13 Shows Like Stranger Things (2016) to Watch When You're Done
Updated August 2026
View Stranger Things details →This 2016 phenomenon drops a 1980s small town into supernatural nightmare when a boy vanishes and a strange girl with powers appears, pursued by secret experiments and a creature from another dimension. A loving throwback to Spielberg-era adventure with real scares and heart, it became a global obsession. If its nostalgia and dread hooked you, seek out sci-fi horror series and 80s-flavoured mysteries about kids facing the unknown.
If you loved Stranger Things (2016) by Curtis Gwinn, here are 13 TV series 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 IT: Welcome to Derry, It, The Haunting of Hill House. 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 Shows Similar to Stranger Things
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the shows that share the most with Stranger Things 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.
IT: Welcome to Derry
2025 · Barbara Muschietti
In 1962, amid a spate of unexplained disappearances of local children, a group of misfit friends begin to suspect a long-buried ancient evil lurking. As the kids set out to determine what's really goi
In common: Mystery
It
1990 · Jim Green
In 1960, seven outcast kids known as "The Losers' Club" fight against an ancient shape-shifting alien who poses as a child-killing clown, while also dealing with bullies and abusive parents. Thirty ye
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The Haunting of Hill House
2018 · Meredith Averill
Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.
In common: Mystery
FROM
2022 · Josh Appelbaum
Unravel the mystery of a nightmarish town in middle America that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also surviv
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
American Horror Story
2011 · Halley Feiffer
An anthology horror drama series centering on different characters and locations, including a house with a murderous past, an asylum, a witch coven, a freak show, a hotel, a farmhouse in Roanoke, a cu
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Van Helsing
2016
Vanessa Helsing, the daughter of famous vampire hunter and Dracula nemesis Abraham Van Helsing is resurrected five years in the future to find out that vampires have taken over the world and that she
In common: Action & Adventure · Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The Acolyte
2024 · Kathleen Kennedy
A hundred years before the rise of the Empire, the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic have prospered for centuries without war. During this time, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a
In common: Action & Adventure · Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Lost
2004 · Jean Higgins
Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.
In common: Action & Adventure · Mystery
Fringe
2008
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable even
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Ghost Whisperer
2005
Newlywed Melinda Gordon tries to help the dead communicate with loved ones, but sometimes the messages she receives are intense and confusing. Most of Melinda's efforts involve resolving conflicts tha
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The Originals
2013 · Julie Plec
The Vampire Diaries spin-off that follows the Mikaelsons, a family of millennia-old, power-hungry vampires who want to reclaim the city they built, New Orleans, and dominate all those who have wronged
In common: Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Pretty Little Liars
2010 · Charles Grant Craig
Based on the Pretty Little Liars series of young adult novels by Sara Shepard, the series follows the lives of four girls — Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Emily — whose clique falls apart after the disappe
In common: Mystery
The Day of the Jackal
2024 · Gareth Neame
An unrivalled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal, makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligenc
In common: Action & Adventure · Mystery
Popular movies
The Godfather
1972 · Francis Ford Coppola
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his y
12 Angry Men
1957 · Sidney Lumet
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and sh
Schindler's List
1993 · Steven Spielberg
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Seven Samurai
1954 · Akira Kurosawa
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
2011 · Quentin Tarantino
A former assassin, known simply as The Bride, wakes from a coma four years after her jealous ex-lover Bill attempts to murder her on her wedding day. Fueled by an insatiable desire for revenge, she vo
Rear Window
1954 · Alfred Hitchcock
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.