Movies that feel likeIn the Mouth of Madness (1995)

Name: In the Mouth of Madness
Director: John Carpenter
Genre: horror, mystery
Released: 1995

An insurance investigator visits a small town while looking into the strange disappearance of a popular horror novelist. He soon finds that the impact of the author’s books is far more than inspirational.

If you loved In the Mouth of Madness, the closest films we have are The Thing (1982), The Last Wave (1977) and They Look Like People (2016). All three share In the Mouth of Madness' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Fog (1980).

🍅 61% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John Carpenterdread unsettling twisty paranoid

10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If In the Mouth of Madness hit the spot, these will too

The Thing

1982 · dir. John Carpenter

🍅 85%★ 8.2horror · mystery · science fictionPrime Video

John Carpenter working the same nerve twice

The difference: Sits closer to science fiction than In the Mouth of Madness does

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

The Last Wave

1977 · dir. Peter Weir

🍅 78%★ 6.9drama · mystery · horrorMax

One thread runs through both: paranoia

The difference: Leans harder into drama than In the Mouth of Madness does

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

They Look Like People

2016 · dir. Perry Blackshear

🍅 92%★ 5.8drama · horror · mystery

Both keep coming back to the same thing: insanity

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Suspecting that people are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian.

The Fog

1980 · dir. John Carpenter

🍅 77%★ 6.8horrorPrime VideoPeacock

John Carpenter directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Takes it somewhere less twisty than In the Mouth of Madness does

Strange things begin to occur as a tiny California coastal town prepares to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone stumbles upon a dark secret about the town's founding; radio announcer Stevie witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.

It Comes at Night

2017 · dir. Trey Edward Shults

🍅 88%★ 6.1drama · horror · mysteryMax

The same preoccupation in both: paranoia

The difference: 22 years apart, and the 2010s show

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

Barbarian

2022 · dir. Zach Cregger

🍅 92%★ 7horror · mystery · thrillerHulu

Both land dread and unease at once

In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.

Hostel

2006 · dir. Eli Roth

🍅 60%★ 5.9horrorPeacock

Horror built on paranoia, twice over

Three backpackers head to a Slovakian city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

The Wailing

2016 · dir. Na Hong-jin

🍅 99%★ 7.4horror · mystery

Common ground: small town life

A stranger arrives in a little village and soon after a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.

Smile

2022 · dir. Parker Finn

🍅 79%★ 6.5horror · mysteryParamount+

Mystery with a pulse of twists, in both cases

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death

1971 · dir. John D. Hancock

🍅 50%★ 6.4horror · mystery · drama

Dread-soaked horror, and it commits to that

Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.

The Faculty

1998 · dir. Robert Rodriguez

🍅 57%★ 6.6horror · science fictionParamount+

Both lean on unease more than on mystery

When creepy things start happening at Herrington High, the students begin to suspect that their faculty is being controlled by body-snatching aliens.

Suspiria

1977 · dir. Dario Argento

🍅 94%★ 7.3horror · mystery

Both are built on the same subject: gothic

An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.