Best movies like As a Prelude to Fear

Monsters come in all shapes and sizes

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like As a Prelude to Fear Starring Francis Magee, Lara Lemon, Jamie Langlands, Lucy Drive, and more. If you liked As a Prelude to Fear then you may also like: WΔZ, Nightstalker, An American Crime, Amnesiac, The Basement and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

When a young cellist called Eve Taylor gets kidnapped and imprisoned in a dungeon-like basement, Police Detective Barnbrooke believes it is the work of the notorious psychopath the media has named "The Pied Piper". But having failed to stop him in over fourteen years and with three other girls missing-presumed dead, Police Detective Barnbrooke knows all too well that if he can’t pin down his only suspect this time, that Eve will find the same fate as the other Pied Piper Victims. Knowing the identity of the Pied Piper is one thing, but proving it in time is a different deadlier story.

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WΔZ

There is something horribly wrong with the bodies found in the dark city streets. Some are mutilated while others have the Price equation (wΔz = Cov (w,z) = βwzVz) carved into their flesh. Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner Helen Westcott unearth the meaning of the odd equation and realise each victim is being offered a gruesome choice: kill your loved ones, or be killed. Before long it becomes clear that the perpetrator has suffered a similar fate and is now coping by seeking a way to solve this philosophical dilemma.

Nightstalker

A stylish horror film based on the life of Richard Ramirez, aka the Nightstalker, who terrorized people in Los Angeles during the 1980s.

An American Crime

The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.

Amnesiac

The story of a man who wakes up in bed suffering from memory loss after being in an accident, only to begin to suspect that his wife may not be his real wife and that a web of lies and deceit deepen inside the house where he soon finds himself a prisoner.

The Basement

A seemingly innocent man is abducted by a notorious L.A. serial killer, who forces his victims to switch roles with him so that he can enact his own capture, torture and murder.

Deadly Influencer

A young woman commits murder to keep her classmates' social media careers under her thumb. After killing a popular friend, she turns her sights on a new girl, but the girl's mother suspects the truth and will fight to protect her daughter.

A Killer Among Us

After the shocking murder of her mother, a girl helps a police detective by searching her home for clues that they hope will lead to the perpetrator.

Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey

On the night she plans on taking her own life, 17-year-old 'Lisa McVey' is kidnapped and finds herself fighting to stay alive and manages to be a victim of rape. She manages to talk her attacker into releasing her, but when she returns home, no one believes her story except for one detective, who suspects she was abducted by a serial killer. Based on horrifying true events.

The Killer Downstairs

Alison Peters has always done everything right but finds her life in turmoil as a lawyer stuck working at a grocery store job. Desperate for cash, she rents her basement on MiCasaSuCasa.com and gets a response from James Brewer who explains that he and his wife have recently split. At work, Alison and her friend Sarah, deal with a boss, Brandon, who's been harassing Alison. When Brandon is murdered, the police are suspicious of her. As romance starts to bloom between Alison and James, more people in her life begin disappearing.

A Mother's Instinct

When a woman’s son goes missing and the prime suspect is released due to lack of evidence, she and her teenage daughter decide to play vigilante.

Swept Under

Meet Morgan. At first glance, she's just your average cleaning lady. She has no problem getting her hands dirty, which is a good thing considering it's not fancy houses she cleans for a living - it's gruesome crime scenes. It's at one of these scenes that Morgan discovers a key piece of evidence overlooked by the forensics team. This, and her knack for reading blood splatter, catch Nick's attention, a newbie detective working the case. The pair soon become unofficial partners on what's become a stream of related murders and the closer they get to solving the mystery the closer they get to each other. But while they succeed in getting a confession from their primary suspect, their feelings for each other risk blinding them to the truth and they find themselves dangerously close to the real killer.

Prisoners

Keller Dover faces a parent's worst nightmare when his 6-year-old daughter, Anna, and her friend go missing. The only lead is an old motorhome that had been parked on their street. The head of the investigation, Detective Loki, arrests the driver, but a lack of evidence forces Loki to release his only suspect. Dover, knowing that his daughter's life is at stake, decides that he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Frenzy

After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he claims vehemently to be the wrong man.

Taking Lives

Recruited to assist Montreal police in their desperate search for a serial killer who assumes the identities of his victims, FBI profiler Illeana Scott knows it's only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. Her most promising lead is a museum employee who might be the killer's only eyewitness.

The Black Phone

Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.

The Sweet Hereafter

A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.

Fear

Psychic Ally Sheedy helps police solve murders by mentally linking with the murderer. Then she discovers a murderer with the same talent - who wants to share the fear of his victims with her!

Beware the Slenderman

In this horrifyingly modern fairytale lurks an online Boogeyman and two 12-year-old girls who would kill for him. The entrance to the internet quickly leads to its darkest basement. How responsible are our children for what they find there?

The Criminal

Jasper Rawlins, a none-too-successful musician, finds himself chatting with a beautiful woman at his neighborhood bar. She goes home with him, direct and frank in answer to his nervousness. During the night, someone breaks into his flat and cuts her throat. He runs into the arms of the police, who dismiss his story, but release him while they search for the weapon. He investigates the crime, and over the next few days, meets a knowing pornographer, hit men, and other schemers. As dead bodies pile up wherever he goes, the police are soon looking for him with guns drawn. As he discovers secrets about a shadowy corporation, the police close in. Can he find someone to trust?

Ice Cream Man

Young Gregory Tudor sees his local ice cream man murdered and later grows up to inherit his business, opting to inject gruesome ingredients—including human body parts—into his frozen confections. When one of the neighborhood boys goes missing, the local kids suspect Gregory and band together to get to the bottom of things.

It's a Wonderful Afterlife

Indian mother Mrs Sethi's obsession with marrying off her daughter turns murderous. With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.

Legacy

When a geeky, overweight rushee is found dead at the hottest sorority on the campus, the three most popular girls of the house are prime suspects.

The Pied Piper

The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears. The citizens, disappointed that all he did was play a tune, offer only pocket change. The piper, angered, plays a new tune that has all the children of the city follow him, even the new twins the stork is preparing to deliver.

The Pied Piper

Englishman Mr. Howard is on a fishing holiday in eastern France when the Germans invade in 1940. Setting off to try and get back home he is persuaded to take along the two Cavanaugh children, and as his journey progresses his family keeps growing in size. Once in German-occupied northern France a new problem arises — the risk of being heard speaking English.

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

An 11-year old boy believes that he is the best detective in town and runs the agency Total Failures with his best friend, an imaginary 1,200 pound polar bear.

The Night Clerk

Hotel night clerk Bart Bromley is a highly intelligent young man on the Autism spectrum. When a woman is murdered during his shift, Bart becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigation closes in, Bart makes a personal connection with a beautiful guest named Andrea, but soon realises he must stop the real murderer before she becomes the next victim.

Girl in the Basement

Sara is a teen girl who is looking forward to her 18th birthday to move away from her controlling father Don. But before she could even blow out the candles, Don imprisons her in the basement of their home.

Anguish

A new girl in a quiet town, Tess tries to manage her psychosis while adjusting to her new life with her mom. After stumbling upon the shrine of Lucy, a hit and run victim, Tess finds herself overwhelmed by hallucinations of the dead girl and starts to question her sanity again. When the spirit possesses Tess’s mind and soul, mother and daughter are at a loss for where to turn next for salvation: religion or medicine? Both institutions have failed them to date but faith leads them to the house of Sarah, Lucy’s mother, who has been despondent since the accident. All together with time working against them, Sarah is desperate to believe that Lucy is still alive in Tess but neither parent wants to give up on their daughter. Now that she understands what is happening to her, ultimately Tess must decide whether she wants to keep fighting or succumb to her affliction.

Sister With A Secret

After a teenage girl goes missing, her family must figure out her secrets in order to find out the kidnapper’s identity and motive. As more evidence is revealed and a police investigation commences, the truth repeatedly distorts, leading to a shocking reveal.

The Victorville Massacre

Something is happening in the desert town of Victorville. Neighbors are disappearing and murder is in the air. Despite rumors of a serial killer, a group of nine friends decide to spend Labor Day partying in town. But fun descends into terror as they're massacred one by one. Soon trying to survive Labor Day weekend will take on a whole new meaning.

The Todd Killings

Based on the true story of '60s thrill-killer Charles Schmidt ("The Pied Piper of Tucson"), Skipper Todd (Robert F. Lyons) is a charismatic 23-year old who charms his way into the lives of high school kids in a small California town. Girls find him attractive and are only too willing to accompany him to a nearby desert area to be his "girl for the night." Not all of them return, however. Featuring Richard Thomas as his loyal hanger-on and a colorful assortment of familiar actors in vivid character roles including Barbara Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner, Fay Spain, James Broderick and Michael Conrad.

Fourth Story

Valerie's husband Darryl leaves for work as usual, but never returns. She hires private eye Shepard to find him. Soon he discovers that David had a second identity and obviously doesn't want to be found. But since Shepard is strongly attracted to the pretty Valerie, he investigates further and gets involved more than professionally.

A Tattered Web

A detective discovers his son-in-law is cheating on his wife. He confronts the other woman and accidentally kills her, then tries to pin the crime on a local derelict.

The Strangler

An overweight lab technician with low self esteem, brought on by his dominant mother, becomes a serial killer of female nurses.

Presumed Dead

A famous crime novelist's protigie disappears before the release of author's first new book in years. Is the seeming crime an elaborate publicity stunt, or was this author so desperate for material that he created his own sinister inspiration? Despite his cunning defense on trial (the trial that made his book a best seller), Detective Cooper suspects the latter. She's determined to separate fiction from reality, but the deeper she gets in the story, the more twisted the plot becomes.

Dragnet

Also known as "Dragnet 1966," this TV movie was originally the pilot for the 1967 relaunch of the original 1950s "Dragnet" radio show and TV show (which also had it's own movie in 1954, from the same creative team). However, the pilot wasn't actually aired until 1969. In this feature-length entry, Sgt. Joe Friday is called back from vacation to work with his partner, Officer Bill Gannon, on a missing persons case. Two amateur female models and a young war widow have vanished, having been last seen with one J. Johnson. In the course of tracking down Johnson and the young ladies, the detectives wind up with two different descriptions of the suspect, one of which closely resembles a dead body found in a vacant lot. But the dead man, later identified as Charles LeBorg of France, proves not to be J. Johnson, when a third young model disappears.

Crosscurrent

Two San Francisco detectives investigating a murder committed on one of the city's famous cable cars discover that the victim was the son of a shipping tycoon. The trail leads to a drug dealer, a shady physician and a nervous police captain

Pillow of Death

Attorney Wayne Fletcher and his secretary have an affair. When Wayne's wife is found smothered to death, he becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigate the murder, a psychic with questionable motives tries to contact the deceased woman. Soon, Wayne begins seeing visions of his dead wife, and other people involved with the case begin to be killed, one by one.

Ironside

Citizens of San Francisco are stunned by the news that Robert Ironside, the city's hard-nosed, tough-talking chief of detectives, has been shot and left for dead while vacationing at his friend the Police Commissioner's rural retreat. Ironside survives the murder attempt, but the bullet has damaged nerves in his spine, leaving him a paraplegic. Unable to gain reinstatement as chief of detectives, Ironside gets permission to continue investigating criminal cases as a citizen volunteer. With the assistance of two former protegees, Det. Sgt. Ed Brown and Officer Eve Whitfield, and a newly-hired aide/driver, Mark Sanger, Ironside sets out to solve his first case as a civilian by finding the people responsible for the attempt on his life.

Murder on a Honeymoon

A schoolteacher and amateur sleuth suspects foul play when a fellow passenger on a seaplane gets sick and dies. The third and final film with Edna May Oliver and James Gleason as the astute schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and the New York Police Inspector Oscar Piper busy solving crimes.

It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown

Based on the legend of the Pied Piper, it stars Snoopy as the title character, who tries to rid the Peanuts' gang's hometown of mice by playing his concertina, in return for a year's supply of dog food.

Surveillance

The story of an security guard whose spotless record at crime prevention marks the horrifying reality of deception, blackmail and murder.

Caught in His Web

Three women join forces to take back their lives after they become the target of a cyberbully who harasses them and tracks their every move, so they decide to seek help from a detective.

The Electric Piper

Based on the classic tale of the Pied Piper, this Rock-Opera themed cartoon tells the tale of the 1960s small suburban town of Hamlin, which has been infested with rats. Sly, a Jimi-Hendrix styled guitarist, is hired to take care of the rats with his musical abilities, and is promised a Harley Davidson from the mayor as payment. When he gets cheated out of his payment, he then uses his music to lead the kids to a mountain.

Piper

Liz and her daughter Amy move to Hamelin where a dark secret in Liz's past is uncovered by the restless spirit of the Pied Piper, who seeks out those who have gotten away with a crime, and punishes them by taking away their children.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

In 1376, the city of Hamelin is freed from a plague of hungry rats by a mysterious Piper who plays a tune and leads the vermin on a mery dance out of town and straight in to the river. But the greedy city Governers refuse to pay their agreed fee, so the Piper wreaks a terible revenge. He plays his pipe once more, only this time he leads all the children of Hamelin away to a magical mountain portal, from which they never return...

Dead End

Carl Foster takes off on a well-deserved weekend break with his family knowing only too well that focus on work has impacted his relationship with his wife, young son, and teenage step-daughter. But after a short but restful break in the journey Carl awakens to find himself tied and bound in an old roadside diner, his family trussed and gagged next to him, and a disparate group of dirty, disheveled, vagrant-like undesirables keeping them captive. Only time will reveal who they are and what they want, but things are not everything they might seem.

A Darker Reality

A group of women wake up in a cold cement basement. Drugged and terrified they find themselves captive to a depraved psychopath whose blood-lust and insanity knows no bounds. Police Detective Balasco and psychiatrist Dr. Metcalfe team up in a desperate attempt to locate the girls and their soon to be murderer - a serial killer known as Ghost (Daniel Baldwin). But time is running out as Ghost's sick experiments begin to leave the girls tortured beyond recognition. To survive, the girls must band together in a last attempt to save themselves from a fate far worse than death.

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