Movies Like While the Children Sleep

If you liked While the Children Sleep (2007), a horror and thriller movie directed by Russell Mulcahy, 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
Motherly (2022)
★ 6/10Also thriller and horror
Kate and her daughter Beth live alone in an isolated farmhouse in the woods, but when Kate slowly begins to suspect that something sinister is happening, her motherly instincts are put to the test.
2
Shut In (2022)
★ 6.7/10Also thriller and horror
A young single mother is held captive along with her two children by a violent ex and must plot their escape before it’s too late.
3
The Dare (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also horror and mystery
A rare family night for Jay takes a brutal twist when he awakens in a basement with three other prisoners. As their vengeful captor runs riot, Jay engages in a twisted battle to solve the puzzle to his past and save…
4
The Bad Seed Returns (2022)
★ 7/10Also horror and thriller
Several years after the murderous events of the first movie left her father dead, Emma is now living with her aunt Angela and navigating high school. Angela’s husband begins to suspect that Emma may not be as innocent…
5
Buried Alive (1990)
★ 6.7/10Also thriller and horror
A married woman and her lover plot to kill her husband to make off with the insurance money. However, their attempt to murder him using poisonous fish toxins backfires in surprising ways.
6
Stalked by My Doctor (2015)
★ 6/10Also tv movie and thriller
When a teenage girl is miraculously saved by a heart surgeon, the doctor begins to flirt with her. Her father doesn’t believe her and unbeknownst to all, the doctor is obsessed with the girl.
7
Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
★ 6.2/10Also tv movie and thriller
A young woman moves to a high-rise apartment building and soon begins to be tormented by an unknown stalker who seems to know her every move.
8
Night Teeth (2021)
★ 6.4/10Also horror and thriller
A college student moonlighting as a chauffeur picks up two mysterious women for a night of party-hopping across LA. But when he uncovers their bloodthirsty intentions—and their dangerous, shadowy underworld—he must…
9
The Marsh King's Daughter (2023)
★ 6.4/10Also thriller and mystery
Helena, a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, hides a dark secret—her father is the infamous 'Marsh King', the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to…
10
Megaboa (2021)
★ 6.3/10Also horror and tv movie
On a trip to Colombia, a group of college students encounter a fifty-foot boa constrictor, hungry for blood.
11
The Bad Seed (2018)
★ 7/10Also horror and thriller
A widower suspects that his seemingly perfect adolescent daughter is a heartless killer.
12
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Very Foul Play (2019)
★ 7.5/10Also mystery and tv movie
At a gathering of mystery and true crime fans, Aurora Teagarden’s nephew, Phillip, is accused of murder when an unplanned onstage blackout during the play in which he is performing ends, revealing Phillip holding the…
13
Bad Sister (2015)
★ 6.6/10Also thriller and tv movie
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a…
14
Obsession (2026)
★ 8.2/10Also horror and thriller
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
15
Perfect Stranger (2007)
★ 5.8/10Also thriller and mystery
A journalist goes undercover to ferret out businessman Harrison Hill as her best friend's killer. Posing as one of his temps, she enters into a game of online cat-and-mouse.
16
Nocebo (2022)
★ 6/10Also mystery and thriller
A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband until help arrives in the form of a Filipino caregiver who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying…
17
Vicious (2025)
★ 6/10Also horror and thriller
When Polly receives a mysterious box, it comes with one rule: place inside something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves. If she doesn’t obey, it will consume everything—and everyone—she’s ever known.
18
Basilisk: The Serpent King (2006)
★ 6.2/10Also horror and tv movie
Two millennia ago, a Lybian king has a basilisk (snake-shaped dragon), which petrifies people, subjected to the same fate with a golden scepter during a solar eclipse. Both these and several victims are dug up by…
19
Captive (2020)
★ 6.3/10Also thriller and horror
A teenage runaway who’s trapped by a delusional man, pretends to be his daughter in order to escape.
20
The Unholy (2021)
★ 6.5/10Also horror and mystery
Alice is a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her…