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Movies that feel like Phantasm (1979)

If you loved Phantasm, the closest films we have are Scanners (1981), Phase IV (1974) and The Fly (1986). All three share Phantasm's dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Criterion Channel, HBO Max and fuboTV and others, checked against today's data.

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.

🍅 72% Rotten Tomatoes6.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Don Coscarellidreadunsettlingcerebral

When is Phantasm streaming? →

If Phantasm hit the spot, these will too

Scanners poster
Scanners
1981 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 69%6.7science fiction · horror

The same mix in both: dread, then unease

A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called 'scanning' to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non-Scanners.

Feels alike?
Phase IV poster
Phase IV
1974 · dir. Saul Bass
🍅 50%6.4horror · science fiction

Cerebral horror, and it commits to that

Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.

Feels alike?
The Fly poster
The Fly
1986 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 83%7.6horror · science fiction

Science fiction with a pulse of dread, in both cases

When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

Feels alike?
Annihilation poster
Annihilation
2018 · dir. Alex Garland
🍅 88%6.8science fiction · horror

Both trade on unease more than on being horror

The difference: 39 years apart, and the 2010s show

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Feels alike?
M3GAN poster
M3GAN
2022 · dir. Gerard Johnstone
🍅 93%6.3science fiction · horror

Cerebral science fiction in both cases

A brilliant toy company roboticist uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a life-like doll programmed to emotionally bond with her newly orphaned niece. But when the doll's programming works too well, she becomes overprotective of her new friend with terrifying results.

Feels alike?
The New Mutants poster
The New Mutants
2020 · dir. Josh Boone
🍅 36%5.3science fiction · horror

Horror built on dread, twice over

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.

Feels alike?
Spring poster
Spring
2014 · dir. Aaron Moorhead
🍅 85%6.7horror · romance · science fiction

Science fiction with a pulse of unease, in both cases

The difference: Plays it as romance more than Phantasm does

A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.

Feels alike?
Alien: Covenant poster
Alien: Covenant
2017 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 65%6.4horror · science fiction

Ideas is the shared currency

The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world.

Feels alike?
Alien: Romulus poster
Alien: Romulus
2024 · dir. Fede Álvarez
🍅 80%7.1horror · science fiction

Both are horror through and through

While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Feels alike?
Alien poster
Alien
1979 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 93%8.5horror · science fiction

Science fiction approached the same way

During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.

Feels alike?
The Substance poster
The Substance
2024 · dir. Coralie Fargeat
🍅 89%7.2horror · science fiction

Cut from the same horror cloth

A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

Feels alike?
Seconds poster
Seconds
1966 · dir. John Frankenheimer
🍅 79%7.6science fiction · thriller · horror

The same science fiction instincts

An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.

Feels alike?

In the mood for more dread?

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