Movies Like Damsel in Distress

If you liked Damsel in Distress (1992), a movie directed by Gary Whitson, 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
Cleveland Abduction (2015)
★ 7.3/10
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
2
I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)
★ 6.3/10
Broke, and in desperate need to update her portfolio, New York City model Katie calls a number from a tear-off flyer offering free photos. But this innocent attempt quickly turns into an unthinkable kidnapping…
3
Wardriver (2026)
★ 7.5/10
He’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
4
The Mother (2023)
★ 6.6/10
A deadly female assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men.
5
Play Dead (2025)
★ 6.3/10
A woman wakes up injured in a basement surrounded by corpses. To survive, she pretends to be dead while a grotesque ritual unfolds in the house above.
6
Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)
★ 6.6/10
A family falls prey to the manipulative charms of a neighbor, who abducts their adolescent daughter. Twice.
7
A Thousand and One (2023)
★ 6.6/10
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so…
8
To Die For (1995)
★ 6.6/10
Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues…
9
Night Hunter (2019)
★ 6.6/10
A Minnesota police officer crosses paths with a committed and tireless vigilante as he follows the trail of a ruthless predator responsible for several abductions and murders.
10
Something Wild (1986)
★ 6.6/10
A free-spirited woman "kidnaps" a yuppie for a weekend of adventure. But the fun quickly takes a dangerous turn when her ex-con husband shows up.
11
A Perfect World (1993)
★ 7.5/10
A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.
12
Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
★ 6.3/10
Nancy Drew, a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set…
13
Faces in the Crowd (2011)
★ 6.1/10
Anna is living with "face-blindness" after surviving a serial killer's attack. As she lives with her condition, one in which facial features change each time she loses sight of them, the killer closes in.
14
The Calling (2014)
★ 5.9/10
Detective Hazel Micallef hasn't had much to worry about in the sleepy town of Port Dundas until a string of gruesome murders in the surrounding countryside brings her face to face with a serial killer driven by a…
15
The Voices (2014)
★ 6.3/10
A mentally unhinged factory worker must decide whether to listen to his talking cat and become a killer, or follow his dog's advice to keep striving for normalcy.
16
They Reach (2020)
★ 6.8/10
In 1979, a young girl stumbles upon a possessed tape player. She unknowingly unleashes a demonic entity that haunts her family while slowly dragging the small town of Clarkston to Hell.
17
Matchstick Men (2003)
★ 7/10
A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
18
Blackwater Lane (2024)
★ 6/10
An American school teacher in England drives past an abandoned car late one night, unaware that the driver was the victim of a murder. As she comes to terms with the realization, seemingly supernatural events start to…
19
Books of Blood (2020)
★ 6.2/10
A journey into uncharted and forbidden territory through three tales tangled in space and time.
20
The Yakuza (1974)
★ 7.1/10
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.