Best movies like The Promise
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Lisa's husband, Bill, abuses her. With her sister's encouragement, she takes their three kids and leaves her husband. Bill keeps interfering with Lisa's attempts at a new life. She gets an order of protection against him, but the police can't do anything else to help her. One night Bill breaks into Lisa's apartment and shoots her. As she dies in the hospital, Lisa asks her sister to promise to take care of her three children. The sister takes the kids into her home, but Bill is still on the loose, an ever present threat.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like The Promise (1999):
Similar in 78%
Getting Out (1994)
Plot Summary:
Breaking out of prison with a child in her womb and a dream of a normal existence, Arlene Holsclaw (Rebecca De Mornay) resolves to get a job and lead a good, Christian life. But the ghosts from her past -- including an ex-boyfriend (Rob Knepper) who wants to pimp her out and a sadistic mother (Ellen Burstyn) who plots to take away Arlene's baby -- have other plans. This made-for-TV drama is based on Marsha Norman's off-Broadway play.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Her Desperate Choice (1996)
Plot Summary:
Despite allegations of sexual abuse against her ex-husband, Jody (Faith Ford) has lost a custody battle for Samantha (Hanna Hall) and faces a choice of turning her daughter over to him, or taking flight and risking kidnapping charges. Pursued by both the FBI and a private detective, Jody and Samantha become hunted animals, fleeing from town to town with the help of an Underground Railroad set up to help women and children escape from abuse.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Unwed Father (1997)
Plot Summary:
9 months after a drunken sexual encounter, a young man winds up raising a baby on his own.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 748
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Black and Blue (1999)
Plot Summary:
After a woman's husband beats and abuses her, she and her son join the witness protection program and move away secretly.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 568
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Stolen Child (2012)
Plot Summary:
Amanda and Jason are happy marriage now, after years of frustration have finally managed to take a beautiful girl from a country in Eastern Europe through an international adoption agency. But when the doctor will perform a DNA test to small, finds that there have been irregularities in the adoption process.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 80%
Sous X (2015)
Plot Summary:
Jean-Jacques spent 9 years in prison for robbery. When he comes out, he finds the neighborhood where he grew up but things have changed ... The country is in crisis, the young people are holding the business and his old friends are urging him to resume his activities ... It may be for Jean-Jacques the time to ask the right questions.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Dance with the One (2010)
Plot Summary:
Nate's little brother and hippie dad depend on him for literally everything, but the well-meaning, small time pot dealer Nate wants nothing more than to run away with Nikki, the love of his life, and get out of Texas.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, captivating, suspense, exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 77%
If Someone Had Known (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young wife and mother is abused by her husband and keeps the secret from her friends and family.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 519
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, emotional, realistic, detective
Similar in 90%
Have You Seen My Son (1996)
Plot Summary:
A woman fears for her son's health when her ex-husband kidnaps him.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Deep in My Heart (1999)
Plot Summary:
In this made-for-tv movie, an adopted woman decides to find her birth mother. Her search leads her to a shocking discovery that she has to face and why her upbringing was not an easy one.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 457
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
The World Made Straight (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a rural Appalachian community haunted by the legacy of a Civil War massacre, a rebellious young man struggles to escape the violence that would bind him to the past.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, tense, neo noir, suspenseful, independent film, psychotronic
Similar in 77%
Courage (1986)
Plot Summary:
A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (1994)
Plot Summary:
About the 1989 murders of Carolco Entertainment chairman, Jose Menendez, and his wife, Kitty, who were killed by their sons, Lyle and Erik, in Beverly Hills, allegedly for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 394
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
90 Minutes (2012)
Plot Summary:
Director Eva Sørhaug (Cold Lunch) reveals the rage and violence lurking beneath seemingly tranquil domesticity in her bold and uncompromising sophomore feature.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, contemplative, hot
Similar in 84%
Five Thirteen (2013)
Plot Summary:
In this tension-packed thriller, brothers Mike and Tre set out in search of better lives, trying to leave their demons behind for good. After being released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, Mike's only care in the world is to protect his young daughter from an unforgiving ex. But the justice that awaits him on the streets is far worse than anything Mike had experienced in prison. His older brother Tre begrudgingly agrees to one last "delivery", attempting to free Mike and his new girlfriend from the grips of the criminal underworld. What transpires is a wild misadventure where multiple lives unknowingly intersect, and where decisions are made that will haunt everyone forever.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 723
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, independent film
Similar in 87%
Dancing in the Dark (1995)
Plot Summary:
Anna Forbes suffers an attack and sexual abuse by her father-in-law. But when she overcomes her fear and tells her husband Mark what happened he does not believe her, choosing instead to believe his father who denies everything. As Anna becomes increasingly desperate to be believed and her actions become more erratic, Mark has her committed to a mental institution for psychiatric treatment.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, clever, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, talky
Similar in 75%
Just Ask My Children (2001)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of a modern-day witch hunt, in which a couple is falsely accused and imprisoned for molesting their own children.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 807
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, serious, emotional, sad, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
3:13 (2014)
Plot Summary:
From living a normal life to surviving homelessness in the city of Miami, Peter is a victim of the turbulent U.S. recession during late 2000's. A drama based on true events.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 84%
For the Love of a Child (2006)
Plot Summary:
1959, support from US troops based in Asia and later from the Sates enables two actresses to start a charity for mixed-race 'orphans' who are locally neglected as outcasts. Thus originates Childhelp, which later runs multi-disciplinary centers for abused and/or neglected children in the States. Among them is bright Jacob Fletcher, whose stepfather, a lawyer, terrorized him into utter trauma and reclaims him shortly after 10 months in jail. Jacob's peers have distressing stories of their own, but competent, devoted staff helps most of them decisively on the former farm, using animal therapy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, disturbing, rough, thought provoking, tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
When Andrew Came Home (2000)
Plot Summary:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his kidnappers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sad
Similar in 86%
Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure (1989)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of baby Jessica McClure who fell into a drain pipe in her back yard while playing. She was stuck in the pipe about 20 to 30 feet down and it took rescuers 58 hours to get her out. There was fear that if they shook the earth too much with machinery they could cause Jessica to fall further down and die.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 862
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Miracle on Interstate 880 (1993)
Plot Summary:
A man attempts to rescue people trapped on the I-880 bridge after the top half collapses during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 278
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, disaster movie
Similar in 89%
Held Hostage (2009)
Plot Summary:
Michelle a single mother is kidnapped by three masked men and held hostage until she is forced to rob a bank which is the only option she has to saving her only child's life while they are both wired to explode.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 709
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic
Similar in 81%
Morning (2010)
Plot Summary:
Five days in the life of an American couple immediately following the accidental death of their child. An every day story of tragedy, loss, acceptance, hope and renewal. 'Morning' follows the divergent paths of Mark (Leland Orser) and Alice Munroe (Jeanne Tripplehorn) as they circle each other in a heart-breaking pas-de-deux of grief before finally coming to grips with their shared loss.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, psychological thriller, gloomy, psycho film
Similar in 80%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 87%
Cries from the Heart (1994)
Plot Summary:
A drama directed by Michael Switzer.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 312
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Harrison Montgomery (2008)
Plot Summary:
In a rundown apartment complex in San Francisco's Tenderloin, a septuagenarian seer is waiting for his final message. For decades the eccentric recluse has chronicled the phrases of the Wheel of Fortune and deciphered their hidden meaning - the details of a mission to save his neighbors from their troubles.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 85
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 87%
Copperhead (2013)
Plot Summary:
A family is torn apart during the American Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 82%
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 88%
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