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Movies that feel like When Evil Lurks (2023)

If you loved When Evil Lurks, the closest films we have are Evil Dead Rise (2023), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) and Drag Me to Hell (2009). All three share When Evil Lurks' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 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.

When brothers Pedro and Jimi discover that a demonic infection has been festering in a nearby farmhouse, they attempt to evict the victim from their land. Failing to adhere to the proper rites of exorcism, their reckless actions inadvertently trigger an epidemic of possessions across their rural community.

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes6.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Demián Rugnadreadunsettlingtense
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If When Evil Lurks hit the spot, these will too

Evil Dead Rise poster
Evil Dead Rise
2023 · dir. Lee Cronin
🍅 85%6.5horror · thriller

Common ground in both: gore and demon

A reunion between two estranged sisters gets cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

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Insidious: Chapter 2 poster
Insidious: Chapter 2
2013 · dir. James Wan
🍅 38%6.6horror · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: possession

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

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

Common ground: evil

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.

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The Sadness poster
The Sadness
2021 · dir. Rob Jabbaz
🍅 88%6.5horror · thriller

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they attempt to be reunited amid the chaos of a pandemic outbreak. The streets erupt into violence and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things imaginable.

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Hokum poster
Hokum
2026 · dir. Damian McCarthy
7.3horror · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on horror

When novelist Ohm Bauman retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents' ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance forces him to confront dark corners of his past.

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Death Whisperer poster
Death Whisperer
2023 · dir. Taweewat Wantha
5.8horror · thriller

Dread-soaked thriller, and it commits to that

When a remote village is plagued by a deadly curse, one brother must fight to save his family from a terrifying supernatural threat.

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Insidious: The Last Key poster
Insidious: The Last Key
2018 · dir. Adam Robitel
🍅 34%5.7horror · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: demon

Parapsychologist Elise Rainier and her team travel to Five Keys, NM, to investigate a man’s claim of a haunting. Terror soon strikes when Rainier realizes that the house he lives in was her family’s old home.

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Julia's Eyes poster
Julia's Eyes
2010 · dir. Guillem Morales
🍅 90%6.7horror · thriller

Horror with a pulse of unease, in both cases

Julia, a woman suffering from a degenerative sight disease, finds her blind sister Sara hung in a basement. Despite all signs pointing to suicide, Julia decides to investigate what she intuitively feels is a murder case.

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Insidious: Chapter 3 poster
Insidious: Chapter 3
2015 · dir. Leigh Whannell
🍅 56%6.1horror · thriller

Tense thriller in both cases

A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.

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Creep poster
Creep
2014 · dir. Patrick Brice
🍅 91%6.3horror · thriller

Horror built on dread, twice over

Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: “$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated.” Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.

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The Pool poster
The Pool
2018 · dir. Ping Lumpraploeng
🍅 96%5.3thriller · horror

Unsettling thriller in both cases

Left alone to clean up a 6-meter-deep deserted pool, Day falls asleep on an inflatable raft. When he wakes, the water level has sunk so low that he can't climb out on his own. Stuck in the pool, Day screams for help, but the only thing that hears him is a creature from a nearby crocodile farm.

Feels alike?
Speak No Evil poster
Speak No Evil
2022 · dir. Christian Tafdrup
🍅 83%6.6horror · thriller · drama

The shared currency is tension

The difference: Sits closer to drama than When Evil Lurks does

A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.

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The best-reviewed films that share When Evil Lurks’ defining feeling.