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They Look Like People poster

Movies that feel likeThey Look Like People (2016)

Suspecting that people are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian.

If you loved They Look Like People, the closest films we have are The Last Wave (1977), Good Manners (2018) and It Comes at Night (2017). All three share They Look Like People's contemplative and dread feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Next of Kin (1982).

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See it on the Mood Map

If They Look Like People hit the spot, these will too

The Last Wave poster
The Last Wave
1977 Β· dir. Peter Weir
πŸ… 78%β˜… 6.9drama Β· mystery Β· horrorMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: paranoia

The difference: 39 years apart, and the 1970s show

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

Good Manners poster
Good Manners
2018 Β· dir. Juliana Rojas
πŸ… 96%β˜… 6.7fantasy Β· horror Β· mystery

Contemplative and dread-soaked in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less paranoid than They Look Like People does

Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of SΓ£o Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but soon Clara discovers a terrifying secret about the child.

It Comes at Night poster
It Comes at Night
2017 Β· dir. Trey Edward Shults
πŸ… 88%β˜… 6.1drama Β· horror Β· mysteryMax

One thread runs through both: fear

The difference: Trades the dream logic of They Look Like People for an angle of its own

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

The Little Stranger poster
The Little Stranger
2018 Β· dir. Lenny Abrahamson
πŸ… 64%β˜… 5.5mystery Β· horror

Both land unease and twists at once

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house is now in decline. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?

In the Mouth of Madness poster
In the Mouth of Madness
1995 Β· dir. John Carpenter
πŸ… 61%β˜… 7.1horror Β· mystery

The same preoccupation in both: insanity

An insurance investigator visits a small town while looking into the strange disappearance of a popular horror novelist. He soon finds that the impact of the author’s books is far more than inspirational.

Hellhole poster
Hellhole
2022 Β· dir. Bartosz M. Kowalski
πŸ… 67%β˜… 5.8horror Β· mysteryNetflix

Dread-soaked horror, and it commits to that

In a monastery cut off from the world, the monks run a clinic for the possessed. One day, a young policeman Marek comes to the convent. Posing as a clergyman, he penetrates monastic life and tries to explain the recent, mysterious disappearance of several tormented inmates. It turns out, however, that there is no way out of the monastery.

Next of Kin poster
Next of Kin
1982 Β· dir. Tony Williams
πŸ… 100%β˜… 6.2horror Β· mystery

Both lean on dream logic more than on mystery

After Linda inherits a retirement home, she witnesses a series of strange events which seem connected to a dark and unspeakable evil.

The Sentinel poster
The Sentinel
1977 Β· dir. Michael Winner
πŸ… 45%β˜… 6.3horror Β· mystery Β· fantasyNetflix

Both are built on the same subject: demon

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than They Look Like People does

As a young girl, Alison Parker attempted suicide after being traumatized by her father's sexual exploits. Now an elite fashion model, she moves to a Brooklyn Heights apartment building where she encounters a number of bizarre, eccentric tenants and attempts to uncover the building's sinister secret.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death poster
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
1971 Β· dir. John D. Hancock
πŸ… 50%β˜… 6.4horror Β· mystery Β· drama

Common ground: paranoia

Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.

A Dark Song poster
A Dark Song
2016 Β· dir. Liam Gavin
πŸ… 91%β˜… 6.2horror Β· fantasy Β· mystery

Common ground: demon

A determined young woman and a damaged occultist risk their lives and souls to perform a dangerous ritual that will grant them what they want.

November poster
November
2017 Β· dir. Rainer Sarnet
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.1drama Β· fantasy Β· romance

Drama built on stillness, twice over

In a poor Estonian village, a group of peasants use magic and folk remedies to survive the winter, and a young woman tries to get a young man to love her.

I Walked with a Zombie poster
I Walked with a Zombie
1943 Β· dir. Jacques Tourneur
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7mystery Β· horror Β· drama

Unsettling drama in both cases

A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share They Look Like People’s defining feeling.