Movies Like I Wake Up Screaming

If you liked I Wake Up Screaming (1941), a mystery and crime movie directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, 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
Nightfall (1956)
★ 6.9/10Also crime
An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.
2
Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also crime
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
3
The Naked City (1948)
★ 7.2/10Also crime and mystery
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
4
One Night at McCool's (2001)
★ 5.9/10Also crime
On an ordinary night, in an ordinary part of town, a beautiful young woman walks into a bar. Her name is Jewel, and before long she is chatting to bartender Randy. The pair leave together, but he ends up getting into a…
5
Panic (2000)
★ 6.2/10Also crime
Alex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful…
6
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and mystery
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while…
7
Killer's Kiss (1955)
★ 6.3/10Also crime
Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The…
8
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
★ 6.8/10Also crime
A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district…
9
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
★ 6.1/10Also mystery and crime
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
10
The Glass Key (1942)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and mystery
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
11
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and mystery
Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.
12
Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also crime
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.
13
Black Angel (1946)
★ 6.1/10Also mystery and crime
A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin, team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.
14
Sea of Love (1989)
★ 6.6/10Also crime
Seen-it-all New York detective Frank Keller is unsettled - he has done twenty years on the force and could retire, and he hasn't come to terms with his wife leaving him for a colleague. Joining up with an officer from…
15
Thirteen at Dinner (1985)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and mystery
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…
16
No Mercy (1986)
★ 5.8/10Also crime
An unconventional undercover Chicago cop and his partner are recruited to commit the murder of a New Orleans criminal kingpin.
17
Cry of the City (1948)
★ 6.7/10Also crime
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…
18
Bad (1977)
★ 6.5/10Also crime
Hazel runs a beauty salon out of her house, but makes extra money by providing ruthless women the oppurtunity to perform hit jobs. L.T. is a parasite, and contacts Hazel looking for work after he runs out of money. She…
19
Fallen Angel (1945)
★ 6.6/10Also crime and mystery
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman…
20
M (1951)
★ 6.5/10Also crime
In the city, someone is murdering children. The police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.