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Movies that feel like The Evil Dead (1983)

If you loved The Evil Dead, the closest films we have are Evil Dead (2013), The Exorcist (1973) and Drag Me to Hell (2009). All three share The Evil Dead's dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

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.

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sam Raimidreadunsettlingplayful
Stream it:HBO Max
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If The Evil Dead hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Evil Dead II (1987) · Army of Darkness (1992)

Evil Dead poster
Evil Dead
2013 · dir. Fede Álvarez
🍅 63%6.5horror

Two things both keep coming back to: book of the dead and necronomicon

The difference: 30 years apart, and the 2010s show

Mia, a drug addict, is determined to kick the habit. To that end, she asks her brother, David, his girlfriend, Natalie and their friends Olivia and Eric to accompany her to their family's remote forest cabin to help her through withdrawal. Eric finds a mysterious Book of the Dead at the cabin and reads aloud from it, awakening an ancient demon. All hell breaks loose when the malevolent entity possesses Mia.

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

Both are working the same pair: demonic possession, macabre

The difference: None of the play The Evil Dead is built on

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

Drag Me to Hell poster
Drag Me to Hell
2009 · dir. Sam Raimi
🍅 92%6.6horror · thriller

Sam Raimi directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Missing the play of The Evil Dead

After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for the worse. Christine is convinced she's been cursed by a Gypsy, but her boyfriend is skeptical. Her only hope seems to lie in a psychic who claims he can help her lift the curse and keep her soul from being dragged straight to hell.

Poltergeist poster
Poltergeist
1982 · dir. Tobe Hooper
🍅 89%7.3horror

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

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.

Fright Night poster
Fright Night
1985 · dir. Tom Holland
🍅 83%7.1comedy · horror

Playful horror, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into comedy than The Evil Dead does

Charley Brewster, a high school student, accidentally discovers the true and creepy nature of Jerry Dandrige, his dashing and enigmatic new neighbor; but no one seems willing to believe him.

Suspiria poster
Suspiria
1977 · dir. Dario Argento
🍅 94%7.3horror

Dread-soaked horror in both cases

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.

The Fog poster
The Fog
1980 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 76%6.8horror

Horror built on unease, twice over

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.

Child's Play poster
Child's Play
1988 · dir. Tom Holland
🍅 65%6.7horror

The shared currency is dread

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.

[REC]⁴ Apocalypse poster
[REC]⁴ Apocalypse
2014 · dir. Jaume Balagueró
🍅 65%5.3thriller · horror

The same two preoccupations: zombie, and occult

Ángela Vidal, the young television reporter who entered the building with the firemen, manages to make it out alive. But what the soldiers don't know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility, a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days. An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides, has been especially equipped for the quarantine.

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

Both sit in the same unsettling register

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.

[REC]³ Genesis poster
[REC]³ Genesis
2012 · dir. Paco Plaza
🍅 45%5horror

Both keep coming back to the same thing: zombie

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A pair of newlyweds must fight to survive when their wedding reception descends into chaos and carnage when their guests become infected by a virus that turns them into hungry zombies.

The Wicker Man poster
The Wicker Man
1973 · dir. Robin Hardy
🍅 92%7.5horror

Horror approached the same way

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.

In the mood for more dread?

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