Movies Like Puppets

If you liked Puppets (1916), a movie directed by Tod Browning, 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
The Legend of Barney Thomson (2015)
★ 6.1/10
Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of…
2
Conflict (1945)
★ 6.7/10
Unhappily married Richard Mason concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife so that he'll be free to marry her sister.
3
CQ (2001)
★ 5.9/10
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi…
4
Breathe (2017)
★ 7.4/10
Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
5
While the City Sleeps (1956)
★ 6.9/10
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
6
The Big Heat (1953)
★ 7.7/10
After the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.
7
Thirteen at Dinner (1985)
★ 5.9/10
Actress Jane Wilkinson wants a divorce, but her husband, Lord Edgware, refuses. She convinces Hercule Poirot to use his famed tact and logic to make her case. Lord Edgware turns up murdered, a well-placed knife wound…
8
Georgetown (2019)
★ 5.9/10
Ulrich Mott is an eccentric and versatile social climber with grandiose plans to affect United States foreign policy. Encouraged in his attempts by his strategically chosen (and much older) wife, the well-connected…
9
Short Cuts (1993)
★ 7.2/10
Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a…
10
Nightfall (1956)
★ 6.9/10
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
11
Ripley's Game (2002)
★ 6.4/10
Tom Ripley - cool, urbane, wealthy, and murderous - lives in a villa in the Veneto with Luisa, his harpsichord-playing girlfriend. A former business associate from Berlin's underworld pays a call asking Ripley's help…
12
Maniac (1963)
★ 6.2/10
When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.
13
No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
★ 6.8/10
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
14
Cry of the City (1948)
★ 6.7/10
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check…
15
The Good Liar (2019)
★ 6.7/10
Career con man Roy sets his sights on his latest mark: recently widowed Betty, worth millions. And he means to take it all. But as the two draw closer, what should have been another simple swindle takes on the ultimate…
16
Point Blank (2019)
★ 6/10
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
17
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.
18
Monster (2021)
★ 6.4/10
The story of Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder.
19
All the Money in the World (2017)
★ 6.5/10
The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.
20
Smokin' Aces (2006)
★ 6.5/10
When a Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch named Buddy Israel decides to turn state's evidence and testify against the mob, it seems that a whole lot of people would like to make sure he's no longer breathing.