The Frighteners Cascade — ranked by similarity

125 films, three levels of similarity outward from The Frighteners (1996, Peter Jackson). Each is scored 1–100 against Frighteners' core plot anchors: psychic con-man hero, ghost-killer-from-beyond, fake exorcisms, marked victims, grieving love interest, threshold-of-death pursuit, horror-comedy tone.

100

The Frighteners (1996)

The Frighteners is a film about a widowed small-town psychic-investigator con man named Frank Bannister who enters the plot when, after years of using ghost partners to fake hauntings he then 'exorcises'…

Similarity: The film itself.

Directed by
Peter Jackson
Cast
Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace
82

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Sixth Sense is a film about Malcolm Crowe, an acclaimed Philadelphia child psychologist who is shot one night by a former patient he failed and then takes on a new young…

Similarity: Reluctant child medium sees murdered ghosts demanding help and a therapist confronts threshold-of-death — protagonist-sees-dead, ghosts-with-grievances, twist of crossing-over all match very closely.

Directed by
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast
Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, Donnie Wahlberg
78

Beetlejuice (1988)

Beetlejuice is a film about a recently deceased young couple, the Maitlands, who enter the plot when they die in a car accident and find themselves haunting their own New England farmhouse…

Similarity: Ghost couple hires a con-man bio-exorcist — shares fake-exorcism fraud, ghost-sees-ghost premise, haunted-house lineage, and black-comedy tone; missing serial killer and afterlife trip.

Directed by
Tim Burton
Cast
Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara
72

Constantine (film) (2005)

Constantine is a film about John Constantine, a hard-bitten, chain-smoking Los Angeles exorcist dying of lung cancer who is trying to buy his way out of Hell by deporting demonic 'half-breeds' back…

Similarity: Chain-smoking exorcist sees demons and the dead, brokers between worlds, and crosses into hell — strong medium-sees-supernatural and threshold-crossing match; differs in killer particulars.

Directed by
Francis Lawrence
Cast
Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince
70

Ghost (1990)

Ghost is a film about Sam Wheat, a New York banker happily in love with potter Molly Jensen, who enters the plot when he is shot and killed in what appears to…

Similarity: Murdered man returns as a ghost and works through a reluctant medium to protect his grieving love — protect-the-widow, fraud-psychic-turns-real, and afterlife-romance all match strongly.

Directed by
Jerry Zucker
Cast
Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Rick Aviles
68

Always (1989)

Always is a film about a hotshot aerial firefighting pilot named Pete Sandich who enters the plot when, against the warnings of his girlfriend Dorinda and best friend Al, he flies one…

Similarity: Dead pilot becomes guardian ghost guiding the living and protecting his widowed love — strong ghost-romance and afterlife-threshold kinship though no serial killer.

Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Cast
Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Q896805, Audrey Hepburn
65

Blithe Spirit (1945)

Blithe Spirit is a film about a smug, twice-married English novelist named Charles Condomine who enters the plot when, researching a book on the occult, he invites the eccentric local medium Madame…

Similarity: Medium summons a dead wife's ghost who haunts the husband — fraud-medium-turns-real and ghost-comedy lineage match strongly; lacks killer and afterlife pursuit.

Directed by
David Lean
Cast
Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Carey
64

Stir of Echoes (1999)

Stir of Echoes is a film about a working-class Chicago phone lineman named Tom Witzky who enters the plot when, at a backyard party, he goads his sister-in-law Lisa into hypnotizing him…

Similarity: Hypnotized blue-collar man starts seeing a murdered ghost demanding justice — reluctant-medium-and-murder-victim-ghost match is very close; lacks comedy and fraud.

Directed by
David Koepp
Cast
Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Jennifer Morrison
62

The Gift (2000)

The Gift is a film about a widowed Georgia psychic and single mother named Annie Wilson who enters the plot when, reading cards for neighbors to support her three sons, she becomes…

Similarity: Small-town psychic helps police investigate a murder she sees in visions — reluctant-medium, detective-with-cops, and small-town-haunting all match.

Directed by
Sam Raimi
Cast
Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear
60

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters is a film about three Manhattan parapsychology professors — Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler — who enter the plot when they are kicked off the Columbia University payroll just…

Similarity: Parapsychologists run a ghost-busting business and fight a supernatural threat — fraud-adjacent-supernatural-pros and comic ghost-mechanics core kinship, but no romantic protectorate.

Directed by
Ivan Reitman
Cast
Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis
60

The Lovely Bones (2009)

The Lovely Bones is a film about a 14-year-old suburban Pennsylvania girl named Susie Salmon who enters the plot when, walking home through a cornfield in 1973, she is lured into an…

Similarity: Murdered girl narrates from an in-between afterlife while her killer remains free — threshold-of-death, serial-killer, and Jackson-directed cousin to Frighteners.

Directed by
Peter Jackson
Cast
Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli
58

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist is a film about a Southern California suburban family named the Freelings — real-estate-developer dad Steven, mom Diane, teenage Dana, son Robbie, and youngest daughter Carol Anne — who enter the…

Similarity: Suburban family besieged by malevolent ghosts with a tiny medium called in — haunted-house, ghost-mechanics, and threshold-of-death anchors land strongly.

Directed by
Tobe Hooper
Cast
Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Heather O'Rourke
58

Topper (1937)

Topper is a film about a stuffy, henpecked bank president named Cosmo Topper who enters the plot when his board's free-spirited largest shareholders, the wealthy young socialites George and Marion Kerby, die…

Similarity: Stuffy banker is haunted by a fun-loving ghost couple only he can see — protagonist-sees-ghosts and comic-haunting kinship is a direct ancestor to Frighteners' premise.

Directed by
Norman Z. McLeod
Cast
Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Eugene Pallette
56

The Changeling (1980)

The Changeling is a film about a grieving New York composer named John Russell who enters the plot when his wife and young daughter are killed in a roadside snow-plow accident and…

Similarity: Grieving widower in a haunted house communes with a murdered child's ghost and investigates the killing — medium-investigator and haunted-house anchors match well.

Directed by
Peter Medak
Cast
George C. Scott, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh, Barry Morse, Madeleine Sherwood
56

What Lies Beneath (2000)

What Lies Beneath is a film about a Vermont empty-nester named Claire Spencer, married to genetics professor Norman, who enters the plot when, after sending her daughter off to college, she begins…

Similarity: Wife haunted by ghost of a murdered woman exposing her husband's killing — haunted-house, ghost-demands-justice, and protect-the-grieving anchors land.

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Cast
Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Amber Valletta, Miranda Otto
50

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

The Ghost and Mrs.

Similarity: Widow falls for a sea-captain ghost in a haunted seaside cottage — ghost-romance and haunted-house anchors hit; no killer or fraud.

Directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast
Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, Edna Best, Natalie Wood
50

The Uninvited (1944)

The Uninvited is a film about a London music critic and amateur composer named Roderick Fitzgerald and his sister Pamela who enter the plot when, on a walking holiday on the Cornish…

Similarity: Siblings in a haunted seaside house investigate a benign-and-malevolent ghost pair — haunted-house and medium-adjacent investigation kinship.

Directed by
Lewis Allen
Cast
Ray Milland, Gail Russell, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner
48

Fallen (1998)

Fallen is a film about a Philadelphia homicide detective named John Hobbes who enters the plot when he attends the gas-chamber execution of serial killer Edgar Reese, a man who in his…

Similarity: Cop hunts a body-hopping demonic serial killer from beyond death — strong supernatural-serial-killer match and detective-on-two-sides element.

Directed by
Gregory Hoblit
Cast
Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Q103784, Embeth Davidtz, James Gandolfini
46

What Dreams May Come (1998)

What Dreams May Come is a film about a pediatrician named Chris Nielsen who enters the plot when, four years after his two children Marie and Ian are killed in a car…

Similarity: Dead man crosses into the afterlife to rescue his wife's soul — threshold-of-death and protect-the-love kinship strongly; missing medium and killer.

Directed by
Vincent Ward
Cast
Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Annabella Sciorra, Max von Sydow, Rosalind Chao
44

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)

Truly, Madly, Deeply is a film about a London translator named Nina who is paralyzed with grief over the recent death of her cellist boyfriend Jamie, who enters the plot when, after…

Similarity: Grieving widow's dead lover returns as a ghost and protects her from solitude — ghost-romance and protect-the-grieving-love kinship.

Directed by
Anthony Minghella
Cast
Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Bill Paterson, Michael Maloney, Vania Vilers
42

Don't Look Now (1973)

Don't Look Now is a film about a grieving art restorer named John Baxter who enters the plot when, after his young daughter Christine drowns in the pond outside their English country…

Similarity: Grieving couple, psychic visions, and a killer in plain sight — second-sight and dread-of-death anchors land, though no comedy or afterlife pursuit.

Directed by
Nicolas Roeg
Cast
Julie Christie, Q103784, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa
40

The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Amityville Horror is a film about newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz who enter the plot when, looking past the fact that a young man named Ronald DeFeo Jr.

Similarity: Family in a haunted house battles murderous spirits — haunted-house-lineage and supernatural-killer kinship without medium-detective.

Directed by
Stuart Rosenberg
Cast
James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton
38

Field of Dreams (1989)

Field of Dreams is a film about an Iowa corn farmer named Ray Kinsella who enters the plot when, walking his cornfield at dusk, he hears a disembodied voice whisper 'If you…

Similarity: Iowa man sees ghost ballplayers in his cornfield — small-town living-man-talks-to-the-dead kinship, sentimental rather than horror.

Directed by
Phil Alden Robinson
Cast
Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster
38

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

The Devil's Backbone is a film about a young boy named Carlos who enters the plot when, near the end of the Spanish Civil War, he is dropped off at the remote…

Similarity: Orphanage haunted by a murdered child's ghost during war — child-ghost-demanding-justice and haunted-building kinship; serious rather than comic.

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, Javier González Pantón, Junio Valverde
38

The Orphanage (2007)

The Orphanage is a film about a former orphan named Laura who enters the plot when she returns with her husband Carlos and HIV-positive adopted son Simón to the seaside orphanage where…

Similarity: Mother in haunted orphanage searches for missing son with medium and ghost-children — haunted-building and medium kinship.

Directed by
J. A. Bayona
Cast
Belén Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Édgar Vivar Villanueva, Fernando Cayo, Mabel Rivera
36

The Omen (1976)

The Omen is a film about an American diplomat named Robert Thorn who enters the plot when, in a Rome hospital, his wife Katherine's newborn dies and a priest persuades him to…

Similarity: Antichrist child with 666 mark and harbinger deaths — number-as-death-omen anchor lands cleanly.

Directed by
Richard Donner
Cast
Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, Harvey Spencer Stephens
35

City of Angels (film) (1998)

City of Angels is a film about a melancholy Los Angeles angel named Seth who, with his fellow invisible-to-the-living angels in trench coats, gathers at the beach at sunrise and ushers the…

Similarity: Angel-falls-for-living-woman romance with afterlife visibility; protagonist-can-see-dead-beings kinship and threshold-of-death theme but no killer.

Directed by
Brad Silberling
Cast
Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Andre Braugher, Dennis Franz, Colm Feore
34

The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring is a film about paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who enter the plot when the Perron family — Roger, Carolyn, and their five daughters — move into a remote…

Similarity: Paranormal investigators take on a malevolent haunting; haunted-house and supernatural-killer anchors, but no comedy or fraud-medium.

Directed by
James Wan
Cast
Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor, Mackenzie Foy
34

The Others (2001)

The Others is a film about a devoutly Catholic, photosensitive mother named Grace Stewart who enters the plot when, in a fogbound Jersey country house just after World War II, she hires…

Similarity: Mother and children in haunted house with a twist about who's dead — haunted-house and threshold-of-death kinship.

Directed by
Alejandro Amenábar
Cast
Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes
32

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Death Becomes Her is a film about Madeline Ashton, a vain aging actress, and Helen Sharp, her former best friend and rival, who enter the plot when their decades-long feud over the…

Similarity: Black comedy with women cheating death and undead-but-walking bodies; tonal kinship and CGI undead, but no medium-and-killer plot.

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Cast
Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, Isabella Rossellini, Mary Ellen Trainor
32

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Heaven Can Wait is a film about a Los Angeles Rams backup quarterback named Joe Pendleton who enters the plot when, biking through a tunnel during his training run, he is yanked…

Similarity: Dead man returns in another body — threshold-of-death comic-romance kinship without medium or killer.

Directed by
Warren Beatty, Buck Henry
Cast
Julie Christie, James Mason, Jack Warden, Charles Grodin, Dyan Cannon
32

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Here Comes Mr.

Similarity: Premature-death afterlife comedy with body-hopping; threshold-crossing tone and comic-supernatural register.

Directed by
Alexander Hall
Cast
Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton
30

End of Days (film) (1999)

End of Days is a film about a suicidal, alcoholic ex-NYPD-turned-private-security-operative named Jericho Cane who enters the plot when, on the eve of the millennium, Satan possesses the body of a Wall…

Similarity: Cop battles Satan with apocalyptic numerology on victims — number/mark-as-harbinger and supernatural-killer cousins, but no medium or comedy.

Directed by
Peter Hyams
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robin Tunney, Gabriel Byrne, Rod Steiger, Kevin Pollak
30

Insidious (2010)

Insidious is a film about a young schoolteacher father named Josh Lambert and his wife Renai who enter the plot when their son Dalton falls from a ladder in the attic of…

Similarity: Astral-projection rescue with a medium and a malevolent spirit — psychic-crosses-into-other-side anchor lands, no comedy or fraud.

Directed by
James Wan
Cast
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye
28

Carrie (1976)

Carrie is a film about a sheltered, telekinetic high-school senior named Carrie White, raised by a fanatically religious mother named Margaret, who enters the plot when she gets her first period in…

Similarity: Telekinetic teen revenge; psychic protagonist and horror tone but no ghost mechanics or fraud.

Directed by
Brian De Palma
Cast
John Travolta, William Katt, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, Priscilla Pointer
28

Halloweentown (1998)

Halloweentown is a film about a 13-year-old girl named Marnie Piper who enters the plot when, on Halloween night, she eavesdrops on her witch-grandmother Aggie Cromwell arguing with her mother Gwen about…

Similarity: Witch-family in a haunted small town; supernatural-small-town tone and ghost-cohort feel, kid-comedy register.

Directed by
Duwayne Dunham
Cast
Debbie Reynolds, Judith Hoag, Kimberly J. Brown, Joey Zimmerman, Phillip Van Dyke
28

Practical Magic (1998)

Practical Magic is a film about Sally and Gillian Owens, two sisters from a long matriarchal line of New England witches cursed so that any man who falls in love with them…

Similarity: Sister witches battle a dead boyfriend's lingering spirit — fraud-adjacent magic-as-real and protect-the-loved-one kinship.

Directed by
Griffin Dunne
Cast
Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn
28

Stigmata (1999)

Stigmata is a film about a Pittsburgh hairdresser named Frankie Paige, an unbeliever and party girl, who enters the plot when her mother sends her a rosary stolen from a dead Brazilian…

Similarity: Atheist woman receives stigmata and supernatural attacks — marks-on-the-body harbinger and possession kinship.

Directed by
Rupert Wainwright
Cast
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Rade Šerbedžija
26

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

It's a Wonderful Life is a film about a small-town Building & Loan operator named George Bailey who enters the plot when, after a lifetime of deferred dreams in Bedford Falls, his…

Similarity: Angel intervenes in a despairing man's life — threshold-of-death and afterlife-emissary kinship, sentimental rather than horror.

Directed by
Frank Capra
Cast
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell
26

Meet Joe Black (1998)

Meet Joe Black is a film about a billionaire media mogul named William Parrish who enters the plot when, on the eve of his sixty-fifth birthday and a board fight over the…

Similarity: Death takes human form to woo a young woman — afterlife-figure-among-living kinship, romantic register.

Directed by
Martin Brest
Cast
Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Gay Harden
26

The Devil's Advocate (1997)

The Devil's Advocate is a film about a hotshot undefeated Florida defense attorney named Kevin Lomax who enters the plot when, after winning an acquittal for a child-molester client he knows is…

Similarity: Young lawyer discovers Satan running a firm; supernatural-malevolence-detective register.

Directed by
Taylor Hackford
Cast
Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey
26

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a film about an ambitious agnostic defense attorney named Erin Bruner who enters the plot when she is assigned to defend Father Richard Moore, a Catholic…

Similarity: Possession trial with flashbacks; fraud-versus-real-supernatural courtroom debate kinship.

Directed by
Scott Derrickson
Cast
Laura Linney, Jennifer Carpenter, Tom Wilkinson, Colm Feore, Mary Beth Hurt
26

The Innocents (1961)

The Innocents is a film about a sheltered Victorian spinster governess named Miss Giddens who enters the plot when she is hired by an indifferent London bachelor uncle to take sole charge…

Similarity: Governess sees ghosts in a country house; haunted-house and sees-the-dead kinship, ambiguous register.

Directed by
Jack Clayton
Cast
Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Pamela Franklin
26

The Seventh Sign (1988)

The Seventh Sign is a film about a pregnant Venice Beach woman named Abby Quinn who enters the plot when she rents her garage apartment to a mysterious drifter named David Bannon…

Similarity: Apocalyptic signs and harbingers around a pregnant woman — marks-and-omens kinship.

Directed by
Carl Schultz
Cast
Demi Moore, Michael Biehn, Jürgen Prochnow, Peter Friedman, Ian Buchanan
25

Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

Death Takes a Holiday is a film about the personification of Death himself who enters the plot when, weary of being feared and curious about mortal joy, he descends on the Italian…

Similarity: Personification of Death takes a holiday; afterlife-figure-among-living kinship without ghost-mechanics.

Directed by
Mitchell Leisen
Cast
Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Kent Taylor, Helen Westley
24

Dogma (1999)

Dogma is a film about a disillusioned, abortion-clinic-working descendant of Jesus named Bethany Sloane who enters the plot when the seraph Metatron crashes into her bedroom in flames and informs her she…

Similarity: Comic theological road trip with angels; supernatural-comedy register but no ghosts or hauntings.

Directed by
Kevin Smith
Cast
Ben Affleck, George Carlin, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek
24

Hereditary (2018)

Hereditary is a film about a miniaturist artist named Annie Graham and her family — husband Steve, teenage son Peter, and odd young daughter Charlie — who enter the plot when Annie's…

Similarity: Grief, séances, and a malevolent supernatural force — séance/medium-adjacent and harbingers register, but pure horror without comedy.

Directed by
Ari Aster
Cast
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, Milly Shapiro
24

I Married a Witch (1942)

I Married a Witch is a film about a 17th-century New England witch named Jennifer, burned at the stake by a Puritan named Jonathan Wooley along with her sorcerer father Daniel, who…

Similarity: Witch romance comedy with supernatural fakery; tonal cousin via comic-supernatural-romance.

Directed by
René Clair
Cast
Veronica Lake, Fredric March, Cecil Kellaway, Susan Hayward, Robert Benchley
24

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Rosemary's Baby is a film about a young newlywed Manhattan housewife named Rosemary Woodhouse who enters the plot when she and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, a Gothic…

Similarity: Satanic-cult pregnancy horror; supernatural-malevolence-among-the-living register, no medium.

Directed by
Roman Polanski
Cast
Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans
24

The X-Files (1998)

The X-Files: Fight the Future is a film about FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who enter the plot when, reassigned off the X-Files after a Dallas federal building bombing kills…

Similarity: FBI agents investigate paranormal cases — detective-on-two-sides kinship.

Directed by
Rob Bowman
Cast
David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis
22

Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

Bell, Book and Candle is a film about a chic Greenwich Village witch named Gillian Holroyd who enters the plot when, bored and lonely on Christmas Eve, she discovers that her upstairs…

Similarity: Supernatural-romance with a witch concealing powers; tonal kinship but no ghosts or killer.

Directed by
Richard Quine
Cast
James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Janice Rule, Elsa Lanchester
22

Defending Your Life (1991)

Defending Your Life is a film about Daniel Miller, a timid Los Angeles advertising executive, who enters the plot when he is killed in a car accident on his birthday and wakes…

Similarity: Afterlife courtroom comedy; threshold-of-death tone but no medium or killer.

Directed by
Albert Brooks
Cast
Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, Buck Henry, Albert Brooks
22

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Heavenly Creatures is a film about two intense teenage girls in 1950s Christchurch, New Zealand — bookish, sickly Pauline Parker and the imaginative English newcomer Juliet Hulme — who enter the plot…

Similarity: Peter Jackson's prior film about teen-girl murder fantasy; shared director and dark New Zealand tone, but plot mechanics differ.

Directed by
Peter Jackson
Cast
Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Jed Brophy, Clive Merrison, Elizabeth Moody
22

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Hocus Pocus is a film about a skeptical teenage boy named Max Dennison, newly transplanted from Los Angeles to Salem, Massachusetts, who enters the plot when on Halloween night he takes his…

Similarity: Resurrected witches in a small town; supernatural-comedy kid film with haunting-town register.

Directed by
Kenny Ortega
Cast
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch
22

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Pan's Labyrinth is a film about a bookish 10-year-old girl named Ofelia who enters the plot when, in 1944 Francoist Spain, she travels with her pregnant mother Carmen to a remote forest…

Similarity: Dark fairytale parallel to wartime cruelty; supernatural-child-sees-other-world kinship without medium-cop plot.

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú
22

The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist is a film about a 12-year-old girl named Regan MacNeil, daughter of the actress Chris MacNeil living in a Georgetown rental during a film shoot, who enters the plot when…

Similarity: Demonic-possession classic; supernatural-malevolence and exorcism register but no medium-protagonist.

Directed by
William Friedkin
Cast
Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran
22

The Prophecy (1995)

The Prophecy is a film about a former Catholic seminarian turned NYPD detective named Thomas Daggett who enters the plot when he investigates a bizarre corpse — an angel with no eyes…

Similarity: Angel-war thriller; supernatural-malevolence among living register.

Directed by
Gregory Widen
Cast
Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Q171363
22

The Witches of Eastwick (film) (1987)

The Witches of Eastwick is a film about three lonely, divorced or widowed friends in the small Rhode Island town of Eastwick — sculptor Alex, cellist Jane, and journalist Sukie — who…

Similarity: Small-town women conjure a devil; supernatural-comedy-in-small-town kinship.

Directed by
George Miller
Cast
Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Veronica Cartwright
22

Wings of Desire (1987)

Wings of Desire is a film about an immortal angel named Damiel who enters the plot when, observing divided 1980s West Berlin alongside his fellow angel Cassiel — listening to the inner…

Similarity: Angels watch over a city; sees-the-unseen kinship in romantic register.

Directed by
Wim Wenders
Cast
Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk
22

Zodiac (2007)

Zodiac is a film about a San Francisco Chronicle editorial cartoonist named Robert Graysmith who enters the plot when, in 1969, the paper receives a coded letter from a Bay Area serial…

Similarity: Serial-killer investigation procedural — serial-killer anchor in living-world register without supernatural elements.

Directed by
David Fincher
Cast
Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox
20

Bruce Almighty (2003)

Bruce Almighty is a film about Bruce Nolan, a Buffalo TV news human-interest reporter who feels overlooked and resentful, who enters the plot when, after a spectacularly bad day of being passed…

Similarity: Man granted divine powers comedy; supernatural-comedy tone but no ghosts or killers.

Directed by
Tom Shadyac
Cast
Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall, Jim Carrey, Steve Carell
18

*batteries not included (1987)

*batteries not included is a film about an elderly couple running a small cafe in a condemned New York tenement who enter the plot when tiny living flying-saucer 'fix-it' creatures arrive to…

Similarity: Tiny alien robots help tenants; supernatural-adjacent comedy but no ghosts, psychic medium, or serial-killer afterlife mechanics.

Directed by
Matthew Robbins
Cast
Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Frank McRae, Elizabeth Peña, John Pankow
18

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Edward Scissorhands is a film about a gentle artificial young man named Edward with scissor blades for hands who enters the plot when Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs climbs the hill to the…

Similarity: Suburban gothic fairytale; tonal Burton-kin to Frighteners' style but no ghosts.

Directed by
Tim Burton
Cast
Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker
18

Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy is a film about a cigar-chomping, cat-loving red-skinned demon named Hellboy who was summoned to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists in 1944, rescued by an Allied paranormal team, and…

Similarity: Demon-hero monster-hunter; supernatural-detective register only.

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Q463683, Rupert Evans
18

Men in Black (1997)

Men in Black is a film about a hotshot NYPD detective named James Edwards who enters the plot when, after chasing a preternaturally agile suspect who reveals himself to be an alien…

Similarity: Buddy-cop secret-agency hides aliens from public; fraud-of-the-supernatural-as-job kinship lightly.

Directed by
Barry Sonnenfeld
Cast
Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub
18

Oh, God! (1977)

Oh, God!

Similarity: God appears as a grocery clerk comedy; supernatural-being-among-living kinship only.

Directed by
Carl Reiner
Cast
George Burns, John Denver, Teri Garr, Donald Pleasence, Ralph Bellamy
18

The Monster Squad (1987)

The Monster Squad is a film about a group of preteen suburban monster-movie fanatics led by Sean Crenshaw and his best friend Patrick, with little sister Phoebe, fat kid Horace, tough kid…

Similarity: Kids battle classic monsters in small town; small-town-supernatural and 80s-effects kinship.

Directed by
Fred Dekker
Cast
Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan
16

Big Fish (2003)

Big Fish is a film about an estranged son named Will Bloom who enters the plot when he returns to Alabama with his pregnant wife to be at the deathbed of his…

Similarity: Magic-realist tall tales and a dying father; whimsical supernatural mood but no ghost mechanics.

Directed by
Tim Burton
Cast
Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter
16

Ghoulies (1985)

Ghoulies is a film about a young occult-obsessed grad student named Jonathan Graves who enters the plot when he inherits a sprawling, dilapidated California estate from his dead satanist father Malcolm and…

Similarity: Small creature horror-comedy; tonal cousin via 80s practical effects only.

Directed by
Luca Bercovici
Cast
Michael Des Barres, Jack Nance, Tamara De Treaux, Mariska Hargitay, Bobbie Bresee
16

Michael (1996)

Michael is a film about a tabloid reporter named Frank Quinlan and his colleague Huey Driscoll who enter the plot when their editor sends them, along with 'angel expert' Dorothy Winters, from…

Similarity: Slovenly angel road comedy; supernatural-being-among-living register only.

Directed by
Nora Ephron
Cast
John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Bob Hoskins, Robert Pastorelli
16

The Craft (1996)

The Craft is a film about a troubled new-girl transfer named Sarah Bailey who enters the plot when she arrives at a Catholic prep school in Los Angeles and is recruited by…

Similarity: Teen witch coven; supernatural-fakery-meets-real-power kinship lightly.

Directed by
Andrew Fleming
Cast
Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Skeet Ulrich
14

American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty is a film about a depressed suburban magazine writer named Lester Burnham who enters the plot when, in voice-over from beyond the grave, he announces he will be dead within…

Similarity: Dead narrator looks back on suburban life; tonal black comedy but no medium, ghosts, or supernatural mechanics.

Directed by
Sam Mendes
Cast
Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari
14

Cloud Atlas (film) (2012)

Cloud Atlas is a film about six souls across centuries — including 1849 notary Adam Ewing, 1936 composer Robert Frobisher, 1973 journalist Luisa Rey, present-day publisher Timothy Cavendish, future fabricant Sonmi-451, and…

Similarity: Reincarnation tapestry across centuries; afterlife-adjacent theme but no medium or haunting.

Directed by
Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Cast
Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving
14

Evan Almighty (2007)

Evan Almighty is a film about newly elected congressman Evan Baxter who enters the plot when, after praying to 'change the world,' God appears to him and commands him to build an…

Similarity: Modern Noah comedy with divine intervention; supernatural-comedy register only.

Directed by
Tom Shadyac
Cast
Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes
14

Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein is a film about an obsessive young scientist named Henry Frankenstein who enters the plot when, holed up in a Bavarian watchtower laboratory with his hunchbacked assistant Fritz, he stitches together…

Similarity: Reanimated-monster classic; horror lineage but completely different plot mechanics.

Directed by
James Whale
Cast
Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Boris Karloff, Edward Van Sloan
14

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins is a film about a young small-town bank teller and aspiring cartoonist named Billy Peltzer who enters the plot when his inventor father Randall buys him an exotic furry creature called…

Similarity: Small-town creature mayhem horror-comedy; tonal kinship in mischief-and-effects.

Directed by
Joe Dante
Cast
Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates-Kline, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain
14

Legion (2010)

Legion is a film about a fallen archangel named Michael who enters the plot when, on the eve of the apocalypse, he cuts off his wings in a Los Angeles alley, raids…

Similarity: Apocalyptic angels-versus-humans siege; supernatural-killer register only.

Directed by
Scott Stewart
Cast
Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki, Charles S. Dutton
14

Mulholland Drive (film) (2001)

Mulholland Drive is a film about an aspiring actress named Betty Elms who enters the plot when she arrives in Los Angeles and finds an amnesiac brunette hiding in her aunt's apartment…

Similarity: Surreal dream-logic noir; tonal weirdness but no ghosts.

Directed by
David Lynch
Cast
Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Justin Theroux, Robert Forster
14

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

The Time Traveler's Wife is a film about a Chicago librarian named Henry DeTamble with a genetic disorder that yanks him involuntarily backward and forward through his own life, who enters the…

Similarity: Time-displaced romance; threshold-crossing motif loosely.

Directed by
Robert Schwentke
Cast
Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean, Stephen Tobolowsky
14

The Witch (2015)

The Witch is a film about a devout 1630s Puritan family exiled from a New England plantation, centered on the eldest daughter Thomasin, who enters the plot when her infant brother Samuel…

Similarity: Puritan family folk horror; tonal supernatural-dread kinship only.

Directed by
Robert Eggers
Cast
Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Julian Richings, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie
12

Click (2006)

Click is a film about an overworked Long Island architect named Michael Newman who enters the plot when, exhausted by demanding boss Mr.

Similarity: Magical remote comedy with a life retrospective; supernatural gimmick but no ghost mechanics.

Directed by
Frank Coraci
Cast
Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, Henry Winkler, David Hasselhoff, Julie Kavner
12

Critters (1986)

Critters is a film about a Kansas farm family — the Browns: father Jay, mother Helen, teen daughter April, and young son Brad — who enter the plot when a band of…

Similarity: Small-town monster-creature comedy; tonal cousin to Gremlins more than Frighteners.

Directed by
Stephen Herek
Cast
Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Scott Grimes, Billy Zane, Ethan Phillips
12

Glass (2019)

Glass is a film about three superhuman men — the vigilante David Dunn, the dissociative multi-personality Kevin Wendell Crumb (host of The Beast), and the brittle-boned mastermind Elijah Price aka Mr.

Similarity: Superhero-grounded thriller; unrelated to ghost plot.

Directed by
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast
Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clark
12

Liar Liar (1997)

Liar Liar is a film about Fletcher Reede, a fast-talking Los Angeles attorney and chronic liar, who enters the plot when his young son Max blows out a birthday candle wishing that…

Similarity: Lawyer compelled to tell the truth supernatural comedy; tonal supernatural-comedy register only.

Directed by
Tom Shadyac
Cast
Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, Jennifer Tilly, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Donohoe
12

The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man is a film about a devout Christian, virgin, mainland Scottish police sergeant named Neil Howie who enters the plot when an anonymous letter summons him to the remote Hebridean…

Similarity: Pagan-cult folk horror; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
Robin Hardy
Cast
Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Edward Woodward
12

The Witches (1990)

The Witches is a film about a young boy named Luke who, after losing his parents, is being raised by his Norwegian grandmother and who enters the plot when the two of…

Similarity: Roald Dahl witches children's fantasy; supernatural-comedy kid kinship.

Directed by
Nicolas Roeg
Cast
Jasen Fisher, Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson, Jane Horrocks
10

Blade II (2002)

Blade II is a film about the half-vampire half-human 'Daywalker' vampire hunter named Blade who enters the plot when, two years after rescuing his mentor Whistler from vampire captivity in Prague, he…

Similarity: Vampire action sequel; supernatural killers but completely different mechanics and tone.

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Tony Curran
10

Cocoon (1985)

Cocoon is a film about a trio of retirement-home residents named Ben Luckett, Art Selwyn, and Joe Finley who enter the plot when they sneak into the swimming pool of a neighboring…

Similarity: Aliens rejuvenate seniors; gentle sci-fi with afterlife-evocation but no ghosts or fraud.

Directed by
Ron Howard
Cast
Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford
10

Hancock (2008)

Hancock is a film about a homeless, alcoholic, deeply unloved Los Angeles superhero named John Hancock who enters the plot when, after botching a freeway chase and being widely loathed for the…

Similarity: Reluctant alcoholic superhero comedy; unrelated to ghosts.

Directed by
Peter Berg
Cast
Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan, Jae Head
10

Unbreakable (2000)

Unbreakable is a film about a melancholy Philadelphia stadium security guard named David Dunn who enters the plot when he is the sole survivor — and emerges without a scratch — from…

Similarity: Grounded superhero discovery; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast
Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, Michael Kelly
8

Batman Begins (2005)

Batman Begins is a film about a guilt-ridden Gotham billionaire heir named Bruce Wayne who enters the plot when, after his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered outside a theater by…

Similarity: Superhero origin with fear-toxin hallucinations; tonally dark but unrelated plot-wise.

Directed by
Christopher Nolan
Cast
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman
8

Blue Velvet (film) (1986)

Blue Velvet is a film about a clean-cut college student named Jeffrey Beaumont who enters the plot when, returning to his hometown of Lumberton after his father's stroke, he finds a severed…

Similarity: Surreal small-town crime nightmare; tonal weirdness but no supernatural plot.

Directed by
David Lynch
Cast
Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Hope Lange
8

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

E.T.

Similarity: Suburban child-and-alien friendship; threshold-of-death scene but otherwise unrelated.

Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Cast
Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Erika Eleniak
8

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a film about an aging Louisiana plantation spinster named Charlotte Hollis who enters the plot when, decades after her married lover John Mayhew was decapitated at a 1927…

Similarity: Southern Gothic psychological thriller; haunting feel only as metaphor.

Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Cast
Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway
8

Split (2016)

Split is a film about a Philadelphia man named Kevin Wendell Crumb who suffers from dissociative identity disorder with twenty-three personalities under the care of psychologist Dr.

Similarity: Dissociative-identity thriller; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast
James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, Haley Lu Richardson
8

The Shape of Water (2017)

The Shape of Water is a film about a mute janitor named Elisa Esposito working the graveyard shift at a 1962 Baltimore government research facility who enters the plot when a chained…

Similarity: Cold-War creature romance; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
Cast
Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Doug Jones, Richard Jenkins
6

Atonement (2007)

Atonement is a film about a precocious 13-year-old aspiring writer named Briony Tallis at an English country estate in 1935, who enters the plot when she watches from a window as her…

Similarity: WWII literary romance with a guilt frame; no supernatural elements.

Directed by
Joe Wright
Cast
James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
6

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a film about an Indiana power-company lineman and family man named Roy Neary who enters the plot when, called out on a midnight blackout, he…

Similarity: Alien contact drama; unrelated supernatural register.

Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Cast
Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban
6

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a film about a San Francisco public-health inspector named Matthew Bennell who enters the plot when his colleague and unrequited love-interest Elizabeth Driscoll confides that her…

Similarity: Pod-people paranoia sci-fi; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
Philip Kaufman
Cast
Q103784, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright
6

Misery (1990)

Misery is a film about a bestselling romance novelist named Paul Sheldon who enters the plot when, after finishing the manuscript of his first 'serious' novel at a Colorado mountain lodge, he…

Similarity: Captive-writer thriller; unrelated.

Directed by
Rob Reiner
Cast
James Caan, Kathy Bates, Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen
6

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Sunset Boulevard is a film about a struggling Hollywood screenwriter named Joe Gillis who enters the plot when, fleeing repo men down Sunset Boulevard, he ducks into the decaying mansion of forgotten…

Similarity: Noir with a dead narrator; faint afterlife-narrator kinship only.

Directed by
Billy Wilder
Cast
William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark
6

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (film) (2008)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a film about a man named Benjamin Button who enters the plot when he is born in 1918 New Orleans with the body of a…

Similarity: Reverse-aging romance; unrelated mechanics.

Directed by
David Fincher
Cast
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Tilda Swinton
4

Awakenings (1990)

Awakenings is a film about a shy, research-oriented neurologist named Dr.

Similarity: Medical drama about catatonic patients; no supernatural content.

Directed by
Penny Marshall, Alain Cuniot
Cast
Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller
4

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a film about an aggressively optimistic suburban dad named Clark Griswold who enters the plot when, determined to host a 'good old-fashioned family Christmas' in the Chicago…

Similarity: Slapstick holiday comedy; unrelated.

Directed by
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Cast
Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis
4

Prisoners (2013)

Prisoners is a film about a Pennsylvania carpenter and survivalist father named Keller Dover who enters the plot when, on Thanksgiving Day, his young daughter Anna and her friend Joy Birch vanish…

Similarity: Grim missing-child investigation; unrelated.

Directed by
Denis Villeneuve
Cast
Q129591, Jake Gyllenhaal, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Maria Bello
4

Spider-Man (2002)

Spider-Man is a film about a bullied Queens high-school senior science nerd named Peter Parker who enters the plot when, on a class field trip to a Columbia University genetics lab, he…

Similarity: Superhero origin; unrelated.

Directed by
Sam Raimi
Cast
Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson
4

The Tree of Life (2011)

The Tree of Life is a film about a middle-aged Texas architect named Jack O'Brien haunted by the death of his younger brother R.L., who enters the plot when news of the…

Similarity: Cosmic family meditation; unrelated.

Directed by
Terrence Malick
Cast
Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt, Tye Sheridan, Fiona Shaw
3

A Star Is Born (1954)

A Star Is Born is a film about a struggling band singer named Esther Blodgett who enters the plot when she helps a drunken matinee idol, Norman Maine, avoid embarrassment at a…

Similarity: Showbiz musical melodrama with no supernatural content whatsoever.

Directed by
George Cukor
Cast
Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Amanda Blake
2

All About Eve (1950)

All About Eve is a film about an aging Broadway star named Margo Channing who enters the plot when her devoted friend, playwright's wife Karen Richards, brings a meek, worshipful young fan…

Similarity: Backstage theater drama; no supernatural elements at all.

Directed by
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast
Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill
2

Double Indemnity (1944)

Double Indemnity is a film about a slick Los Angeles insurance salesman named Walter Neff who enters the plot when he calls on a renewal at the Dietrichson house and is met…

Similarity: Insurance noir; entirely non-supernatural.

Directed by
Billy Wilder
Cast
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Gig Young, Porter Hall
2

Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day is a film about a U.S.

Similarity: Alien invasion blockbuster; unrelated.

Directed by
Roland Emmerich
Cast
Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Vivica A. Fox, Margaret Colin
2

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Only Angels Have Wings is a film about a hard-bitten chief pilot named Geoff Carter who runs a shoestring airmail service flying rickety planes over Andean storms out of the South American…

Similarity: Howard Hawks aviator drama; unrelated.

Directed by
Howard Hawks
Cast
Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell
2

The Bucket List (2007)

The Bucket List is a film about a curmudgeonly billionaire hospital owner named Edward Cole who enters the plot when, diagnosed with terminal cancer, he is forced by his own cost-cutting two-patients-per-room…

Similarity: Terminal-illness buddy comedy; unrelated.

Directed by
Rob Reiner
Cast
Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow, Beverly Todd
2

The Last Temptation of Christ (film) (1988)

The Last Temptation of Christ is a film about a tormented, doubt-ridden Galilean carpenter named Jesus who enters the plot when, plagued by visions and headaches and making crosses for Roman crucifixions…

Similarity: Religious epic; unrelated.

Directed by
Martin Scorsese
Cast
Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie
2

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

The Passion of the Christ is a film about Jesus of Nazareth who enters the plot when, after a brief Gethsemane prayer where he is tempted by an androgynous Satan, he is…

Similarity: Religious dramatization; unrelated.

Directed by
Mel Gibson
Cast
Jim Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Hristo Shopov, Rosalinda Celentano
2

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Similarity: Hag-horror melodrama; unrelated.

Directed by
Robert Aldrich
Cast
Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Maidie Norman, Marjorie Bennett
1

Boyhood (2014)

Boyhood is a film about a Texas boy named Mason Evans Jr.

Similarity: Naturalistic coming-of-age across years; nothing supernatural.

Directed by
Richard Linklater
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Nick Krause, Lorelei Linklater
1

Enchanted April (1992)

Enchanted April is a film about a drab, devout London housewife named Lottie Wilkins, married to the stingy solicitor Mellersh, who enters the plot when, during a rainy spring of 1922, she…

Similarity: Italian-villa ensemble romance; entirely non-supernatural.

Directed by
Mike Newell
Cast
Miranda Richardson, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, Joan Plowright, Adriana Facchetti
1

Forrest Gump (1994)

Forrest Gump is a film about a slow-witted but kind-hearted Alabama man named Forrest Gump who enters the plot when, sitting on a Savannah bus-stop bench in the 1980s, he begins recounting…

Similarity: Historical picaresque with no supernatural element.

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Cast
Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Mykelti Williamson
1

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Mommie Dearest is a film about the adopted daughter of Joan Crawford, Christina Crawford, who enters the plot when, as a toddler, she is brought into the glamorous, obsessive household of the…

Similarity: Hollywood biopic melodrama; unrelated.

Directed by
Frank Perry
Cast
Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Mara Hobel, Rutanya Alda, Steve Forrest
1

Now, Voyager (1942)

Now, Voyager is a film about a dowdy, repressed Boston Brahmin spinster named Charlotte Vale who enters the plot when, crushed under the tyranny of her aristocratic mother Mrs.

Similarity: Classical Bette Davis melodrama; unrelated.

Directed by
Irving Rapper
Cast
Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville
1

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Singin' in the Rain is a film about a 1927 silent-film matinee idol named Don Lockwood, his wisecracking sidekick Cosmo Brown, and his shrill-voiced screen partner Lina Lamont, who enter the plot…

Similarity: Musical comedy classic; unrelated.

Directed by
Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
Cast
Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell
1

Summertime (1955)

Summertime is a film about a middle-aged American spinster secretary from Akron, Ohio named Jane Hudson who enters the plot when she arrives alone in Venice on the long-saved vacation of a…

Similarity: Venice romantic drama; unrelated.

Directed by
David Lean
Cast
Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Darren McGavin, Isa Miranda, Mari Aldon
1

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

The Bad and the Beautiful is a film about a ruthless, charismatic Hollywood producer named Jonathan Shields who enters the plot when, broke and disgraced in Paris, he phones his old studio…

Similarity: Hollywood-insider drama; unrelated.

Directed by
Vincente Minnelli
Cast
Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan
1

Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun is a film about a hotshot Navy F-14 pilot named Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell who enters the plot when, after his squadron commander cracks up, he and his RIO Nick…

Similarity: Fighter-pilot drama; unrelated.

Directed by
Tony Scott
Cast
Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt