feelsalike.comSign in
Saw poster

Movies that feel likeSaw (2004)

Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.

If you loved Saw, the closest films we have are Malignant (2021), Scream (1996) and Longlegs (2024). All three share Saw'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 The Conjuring 2 (2016).

🍅 50% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. James Wandreadunsettlingtwistygritty
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Stream it:Peacock ↗
See it on the Mood Map

When is Saw streaming? →

If Saw hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Saw II (2005) · Saw III (2006) · Saw IV (2007) · Saw V (2008) · Saw VI (2009) · Saw 3D (2010)

Malignant poster
Malignant
2021 · dir. James Wan
🍅 77%★ 6.2horror · mysteryRent or buy

Wan's gnarly side — grisly kills, detective threads and a wild reveal

The difference: Swerves into camp — the last act is a knowing joke

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities with a mysterious tie to her past.

Scream poster
Scream
1996 · dir. Wes Craven
🍅 78%★ 7.4crime · horror · mysteryHuluParamount+

A masked killer whose games have rules the victims learn too late

The difference: Self-aware and quippy — it winks where Saw glowers

A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.

Longlegs poster
Longlegs
2024 · dir. Osgood Perkins
🍅 85%★ 6.5crime · horror · mysteryHulu

A detective's hunt for a killer whose crimes feel designed

The difference: Slow occult procedural — oppressive quiet instead of gore

FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

The Conjuring 2 poster
The Conjuring 2
2016 · dir. James Wan
🍅 80%★ 7.3horrorMax

Wan tightening the screws until dread becomes unbearable

The difference: Haunted-house scares — clean supernatural, no bloodletting

Lorraine and Ed Warren travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.

Black Christmas poster
Black Christmas
1974 · dir. Bob Clark
🍅 73%★ 7.1horror · mystery · crimePrime VideoPeacock

The same mix in both: dread, then unease

The difference: Made in the 1970s, in a different era of the craft

As the residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to harass them with a series of obscene phone calls.

The Ring poster
The Ring
2002 · dir. Gore Verbinski
🍅 72%★ 7.1horror · mysteryNetflixParamount+

A death mechanism with rules, a deadline and a tape at the center

The difference: Chilly mood horror — the fear seeps rather than shocks

Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.

Silent Hill poster
Silent Hill
2006 · dir. Christophe Gans
🍅 34%★ 6.5horror · mysteryPeacock

A purgatorial nightmare where suffering is the architecture

The difference: Foggy dream logic — atmosphere sprawls where Saw stays caged

Rose, a desperate mother, takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose embarks on a horrific journey to get her back and begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years earlier.

Dead Silence poster
Dead Silence
2007 · dir. James Wan
🍅 22%★ 6.2horror

Wan building dread through a sinister design and grim flashbacks

The difference: Supernatural puppet gothic — atmosphere over visceral traps

Jamie returns to his hometown in search of answers to his wife's murder, which occurred after receiving a weird package containing a ventriloquist dummy named Billy, which may be linked to the legend of ventriloquist Mary Shaw. Destined to find out the truth, Jamie goes to the town of Raven's Fair, where Shaw used to perform and is buried. But Jamie is in for more than he expected.

Final Destination 2 poster
Final Destination 2
2003 · dir. David R. Ellis
🍅 52%★ 6.2horror · mysteryMax

Death as an elaborate mechanism picking victims off by design

The difference: Splattery carnival ride — gleeful, not grim

When Kimberly has a violent premonition of a highway pileup she blocks the freeway, keeping a few others meant to die, safe...Or are they? The survivors mysteriously start dying and it's up to Kimberly to stop it before she's next.

Case 39 poster
Case 39
2009 · dir. Christian Alvart
🍅 22%★ 6.2horror · mystery · thrillerParamount+

Both keep coming back to the same thing: detective

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

In her many years as a social worker, Emily Jenkins believes she has seen it all, until she meets 10-year-old Lilith and the girl's cruel parents. Emily's worst fears are confirmed when the parents try to harm the child, and so Emily assumes custody of Lilith while she looks for a foster family. However, Emily soon finds that dark forces surround the seemingly innocent girl, and the more she tries to protect Lilith, the more horrors she encounters.

The Nameless poster
The Nameless
1999 · dir. Jaume Balagueró
🍅 20%★ 5.8thriller · mystery · horror

Both are working the same pair: flashback, torture

The difference: Sits closer to thriller than Saw does

The mutilated body of a six year old girl is found in a water hole. The girl is identified as the missing daughter of Claudia. However, only two peices of evidence could be used to identify her; a bracelet with her name on it near the crime scene, and the fact that her right leg was three inches longer than her left. All other methods of identification were removed from her body. Five years later Claudia, now addicted to tranquilizers, receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her daughter, asking for her mother to come find her before 'they' kill her. Other mysterious clues show up, further indicating that Claudia's daughter is indeed still alive, and very much in danger. Claudia, a run-down ex-cop, and a parapsychology reporter put together the clues to discover Angela's whereabouts

Jeepers Creepers poster
Jeepers Creepers
2001 · dir. Victor Salva
🍅 47%★ 6.2horror · mystery

Twisty horror, and it commits to that

The difference: Easier on the grit than Saw

On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.

In the mood for more dread?

all dread movies →

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