened?.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 729
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, dark
Similar in 75%
I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country:
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, factual, dark, suspense, realistic
Similar in 88%
Cleveland Abduction (2015)
Plot Summary:
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, emotional, disturbing, realistic, dark
Similar in 89%
Girl in the Bunker (2018)
Plot Summary:
Set in 2006 and based on the true story of Elizabeth Shoaf, this powerful film explores the tension-filled ten days Elizabeth was kidnapped and held prisoner by Vinson Filyaw. Imprisoned in a secret underground bunker hidden deep in the woodland, Elizabeth finds herself at the mercy of an erratic and dangerous fantasist who dreams of one day making her his wife... While a massive police hunt unfolds above ground, it falls to Elizabeth to somehow outwit her captor if she is to survive.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, rough, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, disturbing, dark
Similar in 78%
Taken in Broad Daylight (2009)
Plot Summary:
Every 24 hrs. after a child's been kidnapped by a stranger, chances of finding them alive diminishes to almost 100% ... The true and inspiring survival story of kidnapped teen, Anne Sluti, and how she manages to stay alive by manipulating her captor, engineering her own rescue and negotiating her safe release after 6 days of hell.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, serious, suspenseful, exciting, bleak
Similar in 87%
Girl in the Box (2016)
Plot Summary:
A hitchhiking woman is abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, dark, suspense, disturbing, tense, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
3096 Days (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young Austrian girl is kidnapped and held in captivity for eight years. Based on the real-life case of Natascha Kampusch.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, rough, dark, saga, disturbing, controversial, teen, twisted, captivating, serious
Similar in 75%
Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)
Plot Summary:
The disturbing true-story of Lisa McVey, who was abducted in 1984 but later released by her abuser, only to have people question her story.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, touching, rough, captivating, thought provoking, disturbing, tense