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The Thing poster

Movies that feel likeThe Thing (2011)

When paleontologist Kate Lloyd travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.

If you loved The Thing, the closest films we have are In the Mouth of Madness (1995), They Look Like People (2016) and Vivarium (2019). All three share The Thing'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 It Comes at Night (2017).

🍅 34% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.dreadunsettlingcerebraltwistyparanoid
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If The Thing hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Thing (1982)

In the Mouth of Madness poster
In the Mouth of Madness
1995 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 61%★ 7.1horror · mystery

Both keep coming back to the same thing: paranoia

The difference: Reviewed even better

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.

They Look Like People poster
They Look Like People
2016 · dir. Perry Blackshear
🍅 92%★ 5.8drama · horror · mystery

The same preoccupation in both: paranoia

The difference: Trades the ideas of The Thing for an angle of its own

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

Vivarium poster
Vivarium
2019 · dir. Lorcan Finnegan
🍅 73%★ 5.8science fiction · mystery · horrorRent or buy

Dread-soaked where it counts, unsettling underneath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less paranoid than The Thing does

A young woman and her fiancé are in search of the perfect starter home. After following a mysterious real estate agent to a new housing development, the couple finds themselves trapped in a maze of identical houses and forced to raise an otherworldly child.

It Comes at Night poster
It Comes at Night
2017 · dir. Trey Edward Shults
🍅 88%★ 6.1drama · horror · mysteryMax

Twisty and paranoid in the same breath

The difference: Sits closer to drama than The Thing does

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.

Paranormal Activity 3 poster
Paranormal Activity 3
2011 · dir. Henry Joost
🍅 68%★ 5.8horror · mysteryParamount+Peacock

Both are built on the same subject: halloween

In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home.

Barbarian poster
Barbarian
2022 · dir. Zach Cregger
🍅 92%★ 7horror · mystery · thrillerHulu

Horror with a pulse of dread, in both cases

In town for a job interview, a young woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to find that it has been mistakenly double-booked and a strange man is already staying there. Against her better judgement, she decides to stay the night anyway.

The Faculty poster
The Faculty
1998 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 57%★ 6.6horror · science fictionParamount+

Science fiction built on ideas, twice over

When creepy things start happening at Herrington High, the students begin to suspect that their faculty is being controlled by body-snatching aliens.

A Cure for Wellness poster
A Cure for Wellness
2017 · dir. Gore Verbinski
🍅 42%★ 6.4horror · mystery · science fictionPrime Video

Both lean on unease more than on mystery

An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps but soon suspects that the spa's miraculous treatments are not what they seem.

Smile poster
Smile
2022 · dir. Parker Finn
🍅 79%★ 6.5horror · mysteryParamount+

Twisty horror, and it commits to that

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.

The Little Stranger poster
The Little Stranger
2018 · dir. Lenny Abrahamson
🍅 64%★ 5.5mystery · horror

Dread-soaked mystery in both cases

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?

Final Destination 5 poster
Final Destination 5
2011 · dir. Steven Quale
🍅 64%★ 5.9horror · mysteryMax

Science fiction with a pulse of unease, in both cases

Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.

Hostel poster
Hostel
2006 · dir. Eli Roth
🍅 60%★ 5.9horrorPeacock

Paranoid horror, and it commits to that

Three backpackers head to a Slovakian city that promises to meet their hedonistic expectations, with no idea of the hell that awaits them.

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