
50 Movies Like The Purge: Election Year (2016) You Need to Watch Next
Two years after choosing not to kill the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Leo Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlene Roan, the front runner in the next Presidential elec
Updated June 2026
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If you loved The Purge: Election Year (2016) by James DeMonaco, 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 The First Purge, Peninsula, World War Z. 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.
50 Movies Similar to The Purge: Election Year

The First Purge
2018 · Gerard McMurray
To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But whe
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

Peninsula
2020 · Yeon Sang-ho
A soldier and his team battle hordes of post-apocalyptic zombies in the wastelands of the Korean Peninsula.
In common: Action · Horror

World War Z
2013 · Marc Forster
Life for former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane and his family seems content. Suddenly, the world is plagued by a mysterious infection turning whole human populations into rampaging mindless zo
In common: Action · Horror

The Purge: Anarchy
2014 · James DeMonaco
One night per year, the government sanctions a 12-hour period in which citizens can commit any crime they wish -- including murder -- without fear of punishment or imprisonment. Leo, a sergeant who lo
In common: Horror · Thriller

The Forever Purge
2021 · Everardo Gout
All the rules are broken as a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end as they chase a group of immigrants who they want to punish
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

Willy's Wonderland
2021 · Kevin Lewis
When his car breaks down, a quiet loner agrees to clean an abandoned family fun center in exchange for repairs. He soon finds himself waging war against possessed animatronic mascots while trapped ins
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

No Way Up
2024 · Claudio Fäh
Characters from different backgrounds are thrown together when the plane they're travelling on crashes into the Pacific Ocean. A nightmare fight for survival ensues with the air supply running out and
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

Planet Terror
2007 · Robert Rodriguez
Two doctors find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by sores. Among the wounded is Cherry Darling, a dancer whose leg was ripped from her body. As the invalids quickly become enr
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller
Unhinged
2020 · Derrick Borte
Rachel is a divorced single mother whose bad day gets even worse. She's running late to drop her son off at school when she honks her horn impatiently at a fellow driver during rush-hour traffic. Afte
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

The Hunt
2020 · Craig Zobel
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are—or how they got there. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

The Bad Batch
2017 · Ana Lily Amirpour
After being exiled to a fenced-off wasteland, Arlen is kidnapped by a group of cannibals and goes on a journey to reunite a missing girl with her father.
In common: Action · Horror

Pandorum
2009 · Christian Alvart
Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone – and the realit
In common: Action · Horror

Revenge
2017 · Coralie Fargeat
Jen's romantic getaway with her wealthy married boyfriend is disrupted when his friends arrive for an impromptu hunting trip. Tension mounts at the house until the situation culminates in an unexpecte
In common: Action · Horror

Badland Hunters
2024 · Heo Myeong-haeng
After a deadly earthquake turns Seoul into a lawless badland, a fearless huntsman springs into action to rescue a teenager abducted by a mad doctor.
In common: Action · Horror

Resident Evil
2002 · Paul W. S. Anderson
When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military tas
In common: Action · Horror

Land of the Dead
2005 · George A. Romero
The living dead have taken over the world, and the remaining humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they cope with the situation.
In common: Horror · Thriller

Train to Busan
2016 · Yeon Sang-ho
When a zombie virus pushes Korea into a state of emergency, those trapped on an express train to Busan must fight for their own survival.
In common: Action · Horror

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
2021 · Johannes Roberts
Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surfac
In common: Action · Horror

The Purge
2013 · James DeMonaco
Given the country's overcrowded prisons, the U.S. government begins to allow 12-hour periods of time in which all illegal activity is legal. During one of these free-for-alls, a family must protect th
In common: Horror · Thriller

Mad Max 2
1981 · George Miller
Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants
In common: Action · Thriller

The Running Man
1987 · Paul Michael Glaser
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of gam
In common: Action · Thriller

The Colony
2013 · Jeff Renfroe
Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature.
In common: Action · Thriller

Boy Kills World
2024 · Moritz Mohr
When his family is murdered, a deaf-mute named Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.
In common: Action · Thriller

Doomsday
2008 · Neil Marshall
The lethal Reaper virus spreads throughout Britain—infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Authorities brutally and successfully quarantine the country but, three decades later, the viru
In common: Action · Thriller

Gamer
2009 · Brian Taylor
Mind-control technology has taken society by a storm, a multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows players to control human prisoners in mass-scale. Simon controls Kable, the online champion of
In common: Action · Thriller

Death Race 2
2010 · Roel Reiné
In the world's most dangerous prison, a new game is born: Death Race. The rules of this adrenaline-fueled blood sport are simple, drive or die. When repentant convict Carl Lucas discovers there's a pr
In common: Action · Thriller

Mercy
2026 · Timur Bekmambetov
In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has ninety minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.
In common: Action · Thriller

In Time
2011 · Andrew Niccol
In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live foreve
In common: Action · Thriller

Insurgent
2015 · Robert Schwentke
Beatrice Prior must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart.
In common: Action · Thriller

From Dusk Till Dawn
1996 · Robert Rodriguez
After kidnapping a father and his two kids, the Gecko brothers head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety, unaware of its notorious clientele.
In common: Action · Horror

Terminator Salvation
2009 · McG
All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating militaristic robots. But when Marcus Wright appears, his existence confuses th
In common: Action · Thriller

The Island
2005 · Michael Bay
In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The I
In common: Action · Thriller

Mad Max
1979 · George Miller
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on st
In common: Action · Thriller

Total Recall
2012 · Len Wiseman
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the pol
In common: Action · Thriller

Arcadian
2024 · Benjamin Brewer
In the near future, on a decimated Earth, Paul and his twin sons face terror at night when ferocious creatures awaken. When Paul is nearly killed, the boys come up with a plan for survival, using ever
In common: Action · Horror

Sinners
2025 · Ryan Coogler
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
In common: Action · Horror · Thriller

Strange Darling
2024 · JT Mollner
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
In common: Horror · Thriller

Drag Me to Hell
2009 · Sam Raimi
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
In common: Horror · Thriller

The Omen
1976 · Richard Donner
Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.
In common: Horror · Thriller

Dangerous Animals
2025 · Sean Byrne
A savvy and free-spirited surfer is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer. Held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks be
In common: Horror · Thriller

30 Days of Night
2007 · David Slade
This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodt
In common: Horror · Thriller

Fresh
2022 · Mimi Cave
Frustrated by scrolling dating apps only to end up on lame, tedious dates, Noa takes a chance by giving her number to the awkwardly charming Steve after a produce-section meet-cute at the grocery stor
In common: Horror · Thriller

Crawl
2019 · Alexandre Aja
When a huge hurricane hits her hometown in Florida, Haley ignores evacuation orders to look for her father. After finding him badly wounded, both are trapped by the flood. With virtually no time to es
In common: Horror · Thriller

Don't Breathe 2
2021 · Rodo Sayagues
The Blind Man has been hiding out for several years in an isolated cabin and has taken in and raised a young girl orphaned from a devastating house fire. Their quiet life together is shattered when a
In common: Horror · Thriller

The Grudge 2
2006 · Takashi Shimizu
A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo, a mean high school prank goes horribly wrong, and strange things begin happening in a Chicago
In common: Horror · Thriller

Thrash
2026 · Tommy Wirkola
When a Category 5 hurricane decimates a coastal town, the storm surge brings devastation, chaos, and something far more frightening onto shore: hungry sharks.
In common: Horror · Thriller

The Sadness
2021 · Rob Jabbaz
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 en
In common: Horror · Thriller

Ring
1998 · Hideo Nakata
A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.
In common: Horror · Thriller

Heretic
2024 · Scott Beck
Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed, becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
In common: Horror · Thriller

Speak No Evil
2024 · James Watkins
When an American family is invited to spend the weekend at the idyllic country estate of a charming British family they befriended on vacation, what begins as a dream holiday soon warps into a snarled
In common: Horror · Thriller