Best Cryptic Movies & TV Shows

In modern-day Moscow, disaffected former journalism student Roman follows a cryptic invitation to join “the elite” and finds himself forcibly transformed into a vampire. But not your typical creature of the night. Thanks to a parasitical worm known as the Tongue, Roman (now called Rama) has become part of a ruling class of vampires who exercise an “anonymous dictatorship” over humans based not on a thirst for blood but the hunger for money. As various instructors school him in the ways of their elite breed, and Rama explores his new supernatural abilities, he begins a tentative relationship with another newly turned vampire, Hera. His desire for more knowledge about this intoxicating new world also leads him into potentially deadly conflict with Mithra, his mentor who becomes his nemesis.

Packages from Planet X is a US/Canadian animated television series produced by American Greetings and DHX Media that first premiered on Disney XD on July 13, 2013. A charismatic 15-year-old, Dan Zembrosky, from the bizarre town of Iron Bay suddenly receives strange, cryptic packages from an evil alien planet. The packages arrive in various forms and Dan and his two best friends use them to their own advantage, whether it be to make the soccer team, pass a test to avoid summer school or get out of trouble, all while keeping the mysterious contraptions out of the hands of Copernicus, an evil alien who is plotting to take over the world.

Someone begins taunting Aurora Teagarden with cryptic clues left at crime scenes, so the librarian-turned-crime buff attempts to figure out who is behind the creepy “game.” But when the people closest to Aurora become targets, the game takes on a much more dangerous edge as it points to a planned murder. The 10th installment in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.

Surveillance expert Harry Caul is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide to tail a young couple. Tracking the pair through San Francisco's Union Square, Caul and his associate Stan manage to record a cryptic conversation between them. Tormented by memories of a previous case that ended badly, Caul becomes obsessed with the resulting tape, trying to determine if the couple is in danger.

Helicopter skyrunner Anneka Rice races against the clock to find directions to treasure at locations worked out by studio guests from cryptic clues.

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.

Joan Girardi has begun acting a little strange since her family moved to the city of Arcadia. No one knows that various people keep introducing themselves as God, and then giving the teenager specific directions to do things. Unsure of what God wants, and if she's even sane, Joan tentatively begins to follow God's cryptic directives, all the while trying to retain a "normal" teen-aged existence.

Michel Negroponte, a documentary filmmaker, meets Maggie one day in Central Park. Maggie claims to be married to the god Jupiter and the daughter of actor Robert Ryan. Michel gets to know Maggie over the next couple of years, and attempts to use her often outlandish stories as clues to reconstruct her past.

Writer Zora Matthews is the daughter of famous author Thomas Morgan Matthews who died a year ago. Both Zora and Thomas suffer from schizophrenia. After a fight with husband Drew, Zora escapes to her father's hideaway house in beautiful Topanga Canyon. There Zora is introduced to bartender Eddie, his wife Lorena, and handyman Amadi. They all talk cryptically about how Zora's father changed their world. The stress triggers Zora's schizophrenia, and her dreams become horrific as she slowly discovers that her father's past included grisly murder and suicide, and the ghosts of his actions are back to haunt her and drive her insane.

Jesse Stone and Captain Healy are shot during an unauthorized stake-out in Boston. Meanwhile, a cryptic letter sent from Paradise leads the mother of a kidnapped child to Stone. Though her son was declared dead, she hopes he will reopen the case.

65 shots making up a cryptically alluded-to narrative: a lesbian couple's Midwest travels, a hitchhiking young man's journeys, the story of a man who may be having an affair.

Guy and his sister grow up on an island. His domineering mother keeps watch over everything from the tip of a lighthouse, his eccentric father experiments in the basement laboratory. Then there are the orphans, on whose heads the adoptive parents later find puzzling wounds. Another brother and sister pair is sent to the island: the Lightball Kids, two detectives that are meant to bring light into the darkness. The brothers and sisters are all yanked into the emotional roller coaster of first love, while something cryptic comes to light in the parents' house.

A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.

A cryptic message from Bond’s past sends him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind SPECTRE.

For the Plasma begins in a remote house on the coast of Maine, where a young woman named Helen has found work as a forest-fire lookout responsible for monitoring the nearby woodland. While analyzing CCTV footage of the surrounding forest, she discovers she can reconfigure her perception to predict shifts in global financial markets. But when her inquisitive and demanding friend Charlie arrives at the house, Helen finds herself challenged and unsettled by her new colleague, and the two girls’ relationship begins to unravel. From this cryptic premise grows a lo-fi mind-bender of intimate scale and startling relevance that flirts with sci-fi and horror conventions, even as it subverts them. To the strains of an electronic score, For the Plasma juxtaposes pastoral imagery with surveillance technology, every shade and shadow captured in gorgeous 16mm.

During the holidays, a woman with amnesia catches a ride with her handsome nurse to investigate the only clue to her identity: a newspaper clipping for a Christmas Festival with a cryptic invitation.

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 modern archaeologist Harrison 'Harry' McColl's expedition. Despite a cryptic warning from tribal locals, everything goes to his Colorado university's museum. It's all exhibited during another eclipse, which leads to the monster reviving. Harry and some of his friends must try to petrify the monster again.

Looking for work, Aaron comes across a cryptic online ad: “$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated.” Low on cash and full of naiveté, he decides to go for it. He drives to a cabin in a remote mountain town where he meets Josef, his cinematic subject for the day. Josef is sincere and the project seems heartfelt, so Aaron begins to film. But as the day goes on, it becomes clear that Josef is not who he says, and his intentions are not at all pure.

Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.

Mike is an unmotivated stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend, Phoebe, is suddenly turned upside down. Unbeknownst to him, Mike is actually a highly trained, lethal sleeper agent. In the blink of an eye, as his secret past comes back to haunt him, Mike is thrust into the middle of a deadly government operation and is forced to summon his inner action-hero in order to survive.

After discovering a set of cryptic microcassettes in her new home, Cas is drawn into a meditative mystery of environmental sound and experimental music.

A man awakens in an empty house that he is unable to leave. Battling fatigue, injury and amnesia, and guided only by a cryptic voice on his phone, he begins piecing together fractured memories of the events that led him to be trapped. With a terrifying presence confining him inside the house, he ultimately discovers a truth more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.

When a cryptic note is passed to young Bert Hale by a stranger, he and his three friends inadvertently hold the key to unravelling the sinister plot to assassinate a Russian premier visiting Los Angeles.

A crisis helpline assistant attracts the attention of a serial killer who delights in feeding her cryptic, nursery-rhyme style riddles when planning his next murder!

Judge Hardy faces problems at work and at home. Powerful men in town are upset with his decisions and want to see him impeached; his daughters, Joan and Marion, have romantic problems; and his son, Andy discovers Polly Benedict. As usual, Judge Hardy is concerned with everyone in the family and lends wisdom and calmness to all.

After receiving a cryptic letter from his estranged father, Norval travels to his dad’s oceanfront home for what he hopes will be a positive experience. If only he’d known the dark truth about his old man beforehand.

After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

An aspiring trapeze artist discovers a cryptic letter, written once by her recently deceased father, that leads her to a gold mine in a remote California desert.

After receiving a cryptic message, American skeptic Jamie travels to the Indian Himalayas to pick up on the trail of his disappeared girlfriend. There, he discovers a secretive community led by a guru with strange powers who may or may not be involved in her disappearance. As Jamie travels deeper down the rabbit hole, he quickly realizes he may have uncovered more than he bargained for, and that this mysterious mountain may contain the secrets of reincarnation - and a portal to another dimension.

Director: Tim Connery After receiving his future obituary via a cryptic Internet file, Easton Denning is forced to confront his troubled past in order to prevent his predicted demise.

A genius grad student organizes an all-night treasure hunt in which five rival teams composed of colorful oddballs furiously match wits with one another while trying to locate and decipher various cryptic clues planted ingeniously around Los Angeles.

After suffering the recent loss of his wife, David Reynolds decides to take his family on a cathartic trip to her home village in Columbia. While en route, they get into a car accident and seek refuge in a secluded inn. While there they find a mysterious young girl, Ana Maria, locked up with cryptic symbols painted on the walls of her cell. Shocked by the treatment of her caretaker, the family sets Ana free only to realize that she is possessed by an evil spirit from centuries past. What’s worse, the spirit can jump from person to person, creating a deadly dynamic amongst the once loving family. Now, David must figure out a way to lock the spirit up for good before it destroys him and his family.

A group of ambitious filmmakers set out to create the world's first reality horror movie. What ensues is a hellish game of cat and mouse as a cryptic filmmaker, known only as The Maestro, comes out from hiding in search of his "perfect shot."

A long-distance trucker, dressed like a sea captain, aimlessly sails the American highways in his 18 wheeler mumbling manic, southern accented non sequiturs; carnivalizing roadside stops and happenstance towns while out-weirding cops and weigh stations with his new cryptic, over-coated hitchhiker buddy.

With a narrative running deeper than a catchy tune and cryptic verses, “American Pie” is a musical phenomenon woven deep into the history of American culture, entertaining audiences around the world for over 50 years. This documentary tells the stories of the people who were a part of this moment from the beginning, shows the point of view of a new generation of artists who are motivated by the same values and ideas that inspired the song’s creation, and highlights cultural moments in America’s history that are as relevant now as they were in 1971, when the song was released.

A district attorney (Ray Liotta) is involved in a 24-hour showdown with a gang leader (LL Cool J) and is, at the same time, being manipulated by an attractive assistant district attorney (Jolene Blalock) and a cryptic stranger.

Dan signs on to travel with a mysterious stranger named Jane, laying cryptic tiles in the roads of cities across America. As they argue over what the tiles mean, they come to realize that it's up to each of us to answer the questions that haunt us.

When parents Janet and Sean leave for a much-needed weekend getaway, masked men bypass their high-tech home security system to hold their teen son hostage. Under threat of losing their son, the couple follow a series of cryptic instructions that land them at Janet's office with one final order: to kill her boss.

A criminal attorney struggles with his sexuality, a cryptic new boyfriend, unemployment and the disturbing childhood secrets his parents hold.

An innocent couple suddenly finds themselves thrust into an unbelievable adventure involving underwater treasures, maniacal gangsters, violent gunplay and non-stop chances in trains cars and boats, when they witness a luxury boat explosion in the small town of Oyster Creek and receive a cryptic message from a dying victim they attempt to rescue.

The meaning of cryptic prophesy splits apart a team of secretive guardians as they transport by 18-wheeler truck, a deadly creature and it's half-human sister from their now ineffective holding place to a more secure location. The sister's hidden agenda undermines the mission releasing the beast and they end up battling for the fate of the world when the true meaning of the prophesy is discovered in this mysterious and thrilling, action-packed creature feature.

After a gifted musician inherits a mansion after her long lost father dies under mysterious circumstances, she discovers his last musical masterpiece riddled with cryptic symbols that unravels an evil secret, triggering dark forces that reach beyond her imagination.

Noah, who is seeking to reconnect with his outcast brother after the death of their father. Noah hopes to make amends and share the family's fortune but instead finds himself in a dark underworld that threatens to tear his family apart. As he struggles to maintain his sanity, Noah is led on a terrifying trail to the truth through a series of cryptic clues.

In a spooky small town, when a slew of pizza delivery boys are slain on the job, two daring survivors set out to catch the culprits behind the cryptic crime spree.

On the cusp of New Year's Eve, seven friends and a mysterious backpacker converge at a desolate ski lodge in the mountains when they are systematically hunted down by ruthless masked men with a cryptic agenda.

Heironymus Merkin is an internationally successful singer approaching middle age who retells his life story in a series of production numbers on a seashore in front of his two toddlers and aged mother. Merkin's promiscuous relationships with women are explored, particularly Polyester Poontang and the adolescent Mercy Humppe. Merkin is constantly surrounded by a Satan-like procurer, Goodtime Eddie Filth, and an angelic 'Presence' who interrupts Merkin's biography with cryptic Borscht Belt-level jokes to denote births and deaths in Merkin's life. Newley periodically steps out of character to complain about his 'Merkin' role with an unseen director, two screenwriters, the film's producers and a trio of blasé movie critics who are turned off by the story's eroticism and lack of plot.

While hiking in a remote forest, college student Zack disappears, leaving nothing but a bloody trail for his traumatized friend Tom. Now a year later and plagued by nightmares, Tom returns to the woods with Zack's girlfriend Jenny in a last attempt to find out what happened to his friend. Following a trail of dead bodies, each one bearing a bleeding scar, Tom and Jenny soon find themselves unraveling a string of cryptic secrets and caught in an intense struggle not only for their sanity, but their survival.Everyone in the small town seems to have a secret and when the dreaded scar suddenly appears on Jenny, the two race to find out what evil dwells in the woods.

How did a French prophet living in 16th century France predict so many modern day disasters? From the tragic events of 9/11, to recent tsunamis in the Pacific, to the Ebola outbreak in 2014–how could one man see so far into the future so accurately? It’s because he had a secret–and now, we know what it was. This documentary takes a look at Nostradamus in a whole new light. New, innovative analysis gives us the chance to finally crack his cryptic code. The emerging truth is that Nostradamus may indeed have possessed a special gift that made his predictions so accurate, but it’s a gift we may all be able to tap into. And, of course the question is, if he was right about so many things in the past, what does the future have in store?

A ragtag team of teens takes on cryptic puzzles, deadly traps and a medieval steam-punk civilization during one action-packed summer day.

Tyler, an independent journalist, pieces together a series of cryptic messages hidden in plain sight around his town that point to a deadly ring involved in kidnapping, murder, and the distribution of snuff films. Meanwhile, local homicide detectives race against time to crack the code before the murder ring (and Tyler) go too far.