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Movies that feel like Cape Fear (1962)

If you loved Cape Fear, the closest films we have are Prisoners (2013), Blast of Silence (1961) and Le Doulos (1962). All three share Cape Fear's tense and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on France Channel Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. J. Lee Thompsontensecontemplativegrittyatmosphericunsettling

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If Cape Fear hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Cape Fear (1991)

Prisoners poster
Prisoners
2013 · dir. Denis Villeneuve
🍅 81%8.2drama · thriller · crime

Both built around psychological thriller

The difference: 51 years apart, and the 2010s show

After his six-year-old daughter is abducted, a desperate father takes justice into his own hands when he loses faith in the detective leading the investigation, setting both men on a collision course as the search descends into obsession and moral compromise.

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Film noir sits at the heart of each

The difference: Missing the unease of Cape Fear

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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Le Doulos poster
Le Doulos
1962 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%7.7drama · thriller · crime

The same mix in both: tension, then stillness

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

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Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%8crime · thriller · drama

The same preoccupation in both: film noir

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

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Shoot the Piano Player poster
Shoot the Piano Player
1960 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 90%7.4drama · thriller · crime

Both land grit and atmosphere at once

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

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Le Samouraï poster
Le Samouraï
1967 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 92%8crime · thriller · drama

Thriller built on tension, twice over

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

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Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%7.6crime · drama · thriller

Both trade on stillness more than on being drama

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

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Night Moves poster
Night Moves
1975 · dir. Arthur Penn
🍅 78%7.1thriller · crime · drama

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case - a former Hollywood actress wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.

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The Silence of the Lambs poster
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · dir. Jonathan Demme
🍅 95%8.6crime · thriller · drama

Both keep circling back to psychopath

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

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The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%7.5crime · thriller · drama

Atmospheric thriller, and it commits to that

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

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Nightcrawler poster
Nightcrawler
2014 · dir. Dan Gilroy
🍅 95%7.8crime · drama · thriller

Psychopath is the engine of both

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

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One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%7.1crime · drama · thriller

Small town life sits at the heart of each

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.

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The best-reviewed films that share Cape Fear's defining feeling.