10 Best Movies Like The Witch (Ranked & Where to Watch)

From the visionary mind of Robert Eggers, the director of The Witch, comes The Lighthouse, a masterful descent into madness. Set on a remote, storm-battered island in the 1890s, this film meticulously crafts a suffocating atmosphere of isolation and psychological unraveling. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson deliver tour-de-force performances as two lighthouse keepers whose sanity frays amidst the oppressive solitude and ambiguous supernatural occurrences. Shot in stark black-and-white with archaic dialogue, it’s a direct thematic and stylistic spiritual successor to The Witch, exploring male fear, mythic dread, and the ultimate fragility of the human mind when confronted with the unknown.

A brutal and unrelenting period piece, Witchfinder General plunges viewers into the horrifying realities of 17th-century England during the English Civil War. Vincent Price, in a chillingly subdued role, portrays Matthew Hopkins, a real-life witch hunter who exploited the era's chaos to enact sadistic purges. This film mirrors The Witch's exploration of historical fear and the human capacity for cruelty, albeit with a focus on earthly persecution rather than overt supernatural forces. Its grim realism, unsettling atmosphere, and portrayal of religious fanaticism as a catalyst for terror make it a vital precursor and thematic companion to Eggers' work.

Gareth Evans, known for his visceral action, delivers a punishing and atmospheric folk horror in Apostle. Set in 1905, the story follows a man infiltrating a mysterious religious cult on a secluded island to rescue his sister. Like The Witch, Apostle revels in its period setting and builds its dread through the chilling dynamics of an isolated community governed by extreme faith. It blends body horror with a growing sense of pagan menace and ritualistic violence, offering a more graphic but equally engrossing dive into the dark heart of rural devotion and the primal forces lurking beneath the surface of supposed civilization.

Starve Acre promises to echo the domestic dread and encroaching ancient malevolence so effectively woven into The Witch. When a couple’s son begins to exhibit disturbing behavior, they find their isolated home and family unit besieged by sinister forces seemingly rooted in the land's dark history. This film taps into similar themes of rural isolation, the fragility of familial bonds under supernatural pressure, and the slow, insidious unraveling of sanity. It’s poised to be a slow-burn psychological horror that leverages a palpable sense of historical evil, making it a compelling modern companion for fans of Eggers' masterpiece.

Alex Garland's Men delivers a contemporary, yet deeply unsettling, folk horror experience that resonates with the primal fears evoked by The Witch. Following a woman's retreat to a secluded English countryside estate after a personal tragedy, she finds herself tormented by enigmatic, unsettling male figures. The film brilliantly uses its rural setting and ancient folklore to explore themes of grief, trauma, and gendered paranoia. While modern, its dreamlike atmosphere, allegorical depth, and the feeling of an ancient, pervasive malevolence within nature make it a powerful, psychologically rich companion piece for those drawn to The Witch's unique dread.

M. Night Shyamalan's The Village creates a meticulously crafted, isolated community whose inhabitants live in fear of unseen creatures lurking in the surrounding woods. This film strongly connects to The Witch through its themes of a secluded society, strict religious or traditional adherence, and the pervasive fear of an external, unknown threat. While its ultimate revelation is polarizing, the film effectively builds a potent atmosphere of paranoia, enforced innocence, and the psychological impact of living under constant perceived danger, echoing the Puritanical repression and the slow burn of terror experienced by the family in Eggers’ film.

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow offers a visually stunning and atmospherically rich gothic horror experience that shares The Witch's period setting and supernatural mystery. Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane, a skeptical detective, investigates a series of brutal beheadings in a remote 18th-century New York hamlet, rumored to be the work of the Headless Horseman. While more overtly fantastical and less subtly psychological than The Witch, it masterfully crafts an oppressive, fog-laden landscape saturated with old-world superstition and encroaching darkness. Its focus on folklore, the clash of rationality with the supernatural, and a palpable sense of historical dread make it a captivating watch.

John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness is a masterful plunge into Lovecraftian cosmic horror that echoes The Witch's themes of reality unraveling and the insidious nature of ancient evil. An insurance investigator delves into the disappearance of a popular horror novelist, only to find himself trapped in a nightmarish town where the lines between fiction and reality blur. The film expertly builds a pervasive sense of dread and psychological terror, as the protagonist's sanity erodes. Its unsettling atmosphere, the questioning of belief, and the overwhelming feeling of a malevolent force beyond human comprehension make it a cult classic that will appeal to fans of existential dread.

Dark Harvest dives headfirst into the more ritualistic, monstrous side of folk horror, a compelling watch for those who appreciated The Witch's sense of ancient evil. Set in a small Midwestern town, it revolves around a deadly annual tradition where a mythical scarecrow-like entity, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields to challenge the local youth. While less overtly psychological, its focus on pagan rites, small-town secrets, and a supernatural antagonist that feels deeply tied to the land resonates with the primal, elemental horror of Eggers' film. It's a grisly, atmospheric tale of tradition, sacrifice, and community fear.

The groundbreaking The Blair Witch Project revolutionized horror with its found-footage format, but its core terror lies in its brilliant use of folk horror and unseen dread, much like The Witch. Three student filmmakers venture into the Maryland woods to document a local legend of a witch, only to become hopelessly lost and terrorized by an unseen presence. The film's genius lies in its reliance on suggestion, sound design, and the psychological breakdown of its characters, leaving the audience to imagine the horror. It taps into primal fears of the wilderness and ancient folklore, creating a truly unsettling experience that remains powerful today.