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Movies that feel like 8MM (1999)

If you loved 8MM, the closest films we have are The Number 23 (2007), Lantana (2001) and The Girl on the Train (2016). All three share 8MM's gritty and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Peacock Premium and others, checked against today's data.

A small, seemingly innocuous plastic reel of film leads surveillance specialist Tom Welles down an increasingly dark and frightening path. With the help of the streetwise Max, he relentlessly follows a bizarre trail of evidence to determine the fate of a complete stranger. As his work turns into obsession, he drifts farther and farther away from his wife, family and simple life as a small-town PI.

πŸ… 23% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 6.6 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Joel Schumachertensegrittytwistymelancholyobsessiveromantic

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The Number 23 poster
The Number 23
2007 Β· dir. Joel Schumacher
πŸ… 7%β˜… 6.4thriller Β· mystery Β· crime

Joel Schumacher directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: None of the melancholy 8MM is built on

Animal control officer Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.

Lantana poster
Lantana
2001 Β· dir. Ray Lawrence
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.2crime Β· drama Β· mystery

The same two preoccupations: grief, and the investigation

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Plagued with grief over the murder of her daughter, Valerie Somers suspects that her husband John is cheating on her. When Valerie disappears, Detective Leon Zat attempts to solve the mystery of her absence. A complex web of love, sex and deceit emerges -- drawing in four related couples whose various partners are distrustful and suspicious about each other's involvement.

The Girl on the Train poster
The Girl on the Train
2016 Β· dir. Tate Taylor
πŸ… 44%β˜… 6.5crime Β· mystery Β· thriller

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: Missing the romance of 8MM

Rachel Watson, devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds.

Tell No One poster
Tell No One
2006 Β· dir. Guillaume Canet
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.5drama Β· thriller Β· crime

The same preoccupation in both: grief

The difference: Leans harder into drama than 8MM does

A man receives a mysterious email appearing to be from his wife, who was murdered years earlier. As he frantically tries to find out whether she's alive, he finds himself being implicated in her death.

A Haunting in Venice poster
A Haunting in Venice
2023 Β· dir. Kenneth Branagh
πŸ… 75%β˜… 6.5mystery Β· thriller Β· crime

The same mix in both: tension, then grit

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

Celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, reluctantly attends a Halloween sΓ©ance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

The Ninth Gate poster
The Ninth Gate
1999 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 44%β˜… 6.7mystery Β· thriller Β· horror

Both keep coming back to the same thing: obsession

The difference: Sits closer to horror than 8MM does

A rare book dealer finds himself at the heart of a string of paranormal events when he is hired to find the last two copies of a text, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, capable of summoning the Devil.

Phone Booth poster
Phone Booth
2003 Β· dir. Joel Schumacher
πŸ… 72%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· crime

The same hand behind both of them: Joel Schumacher

A slick New York publicist who picks up a ringing receiver in a phone booth is told that if he hangs up, he'll be killed... and the little red light from a laser rifle sight is proof that the caller isn't kidding.

The Vanishing poster
The Vanishing
1988 Β· dir. George Sluizer
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.6thriller Β· mystery

Twisty where it counts, melancholy underneath

Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation when they stop at a busy service station. Saskia is abducted in broad daylight and three years pass with no answers or closure surrounding her disappearance. Rex has nearly given up all hope when he suddenly begins receiving letters from her abductor.

Flightplan poster
Flightplan
2005 Β· dir. Robert Schwentke
πŸ… 36%β˜… 6.3thriller Β· drama Β· mystery

Romantic thriller, and it commits to that

Flying at 40,000 feet in a state-of-the art aircraft that she helped design, Kyle Pratt's 6-year-old daughter Julia vanishes without a trace. Or did she? No one on the plane believes Julia was ever onboard. And now Kyle, desperate and alone, can only count on her own wits to unravel the mystery and save her daughter.

Mystic River poster
Mystic River
2003 Β· dir. Clint Eastwood
πŸ… 89%β˜… 7.9thriller Β· drama Β· mystery

Crime with a pulse of tension, in both cases

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.

Thelma poster
Thelma
2017 Β· dir. Joachim Trier
πŸ… 92%β˜… 6.9drama Β· mystery Β· thriller

Common ground: obsession

A college student starts to experience extreme seizures. She soon learns that the violent episodes are a symptom of inexplicable abilities.

A Time to Kill poster
A Time to Kill
1996 Β· dir. Joel Schumacher
πŸ… 66%β˜… 7.5crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both lean on grit more than on mystery

A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.

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The best-reviewed films that share 8MM’s defining feeling.