feelsalike.comSign in
A Nightmare on Elm Street poster

Movies that feel likeA Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Teenagers Nancy, Quentin, Kris, Jesse and Dean are all neighborhood friends who begin having the same dream of a horribly disfigured man who wears a tattered sweater and a glove made of knives. The man terrorizes them in their dreams, and the only escape is to wake up. But when, one by one, they start dying violently, the friends realize that what happens in the dream world is real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake.

If you loved A Nightmare on Elm Street, the closest films we have are The Skin I Live In (2011), Shutter (2004) and The Woman in Black (2012). All three share A Nightmare on Elm Street'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 Malignant (2021).

8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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

See it on the Mood Map

When is A Nightmare on Elm Street streaming? →

If A Nightmare on Elm Street hit the spot, these will too

The Skin I Live In poster
The Skin I Live In
2011 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 81%★ 7.6drama · horror · mystery

Both are built on the same subject: revenge

The difference: Reviewed even better

A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.

Shutter poster
Shutter
2004 · dir. Banjong Pisanthanakun
★ 7horror · mystery · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: revenge

The difference: Goes its own way on the dream logic

When Jane and Tun run over a girl in a car accident, they speed away immediately from the crime scene. However, Tun, a photographer, soon discovers strange shadows in his photos, which unsettles them.

The Woman in Black poster
The Woman in Black
2012 · dir. James Watkins
🍅 66%★ 6.4drama · horror · thrillerParamount+

Dread-soaked and unsettling in the same breath

The difference: Less twisty, more its own thing

The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity.

Scream poster
Scream
2022 · dir. Tyler Gillett
🍅 76%★ 6.3horror · mysteryParamount+

The same two preoccupations: halloween, and slasher

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.

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

Common ground: dreams

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.

I Saw the Devil poster
I Saw the Devil
2010 · dir. Kim Jee-woon
🍅 83%★ 7.8thriller · horror

Both land tension and relentlessness at once

Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.

I Know What You Did Last Summer poster
I Know What You Did Last Summer
1997 · dir. Jim Gillespie
🍅 46%★ 5.9horror · thriller · mysteryNetflix

The same preoccupation in both: slasher

After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the deadly secret resurfaces as they're stalked by a hook-handed figure.

Thir13en Ghosts poster
Thir13en Ghosts
2001 · dir. Steve Beck
🍅 19%★ 5.7horror · thriller

One thread runs through both: supernatural

Arthur and his two children inherit his uncle's estate: a glass house that serves as a prison to twelve ghosts. When the family, accompanied by a nanny and an attorney, enter the house they find themselves trapped inside an evil machine 'designed by the Devil and powered by the dead' to open the Eye of Hell. Aided by a ghost hunter and his rival, a ghost rights activist out to set the ghosts free, the group must do what they can to get out of the house alive.

Red Riding Hood poster
Red Riding Hood
2011 · dir. Catherine Hardwicke
🍅 10%★ 5.4mystery · fantasy · horrorMax

The same mix in both: twists, then dream logic

The difference: Played as fantasy first

Valerie is in love with a brooding outsider, Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry another man. Unwilling to lose each other, Valerie and Peter plan to run away together when Valerie's older sister is killed by a werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village. Panic grips the town as Valerie discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast--one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect ... and bait.

Ma poster
Ma
2019 · dir. Tate Taylor
🍅 55%★ 5.6horror · thrillerHuluPeacock

Dread-soaked horror in both cases

Sue Ann is a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own.

The Skeleton Key poster
The Skeleton Key
2005 · dir. Iain Softley
🍅 38%★ 6.5drama · horror · mysteryPrime VideoPeacock

Different title, same corner of the shelf

A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

House of Wax poster
House of Wax
2005 · dir. Jaume Collet-Serra
🍅 27%★ 5.5horror · thriller · mysteryMax

Mystery built on unease, twice over

A group of unwitting teens are stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.

In the mood for more dread?

all dread movies →

The best-reviewed films that share A Nightmare on Elm Street’s defining feeling.