Movies Like The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light

If you liked The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light (2023), a movie directed by Mike Skinner, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
★ 6.1/10
Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the…
2
Too Late (2016)
★ 6.8/10
Private investigator Mel Sampson is tasked with tracking down the whereabouts of a missing woman from his own past.
3
The Naked City (1948)
★ 7.2/10
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
4
Night and the City (1950)
★ 7.5/10
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
5
I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
★ 6.9/10
A young promoter is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn, a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.
6
See How They Run (2022)
★ 6.3/10
In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard and eager rookie Constable…
7
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
★ 6.7/10
New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind.
8
The Outfit (2022)
★ 7.1/10
Leonard is an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. After a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes…
9
Blitz (2011)
★ 6.2/10
A tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.
10
Cruising (1980)
★ 6.6/10
When New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who preys on patrons of the city's underground bars, rookie cop Steve Burns infiltrates the gay S&M subculture to try and lure him out of the shadows.
11
Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer (2025)
★ 6.8/10
A struggling writer in the midst of a divorce befriends a retired serial killer who incidentally becomes his marriage counselor by day, and killing counselor for his next book by night.
12
Swimming Pool (2003)
★ 6.5/10
A British crime novelist travels to her publisher's upmarket summer house in Southern France to seek solitude in order to work on her next book. However, the unexpected arrival of the publisher's daughter induces…
13
Last Night in Soho (2021)
★ 7.3/10
A young girl, passionate about fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to be falling apart…
14
A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
★ 6.6/10
Despite being well into adulthood, brothers Doug and Steve Butabi still live at home and work in the flower shop owned by their dad. They exist only to hit on women at discos, though they're routinely unsuccessful…
15
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
★ 7.2/10
London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the…
16
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
★ 6.5/10
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the…
17
Layer Cake (2004)
★ 6.9/10
When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...
18
Blow-Up (1966)
★ 7.3/10
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death…
19
Dressed to Kill (1980)
★ 6.9/10
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing…
20
No Mercy (1986)
★ 5.8/10
An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.