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Freaks poster

Movies that feel likeFreaks (1932)

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

If you loved Freaks, the closest films we have are Dracula (1931), White Zombie (1932) and The Wolf Man (1941). All three share Freaks' dread and unsettling feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Black Cat (1934).

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If Freaks hit the spot, these will too

Dracula poster
Dracula
1931 · dir. Tod Browning
🍅 96%★ 7.3horrorPrime VideoPeacock

Tod Browning working the same nerve twice

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Freaks does

A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves and drives the agent to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

White Zombie poster
White Zombie
1932 · dir. Victor Halperin
🍅 77%★ 6.2horrorPrime Video

The same two preoccupations: black and white, and newlywed

A wealthy landowner living in Haiti convinces a sorcerer to lure the woman he has fallen for away from her fiancé. The madman later betrays their agreement by keeping the woman for himself…as a zombie.

The Wolf Man poster
The Wolf Man
1941 · dir. George Waggner
🍅 91%★ 7.2horror · dramaPeacock

Contemplative where it counts, dread-soaked underneath

After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde poster
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1931 · dir. Rouben Mamoulian
🍅 91%★ 7.6horror · science fiction · dramaMax

One thread runs through both: pre-code

The difference: Leans harder into science fiction than Freaks does

Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men: one that is good and one that is evil. He believes that by separating the two, man can become liberated. He succeeds in his experiments with chemicals to accomplish this and transforms into Hyde to commit horrendous crimes. When he discontinues use of the drug, it is already too late.

The Phantom of the Opera poster
The Phantom of the Opera
1925 · dir. Rupert Julian
🍅 90%★ 7.5horror

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

The deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House causes murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

The Mummy poster
The Mummy
1932 · dir. Karl Freund
🍅 90%★ 6.9horrorPeacock

Unsettling horror in both cases

An ancient Egyptian priest named Imhotep is revived when a British archaeological expedition finds his mummy and one of the researchers accidentally reads an ancient life-giving spell. Imhotep escapes from the field site and searches for the reincarnation of the soul of his lover.

Carrie poster
Carrie
2013 · dir. Kimberly Peirce
🍅 51%★ 5.8drama · horrorPrime Video

Two things both keep coming back to: revenge and murder

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl is the object of relentless bullying at school and an oppressively religious mother at home.

Friday the 13th poster
Friday the 13th
1980 · dir. Sean S. Cunningham
🍅 50%★ 6.3horrorNetflixParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: revenge

The difference: 48 years apart, and the 1980s show

Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

Frankenstein poster
Frankenstein
1931 · dir. James Whale
🍅 94%★ 7.7drama · horror · science fictionPrime VideoPeacock

Both keep coming back to the same thing: pre-code

Obsessed scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein attempts to create life by assembling a creature from deceased body parts. Aided by his loyal misshapen assistant, Fritz, Frankenstein succeeds in animating his monster, but it flees into the countryside and begins to wreak havoc.

The Black Cat poster
The Black Cat
1934 · dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
🍅 89%★ 6.9horror · thriller

Common ground: newlywed

After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.

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

Relentless drama, and it commits to that

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.

Faust poster
Faust
1926 · dir. F. W. Murnau
🍅 91%★ 8.1fantasy · drama · horror

Both are built on the same subject: romance

Murnau’s epic adaptation of Goethe’s tragedy stands with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis among the supreme achievements of German silent cinema. Gösta Ekman plays the alchemist who, his faith shaken in a time of plague, is offered the gift of healing and eternal youth… in exchange for his soul.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Freaks’ defining feeling.