Top 250 Movies Like Penance

A young man travels out into the countryside to meet his fiance, Yuko. When he arrives at the secluded house he is told by her mother that she has died in a car accident. He spends the night at the house and hears some strange sounds at night, even seeing someone that looks just like his dead love. Later he sees Yuko outside the house and follows her to a grave with her name. Cut to some days later where the young mans sister is worried since she hasnt heard from him in some time. She persuades her boyfriend to take her to the house, but is told that he already left. For the sake of proper plot development she doesnt believe Yukos mother and fakes the car breaking down so that they can investigate what really happened.

When a new friend is brutally assaulted, Detective John Droomor is put by chance in charge of the investigation. Although the evidence against the perpetrators seems overwhelming, there is nothing definitive in the case that guarantees justice is served, even more so if some people are willing to twist and betray it.

A serial rapist gets acquitted of his crimes due to a police mishandling of the investigation. His victims decide to turn the tables on him and begin stalking him.

In a dysfunctional family where the mother is a heroin addict and prostitute, beaten by her son, and the father is an ex-TV reporter, sleeping with his daughter and filming his son being beaten up, ‘Q’, a complete stranger enters the bizarre family, changing their lives for the better, finding a balance in their disturbing natures.

Anger stemming from being abused as a child drives an alcoholic's daughter to kill as an adult.

Thirteen-year-old Kerry is repeatedly sexually abused by several adults, including at one point her mother. Her father sets her up as a prostitute. Kerry finally calls Childline and is put in a safe house, where she tries to come to terms with what has been done to her. Based on a true story, with the names changed to protect the real Kerry's identity.

When pregnant lunchbox factory worker Yayoi has finally taken all the abuse she can handle, she strangles her brutish husband and disposes of the body parts, piece by piece. She's soon joined by three down on their luck housewives who murder their own husbands and find various ways to hide the evidence.

A man brutally murders a married couple and leaves the word “ikari” (“rage”) written with their blood. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees. At three different locations in Japan, a male stranger appears. People suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.

While investigating the horrifying death of her boyfriend, Mai Takano learns about a videotape haunted by the spirit of a disturbing girl named Sadako, which kills anyone who watches it exactly one week later. When her boyfriend’s son, Yoichi, starts to develop the same psychic abilities as Sadako, Takano must find a way to keep the boy and herself from becoming the next victims.

A blind masseur visits a samurai to request the return of a loan. The samurai kills him in anger, then has his servant dump the body in the Kasane swamp. However, the ghost of the masseur returns to haunt the samurai, who kills his wife by mistake and then goes to the swamp and drowns himself. 20 years later, the masseur's daughter unknowingly falls in love with the samurai's son who has been brought up to be a servant. After she is horribly disfigured in an accident, he plots to run away with another woman, but the path of their escape lies by the Kasane swamp...

Aimi and her father move into an old, apartment building and learn quickly that things are not as they seem.

Sawa may seem innocent and naive, but don’t be fooled. She is a cold-blooded killer, and if you’re on the wrong side of the law, you may be her next target. Not content to just watch as the imperfect justice system lets more and more criminals go loose every day, a detective decides to train the young Sawa to be his instrument of justice.

In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight.

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

Based on the true events of the only case in US History where a spirit caused the death of a man.

After a chain of deaths at a junior high school, new transfer student Koichi Sakakibara turns to a mysterious girl who holds the key to the dark mystery.

High school student Shun Takahata is bored. Bored with the day-to-day monotony of school and life, he prays for change, for something exciting. Suddenly, he and his classmates are forced to play deadly children's games and facing terrifying creatures from a talking Daruma doll to a sharp-clawed lucky cat.

An English couple's holiday in Spain is interrupted when they discover a girl imprisoned in a cabin.

A newly married happy couple visits a sex therapist to determine why the wife can't achieve an orgasm with her husband. This causes a horrific suppressed memory to emerge and she becomes more and more distant.

A college freshman is date-raped and tries to press charges.

"Prosecuting Casey Anthony" reveals Florida prosecutor, Jeff Ashton’s inside story of the true crime drama that captivated and then shocked the nation when Caylee Anthony’s mother, Casey, was acquitted of killing her daughter, despite what many thought to be overwhelming evidence of guilt. The movie is seen from Ashton’s (Lowe) perspective and it takes viewers behind-the-scenes of both the investigation into Caylee’s tragic death and the ensuing trial, shedding new light on the many questions of what happened to the two year-old girl, how Ashton and his fellow prosecutors built their case and why a woman so shrouded in suspicion was proclaimed innocent. With in-depth information about the case and the accused, "Prosecuting Casey Anthony" examines what the prosecution got right, what they got wrong and why Ashton remains convinced of Casey Anthony’s guilt...

A thriller film based on a real-life mass murder that took place in 1966. Richard Franklin Speck was a mass murderer who systematically tortured, raped and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital in 1966.

Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.

The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.

Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.

In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth. But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy whose life will be changed forever.

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

A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere...

A woman and her closeted brother meet a man sunbathing on a gravestone and invite him to be their lodger. Their elderly father, however, recognises him as the killer of his old boss. Past sins could be forgiven if he agrees to the siblings' demands.

While stopped at a roadside phone booth for transmitting his work through Internet to the university, Professor Hideki Satomi finds a scrap of newspaper with the picture of his five year old daughter Nana in the obituary. He sees his wife Ayaka trying to release their daughter from the seatbelt, when a truck hits his car killing Nana. Three years later, Hideki is divorced from Ayaka, who is researching paranormal people who claim to have read an evil newspaper anticipating the future. Still trying to believe in Hideki, she finds that there are people cursed to foresee the future but without the power to save the victims. When Hideki changes the future saving Ayaka, he becomes trapped in hell and he has to make a choice for his own destiny.

Based on a popular manga, the film is a tender coming-of-age love story set deep in Japan's countryside. When eighth grade cool guy Hiromi transfers from Tokyo to a small elementary/middle school with only six kids enrolled, wholesome and honest Soyo becomes enthralled with his sophisticated world.

A mysterious old woman appears before Setsu, who has recently lost her only child in a tragic accident. She says she can bring Setsu's son, Daio back to life. After agreeing to this sinister proposal, Daio returns to his mother, but to Setsu's horror, he is half decomposed and inhuman. To make him human again, he needs fresh human organs. Setsu does everything she can to reincarnate her son, but Daio just turns into a different kind of monster. No one can stop him as he continues to feed his hunger, claiming victim after victim.

After trying to rescue a man on the subway tracks, two teens wake up in a room dominated by a mysterious black sphere that sends them to hunt down and kill aliens hiding on Earth.

Akari is a first grade high school student. She is positive, realistic and outgoing with romance. Akari though is not good at expressing her feelings. She become friends with Yuna, who attends the same high school. Yuna has a hard time talking with strangers and she is passive with romance. She has never been in love, but she dreams of having a romance like those drawn in manga. Even though Akari and Yuna have totally different personalities, they are now good friends. Yuna gets attracted to Rio who is Akari’s stepbrother and attends the same high school. Akari becomes attracted to Kazuomi, who is Yuna’s childhood friend and attends the same high school.

Satomi is a research student who travels to northern Japan seeking reported olden Christian relics. On the island of Hokkaido and in a village, odd deeds are occurring. As such, she bands together with another researcher and locals to uncover the truth and understand the infernal happenings of which there are many.

After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.

Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

In a small island off the American coast, the Whateleys live in an old mill where a mysterious bloody being creates an atmosphere of horror. After her parents get killed by lightning, young Susannah is sent to New York by her aunt Agatha, who wants her to avoid the family curse. Years later Susannah, now married, persuades her husband to spend a holiday in the abandoned mill. Once on the island, Susannah and Mike soon find themselves exposed to the hostility of a gang of thugs led by Ethan, Susannah's brutal cousin.

A suburban family is torn apart when fourteen-year-old Annie meets her first boyfriend online. After months of communicating via online chat and phone, Annie discovers her friend is not who he originally claimed to be. Shocked into disbelief, her parents are shattered by their daughter's actions and struggle to support her as she comes to terms with what has happened to her once innocent life.

As a child, Donald was tormented by his mother who used fire as a punishment. Now a deranged adult, Donald stalks women at clubs, then takes them home where he kills them with a flamethrower.

Longinotto's documentary is about Brenda Myers-Powell, who fights against sexual exploitation and supports prostitutes in Chicago. Brenda knows what she is talking about: her own story, involving teenage prostitution and a life of violence and abuse, is in stark contrast to her dauntless energy and optimism.

In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose.

It's fire and brimstone time as grieving mother Karen McCann takes justice into her own hands when a kangaroo court in Los Angeles fails to convict Robert Doob, the monster who raped and murdered her 17-year-old daughter.

A young ad executive's life has been turned upside down when a vicious client ruins his three billion yen project. Through his chance meeting with the disgruntled daughter of his enemy, he plans a vengeance scheme. The young woman agrees to play the victim of his bogus kidnapping. The movie is based on the novel Geimu No Na Wa Yuukai ('The name of the game is kidnapping') by popular mystery novelist Keigo Higashino.

A drifter/hitman is hired by a local business man to kidnap the local oil baron. The hitman had been reared in squalor, suffering the abuses of his whoring mama. When the baron escapes his assistant must chase him while the hitman takes care of a few loose ends.

Maebara Keiichi, a young teenager, has recently moved from the city to the rural village of Hinamizawa with his family. He is adjusting quite well to his new life, making friends at the small school, playing games, passing time in relative happiness, when suddenly a gruesome murder occurs. A mystery begins to unravel — tracing back to happenings five years ago. As Keiichi learns more about these strange events, he wonders if he will be able to face the truth behind all of this.

The story of a mentally unstable loner lost in a life forced upon him. By night Oliver aimlessly wanders the streets and bars on what can only be described as a truly shocking and humiliating killing spree. His only savior and possible way out of a life he is desperate to escape comes in the form of the beautiful Sophia with her sweet eccentricity and naivety to the danger she has put herself in.

Early summer, Keiichi had just moved to a remote mountain village. As he becomes close friends with a group of girls, he was enjoying his life in the village. However when he starts to become suspicious that his friends may be deeply involved in successive murders that occur every summer, the situation around Keiichi gradually starts to turn into something more sinister.

A high school shooting has repercussions on the town and students.

In the small New England town of Galen, a young teenage boy claims he has dreams of young women being brutally raped and murdered. A doctor and the local sheriff discover that the boy's dreams are real and that a sinister occult might be behind the brutal murders. They must track down the vicious killer, who may be the indestructible incarnation of a demon spawned from hell.

Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, a girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity.

Lone wolf detective with an enormous personal grievance seeks to connect the mysterious death of his daughter to an urban legend of a villain who terrorizes Japan by insinuating himself into people's dreams and the collective psyche of the Japanese people.

A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.

A traveller comes across a signalman stationed by the exit of a railway tunnel in a deep cutting. The traveller becomes familiar with the signalman, and finds that he is troubled by an apparition which appears by the tunnel.

After a twenty-year stay at an asylum for a double murder, a mother returns to her estranged daughter where suspicions arise about her behavior.

In this documentary, Alex trusts his twin, Marcus, to tell him about his past after he loses his memory. But Marcus is hiding a dark family secret.

To his mute sister's dismay, a young boy puts a dying rabbit out of its misery with a brick -- and soon the siblings end up in a world of nightmares.

A young college professor and three of her students seek shelter during a storm in the rural farmhouse of a strange woman who collects lifelike mannequins.

Jennifer Hills is still tormented by the brutal sexual assault she endured years ago. She’s changed identities and cities, reluctantly joining a support group where she begins to piece together a new life. But when her new friend’s murderer goes free and the tales of serial rapists haunt her, Jennifer will hunt down the men responsible and do what the system won’t – make them pay for their crimes in the most horrific ways imaginable. Only this time, no jury may be able to save her.

Suzuki Sora is a cheerful country girl from the small town of Bie. She made a promise to her father, and following this promise applies and is accepted for a magic intership in Tokyo, where she will face the life in a big city. While training to get better with her magic, she meets a mysterious boy also practicing to become a mage. While he can not use magic that well and he seems distant and cold at first, Sora’s fate intertwines with his and the two are thrown together, learning a lot of new things about life and each other.

The film that brings back horror icon Freddy Krueger as a darker and more sinister character than ever before. While Freddy is on the prowl, a group of teenagers being stalked soon learn they all have a common factor making them targets for this twisted killer.

In February 2022, The Boy Scouts Of America reached a $2.7 billion agreement over sex abuse claims, the largest such settlement in history. Leave No Trace explores how this all-American institution went so horrifyingly wrong.

Kaori is a single mother and she raises her high-school age daughter Futaba. Her daughter is in a rebellious phase and ignores her mother. Kaori decides to take measures to communicate with her daughter and also get some revenge. Kaori creates messages in her daughter's bento meals.

An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.

After her father dies, a young woman returns to her Yorkshire village for the first time in 15 years to claim the family farm she believes is hers.

Malky is a demolition worker whose life receives a seismic shock when, out drinking with friends at a local pub, he sees a disturbing figure from his past: the man he holds responsible for a traumatic childhood incident. Fueled by anger, Malky sets out on a path of vengeance—and discovers that no one can escape the consequences of their sins.

The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.

A serial rapist stalks and murders prostitutes.

A famous movie star's fan club secretary has been brutally murdered. She has in her office old newspaper clippings regarding a missing heiress. Did the secretary know something about the mystery of the heiress?

Ms. Yoshino, respectable lady and attractive widow, leads a quiet and peaceful life with her teenage daughter Takako. However, their lifes change radically when fate confronts both with the young Hideo. While spending time with Takako, the latter is more attracted to her mother, and she in turn starts to feel the same, because he reminds her of his late father, a kabuki actor with whom she had an affair in the past.

An ordinary man plays matchmaker to his friend only to realize the girl being pursued is being stalked.

Newspaper correspondent Kyoko Togakure visits a nursing home in the outskirts of Tokyo. She finds the dead body of a resident. It was an apparent suicide. He's holding a piece of paper with the mystifying word "Death Water" written on it. Nearby are blood-stained scissors, and his eyes are squashed. She has no idea that this death is just the beginning of a horrendous nightmare.

As a tunnel construction project threatens the natural order of one of Japan's last untouched regions, an old man and his granddaughter Haruna's humble lifestyle begins to influence the outlook of a man from Tokyo.

A man confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse as a boy by a Catholic priest only to find his decision shatters his relationships with his family, community and faith.

Filmmaker Amy Berg sheds light on the sexual, financial and spiritual abuses heaped upon members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by their former leader, Warren Jeffs.

High school student Kozue spreads flyers in search of her missing classmate. A psychopath lures her to his place, where he abducts and imprisons her. The psychopath rapes his victims with a vibrator, then poisons and photographs them dying. However, Kozue reacts differently from other women.

After being sexually assaulted on a rooftop, seventeen year old Poppo meets a mysterious boy, and swap their traumas and fears, with fatal consequences.

Yuuji makes the unexpected decision to pursue promotion within the institution he works for. He meets with JB to discuss the documents he submitted for review as a part of the promotion process, documents pertaining to his own past.

Fact based story about a woman who after 20 years starts having memories of her own molestation by her father and the murder of one of her childhood playmates by him.

On January 7th 2005, 29 year old Rick Rodriguez murdered his former nanny and then killed himself on a lonely desert highway. Hours earlier he had videoed his suicide note and this final message provided a remarkable insight into a deeply damaged life. It also lifted the lid on one of the most notorious religious cults to emerge out of the 1960s counter culture: The Children of God sect.

A bruised and battered corpse in Shibuya, Tokyo has the attention of the local cops. A veteran detective is assigned to the case. The last utterance of the victim is one clue that detective Imanishi has to work on. Yet, the case becomes more tangled quickly. Elsewhere, a prodigy named Waga Eiryo is composing an orchestral piece. Remake of The Castle of Sand (1974).

A young girl named Debbie is attacked by a bus stop one evening and is blindfolded and raped. Her mother, Lila, who is consumed with guilt is determined to catch the rapist...

Masaya is a university student, but he attends a school that's not his ideal school. His days are generally gloomy. One day, he receives a letter from serial killer Haimura. He was convicted for nine murders and received the death penalty. Back when Haimura was committing his murders, he ran a bakery store. At that time, Masaya was a middle-school student and a customer at his bakery store. According to the letter, Haimura confesses to having committed eight murders, but he insists that he did not commit the last murder. Masaya begins to investigate the last murder case involving Haimura.

After being raped by a serial killer, Jillian Hayes, Carol Rosen and Meg Pesaturo found "The Survivors Club", and they use the press to force the police and justice to arrest the rapist. Eddie Como is arrested, based on DNA evidences, and while going to court for trial, he is murdered by a sniper and the three women switch position from victims to suspects. Detective Roan Griffin, who is traumatized by the brutal murder of his beloved wife by the manipulative killer David Price, joins the investigation with detective Fitz Fitzpatrick trying to solve the case.

Moritaka Mashiro doesn't want to follow in the path of his uncle who worked as a manga artist, but ultimately died because of exhaustion. Moritaka Mashiro figures he will graduate from school and work at an office. Things change though when falls in love with a girl at school. The girl, who hopes to become a voice actress, tells Moritaka they can marry, but only after they both achieve their dreams. Moritaka then teams up with fellow classmate Akito Takagi to publish their first manga.

Traumatic incidents, conflicts, and bloody quarrels awaiting the Wago family members who return home to bury their parents.

Six high schoolers stuck in a murderous time loop must find the scattered remains of an unknown victim to break the curse and finally see another day.

Kida and Makoto grew up together because they have it in common that they don't have parents. And a transfer student, Yotchi, also gets along with them because she has a similar background, which is that they come from not such a good home environment. They spent their school life supporting each other. But, at the age of 20, Yotchi disappeared. Then Lisa, the daughter of a politician and a top model, appears in front of the two men. Makoto takes an unusual romantic interest in Lisa, who lives in a different world from them, and asked her out to dinner, but she does not take him up on it at all. Kida warns Makoto to give up on her because they live in different worlds, but Makoto quits his job and vanishes without a trace.

It was a pre-destined love and marriage for Sonoko and Tetsuo. They tied the knot and became husband and wife no questions asked. All is well then. Well, perhaps not. Each holds a secret that even the binds of matrimony cannot untie. Sonoko does not know that Tetsuo makes sex dolls or Dutch wives. Sonoko has a secret too. She is about to tell Tetsuo what she has been hiding. Their marriage is already sexless. Will they make it?

A client's claims of incest cause an attorney to remember the traumas she suffered when she was a sexually abused child. Instead of debilitating her, it only motivates the lawyer to fight harder to change California's inadequate child-molestation laws. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Hitoshi Nagano, who works at an electronics store, picks up a cellphone left behind by a customer and goes about a scam. He calls the person's mother and pretends to be her son. He then gets the mother to transfer money to his bank account. Soon, Hitoshi gets a lot more than he bargained for.

A gifted psychic named Nanase teams up with other psychics in order to fight against a mysterious organization determined to hunt them down.

A year after Charlie's daughter disappears, another girl from Elrod, Georgia goes missing. Convinced there is a connection, Charlie draws suspicion and contempt from local law enforcement and townspeople as she stops at nothing to expose its most devastating and darkest secret.

Naoto Ihara lives happily with his wife Miyuki and their son Haruto. Their happiness is crushed when Miyuki suddenly dies in a car accident. Naoto falls into deep grief over the death of his wife. Meanwhile, Naruto buries his dead mother Miyuki's finger in their garden and prays everyday for her to come back to life. The family is visited by video director Hiroko Kurasawa, who used to work with Naoto Ihara. There she sees Haruto shouting a strange spell in their yard. Unexpected and bizarre phenomenons soon take place around Hiroko Kurasawa.

Shinji Yagami (Yuma Nakayama) is a university student. He is easily frightened, due to seeing ghosts. He has feelings for Koyomi Nada (Haruka Shimazaki). To protect Koyomi Nada, Shinji and Koyomi joins the occult research group at their university. They try to solve a mystery of the haunted campus with members of their occult group.

A university student has the usual dreams and aspirations. It turns out to be a pipe dream and so she murders her own flesh and blood. The usual media heads seek an answer in order to sell copy. A psychologist is writing a book about the character and incident. Her research for the subject matter turn the psychologist inward and things come out of the shadows that perhaps are better left buried deep in the shadows of the psyche.

Survivors, whistleblowers and experts recount the Boy Scouts of America's decades long cover-up of sexual abuse cases and its heartbreaking impact.

A group of seven random players are chosen to participate in the next 'Twilight Syndrome' game created by Makino Shuzo. This time, it is at an amusement park, known as the Twilight Zone.