50 Movies Like The Lighthouse (2019) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View The Lighthouse details →Robert Eggers strands two lighthouse keepers on a remote New England island in the 1890s and watches their grip on sanity slowly loosen. Shot with a suffocating, claustrophobic intensity, this drama slides between the grimly real and the hallucinatory, a slow-burn descent where isolation, resentment and the crashing sea do the work of any monster. Expect striking black-and-white imagery, salty period dialogue and two performances built on rising dread rather than jump scares. It rewards patient viewers who like atmosphere, ambiguity and psychological tension over neat explanations. If you want a film that feels like a bad dream you can't shake, El faro delivers exactly that unease.
If you loved The Lighthouse (2019) by Robert Eggers, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are Kingdom: Ashin of the North, The Illusionist, Mirage. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to The Lighthouse
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with The Lighthouse in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
Kingdom: Ashin of the North
2021 · Kim Seong-hun
Tragedy, betrayal and a mysterious discovery fuel a woman's vengeance for the loss of her tribe and family.
In common: Drama · Fantasy · Thriller
The Illusionist
2006 · Neil Burger
With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crown prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Mirage
2018 · Oriol Paulo
During a mysterious thunderstorm, Vera, a young mother, manages to save a life in danger, but her good deed causes a disturbing chain of unexpected consequences.
In common: Drama · Fantasy
The Machinist
2004 · Brad Anderson
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Nowhere
2023 · Albert Pintó
A young pregnant woman named Mia escapes from a country at war by hiding in a maritime container aboard a cargo ship. After a violent storm, Mia gives birth to the child while lost at sea, where she m
In common: Drama · Thriller
Room
2015 · Lenny Abrahamson
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Margin Call
2011 · J.C. Chandor
Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. An entry-le
In common: Drama · Thriller
Sliver
1993 · Phillip Noyce
A woman moves into a Manhattan apartment, where she learns that the previous tenant's life ended under mysterious circumstances.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Last Breath
2025 · Alex Parkinson
Seasoned deep-sea divers battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Night Hunter
2019 · David Raymond
A Minnesota police officer crosses paths with a committed and tireless vigilante as he follows the trail of a ruthless predator responsible for several abductions and murders.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Mothers' Instinct
2024 · Benoît Delhomme
Housewives Alice and Celine are best friends and neighbours who seem to have it all. However, when a tragic accident shatters the harmony of their lives, guilt, suspicion and paranoia begin to unravel
In common: Drama · Thriller
Sleeping with the Enemy
1991 · Joseph Ruben
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Seventh Seal
1957 · Ingmar Bergman
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Fractured
2019 · Brad Anderson
Driving cross-country, Ray and his wife and daughter stop at a highway rest area where his daughter falls and breaks her arm. After a frantic rush to the hospital and a clash with the check-in nurse,
In common: Drama · Thriller
It's a Wonderful Life
1946 · Frank Capra
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan compan
In common: Drama · Fantasy
The Life of Chuck
2025 · Mike Flanagan
In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Sirāt
2025 · Oliver Laxe
A man and his son arrive at a rave lost in the mountains of Morocco. They are looking for Marina, their daughter and sister, who disappeared months ago at another rave. Driven by fate, they decide to
In common: Drama · Thriller
Conclave
2024 · Edward Berger
After the unexpected death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with managing the covert and ancient ritual of electing a new one. Sequestered in the Vatican with the Catholic Church’s most powerf
In common: Drama · Thriller
Crash
1996 · David Cronenberg
A car crash victim suddenly finds himself turned on by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground sub-culture of like-minded souls.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Emilia Pérez
2024 · Jacques Audiard
Rita, an underrated lawyer working for a large law firm more interested in getting criminals out of jail than bringing them to justice, is hired by the leader of a criminal organization.
In common: Drama · Thriller
We Need to Talk About Kevin
2011 · Lynne Ramsay
After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Escape from Alcatraz
1979 · Don Siegel
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Lost Bus
2025 · Paul Greengrass
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Amores Perros
2000 · Alejandro G. Iñárritu
A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man.
In common: Drama · Thriller
JFK
1991 · Oliver Stone
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Lady Vengeance
2005 · Park Chan-wook
Released after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 13 years, a woman begins executing her elaborate plan of retribution.
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Crush
1993 · Alan Shapiro
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Nocturnal Animals
2016 · Tom Ford
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastin
In common: Drama · Thriller
Thirteen Lives
2022 · Ron Howard
Based on the true nail-biting mission that captivated the world. Twelve boys and the coach of a Thai soccer team explore the Tham Luang cave when an unexpected rainstorm traps them in a chamber inside
In common: Drama · Thriller
Tetris
2023 · Jon S. Baird
In 1988, American video game salesman Henk Rogers discovers the video game Tetris. When he sets out to bring the game to the world, he enters a dangerous web of lies and corruption behind the Iron Cur
In common: Drama · Thriller
Eden
2025 · Ron Howard
A group of disillusioned outsiders abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greates
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Impossible
2012 · J. A. Bayona
In December 2004, close-knit family Maria, Henry and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand. But the day after Christmas, the idyllic holiday turns into an incomprehensible nightmare
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Lovely Bones
2009 · Peter Jackson
After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds
2017 · Kim Yong-hwa
Having died unexpectedly, firefighter Ja-hong is taken to the afterlife by 3 afterlife guardians. Only when he passes 7 trials over 49 days and proves he was innocent in human life, he’s able to reinc
In common: Drama
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
2016 · Tim Burton
A teenager finds himself transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures intent on destroying them.
In common: Drama
Ginger Snaps
2000 · John Fawcett
The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger's wound
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Ghost
1990 · Jerry Zucker
After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.
In common: Fantasy · Thriller
The Green Knight
2021 · David Lowery
An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confron
In common: Drama · Fantasy
127 Hours
2010 · Danny Boyle
The true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Hellraiser
1987 · Clive Barker
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indi
In common: Thriller
Sleepwalkers
1992 · Mick Garris
Charles Brady and his mother, Mary, are the last of a dying breed whose needs are not of this world. They are Sleepwalkers - able to stay alive only by feeding on the life-force of the innocent, but
In common: Fantasy · Thriller
Where the Wild Things Are
2009 · Spike Jonze
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts—Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander—crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts an
In common: Drama
Marty Supreme
2025 · Josh Safdie
Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Spiderwick Chronicles
2008 · Mark Waters
Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries
In common: Drama
The Fall
2006 · Tarsem Singh
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his frac
In common: Drama · Fantasy
The Hurt Locker
2008 · Kathryn Bigelow
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
In common: Drama · Thriller
Shoplifters
2018 · Hirokazu Kore-eda
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already
In common: Drama · Thriller
My Fault
2023 · Domingo González
Noah must leave her city, boyfriend, and friends to move into William Leister's mansion, the flashy and wealthy husband of her mother Rafaela. As a proud and independent 17 year old, Noah resists livi
In common: Drama · Thriller
Fifty Shades of Grey
2015 · Sam Taylor-Johnson
When college senior Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey for their campus paper, little does she realize the path her life will take. Chris
In common: Drama · Thriller
The Green Mile
1999 · Frank Darabont
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, rec
In common: Drama · Fantasy
Popular Drama series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
The Chosen
2019 · Tyler Thompson
The life of Christ through the eyes of those who encountered him.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
2025 · Park Sang-hyun
In Jeju, a spirited girl and a steadfast boy's island story blossoms into a lifelong tale of setbacks and triumphs — proving love endures across time.
