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Poltergeist poster

Movies that feel likePoltergeist (1982)

The Freelings' suburban home becomes the center of paranormal activity that opens a portal to the 'other side'. With help, they must cross over to get their daughter back.

If you loved Poltergeist, the closest films we have are The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Changeling (1980) and The Fog (1980). All three share Poltergeist's dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Onibaba (1964).

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Tobe Hooperdreadunsettling
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Poltergeist hit the spot, these will too

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre poster
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974 · dir. Tobe Hooper
🍅 85%★ 7.4horrorNetflixPrime Video

Tobe Hooper directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.

The Changeling poster
The Changeling
1980 · dir. Peter Medak
🍅 85%★ 7.1horror

One thread runs through both: medium

After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.

The Fog poster
The Fog
1980 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 77%★ 6.8horrorPrime VideoPeacock

Both are built on the same subject: halloween

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.

The Evil Dead poster
The Evil Dead
1983 · dir. Sam Raimi
🍅 85%★ 7.3horror

Both keep coming back to the same thing: halloween

In 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they've rented for a weekend getaway.

Child's Play poster
Child's Play
1988 · dir. Tom Holland
🍅 65%★ 6.7horrorPrime Video

Dread-soaked where it counts, unsettling underneath

After being shot in a toy store, a serial killer transfers his soul into a Good Guy doll. A mother then gifts it to her six-year-old son Andy, which unleashes terror upon the city.

The Wicker Man poster
The Wicker Man
1973 · dir. Robin Hardy
🍅 92%★ 7.5horrorPrime Video

Horror built on dread, twice over

Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. The investigation is further complicated as Howie’s religious views clash with those of the island’s residents.

Poltergeist poster
Poltergeist
2015 · dir. Gil Kenan
🍅 29%★ 4.9horrorHulu

The same two preoccupations: poltergeist, and haunted house

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

A family's suburban home is invaded by angry spirits. When the terrifying apparitions escalate their attacks and take the youngest daughter, the family must come together to rescue her.

The Exorcist poster
The Exorcist
1973 · dir. William Friedkin
🍅 78%★ 8.1horrorMax

Common ground: paranormal phenomena

When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.

Dracula poster
Dracula
1958 · dir. Terence Fisher
🍅 89%★ 7.2horror

Unsettling horror, and it commits to that

The difference: 24 years apart, and the 1950s show

After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.

The Amityville Horror poster
The Amityville Horror
2005 · dir. Andrew Douglas
🍅 23%★ 5.9horrorPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: haunted house

George Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Dutch colonial mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Long Island. However, their dream home is concealing a horrific past and soon each member of the Lutz family is plagued with increasingly strange and violent visions and impulses.

Kill, Baby... Kill! poster
Kill, Baby... Kill!
1966 · dir. Mario Bava
★ 6.8horrorPrime Video

Both lean on dread more than on horror

A 20th century European village is haunted by the ghost of a murderous little girl.

Onibaba poster
Onibaba
1964 · dir. Kaneto Shindō
🍅 90%★ 7.8horrorMax

Both sit in the same unsettling register

While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.

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