
Movies that feel likeScream (1996)
If you loved Scream, the closest films we have are Black Christmas (1974), Saw (2004) and Longlegs (2024). All three share Scream's gritty and dread feel, which is what we rank on before quality.
Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Wailing (2016).
Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.
If Scream hit the spot, these will too
Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Scream 2 (1997) Β· Scream 3 (2000) Β· Scream 4 (2011) Β· Scream (2022) Β· Scream VI (2023)

The blueprint slasher this one borrows its stalking phone calls from
The difference: A grim sorority-house setting, no self-aware genre wit

A puzzle-box killer whose game the victims must solve to survive
The difference: Torture-trap horror, not a masked stalker calling on the phone

An investigator chasing a ritualistic serial killer's twisted game
The difference: Occult FBI procedural, not a killer taunting teens by phone

Ordinary young people pursued by a dread that never quite resolves
The difference: Found-footage woods horror, no killer or whodunit at all

An investigator racing a countdown against an unstoppable curse
The difference: A cursed videotape myth, no killer to unmask at the end

A small town's sudden violence unravels into a twisty mystery
The difference: Supernatural possession horror, no masked slasher or genre jokes

Gritty where it counts, dread-soaked underneath
The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Teens hunted on isolated roads by a relentless masked pursuer
The difference: A supernatural monster origin, no whodunit or meta commentary

The same preoccupation in both: halloween
The difference: Takes it somewhere less gritty than Scream does

A young woman stalked by an unshakable, inevitable threat
The difference: An abstract supernatural curse, not a flesh-and-blood killer

Ordinary teens picked off one by one by an unseen, patient threat
The difference: Death itself as the killer, no mask or motive to uncover

Wes Craven's earlier stalker terrorizing a small town's teenagers
The difference: Dream-logic supernatural killer instead of a real, unmasked one
In the mood for more gritty?
all gritty movies βThe best-reviewed films that share Screamβs defining feeling.









