Top 250 Movies Like The Dresden Files

If you need help, call the cops. If you need a miracle, call Harry Dresden

A list of the best movies similar to The Dresden Files. If you liked The Dresden Files then you may also like: 8 Million Ways to Die, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Until the End of the World, V.I. Warshawski, Velvet Smooth and many more great movies featured on this list.

A Chicago-based wizard works as a private investigator.

8 Million Ways to Die

Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

After finding her boss, a private detective, has committed suicide and has left her his agency, Cordelia Gray is asked to investigate the suicide of the man's son. During the course of her investigation, Cordelia becomes obsessed with the young man's memory and his increasingly suspicious death.

Until the End of the World

In 1999, a woman's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash with two bank robbers, who enlist her help to take the money to a drop in Paris. On the way, she runs into another fugitive from the law — an American doctor on the run from the CIA. They want to confiscate his father's invention – a device which allows anyone to record their dreams and visions.

V.I. Warshawski

Victoria "V.I" Warshawski is a Chicago based private detective who agrees to babysit for her new boyfriend; then he is murdered. Being the detective type, she makes the murder her next case. In doing so she befriends the victim's daughter, Kat, and together they set out to crack the case.

Velvet Smooth

A crime lord hires Velvet Smooth, the head of a detective agency, to find out who is stealing his business.

Wicked Stepmother

A mother/daughter pair of witches descend on a yuppie family's home and cause havoc, one at a time since they share one body & the other must live in a cat the rest of the time. Now it's up to the family's mother, a private detective, and a suspended police officer to try and stop the witches.

Witch Hunt

Magic and murder connect an actress, a private eye, a senator and a witch in 1950s Hollywood.

The Wizard of Baghdad

A genie turned mortal after his many failures is sent to Baghdad. As his last chance to prove himself he must help a prince and princess fulfill a prophecy.

The Wizard of Gore

In the darkly phantasmagorical world of the carnival magician and sideshow hypnotist, the gruesome "illusions" of Montag the Magnificent are unique in that they seem to become retroactive reality long after the the tricks are done. Is it coincidence, or circumstantial evidence of the world's most diabolically ingenious murders? When an underground journalist begins to investigate the strange deaths, the truth proves to be far more bizarre and disturbing than anything he or his readers might have imagined.

The Worst Witch

Mildred is one of the young girls at a prestigious witch academy. She can't seem to do anything right and is picked on by classmates and teachers. The headmistress of the school, Miss Cackle, has an evil twin sister who plans to destroy the school. Can Mildred foil the plan before the Grand Wizard comes to the Academy for a Halloween celebration you'll never forget?!!

No Way Back

Crowder is a an unethical private detective in pursuit of a gangster who's after embezzled money.

The Norliss Tapes

A newspaper publisher listens to the personal tapes of investigative reporter David Norliss, who has disappeared during an investigation. The tapes tell the story of that investigation, involving a recent widow whose late husband has been seen working in his private studio. As Norliss and the widow investigate, they unravel a plot involving Voodoo and the walking dead.

The Right Temptation

A detective falls for the man she's supposed to be investigating; dire complications follow.

Roaring City

A San Francisco private eye finds himself under suspicion while investigating a prizefighter's murder.

Rough Magic

A sleazy politician sends an agent after his ex-fiancee, who fled to Mexico with incriminating film of him.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

A petty thief posing as an actor is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl and a detective who's been training him for his upcoming role...

The Amazing Mr. X

On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf...then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind...

Blackmail

A private detective is offered a job protecting a rich business man from suspected blackmail. Before he can accept the case a murder is uncovered.

Cast a Deadly Spell

In a fantastical 1940s where magic is used by everyone, a hard-boiled detective investigates the theft of a mystical tome.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost

Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang visit Oakhaven, Massachusetts to seek strange goings on involving a famous horror novelist and his ancestor who is rumored be a witch.

Framed for Murder

When a woman falsely accused of murdering her husband is released from prison after 8 years, she hires a private investigator, determined to find out who framed her. What she doesn't know, is that the killer is about to do it again.

Christmas on Mars

The film tells the story of the experiences of Major Syrtis during the first Christmas on a newly-colonized Mars. Coyne has described the film as "Maybe Eraserhead or Dead Man crossed with some kind of fantasy and space aspects, like The Wizard of Oz and maybe A Space Odyssey, and set at Christmas-time. The story that unfolds is intended to hint at childlike magic within a tragic and realistic situation."

Halloweentown High

Marnie Piper prepares to begin a new school year, she asks the Halloweentown Hot Witches' Council to work toward openness between Halloweentown and the mortal world. She proposes to bring a group of Halloweentown students to her own high school in the mortal world.

Now You See It...

While producing a reality TV show, a teenager meets a magician whose powers are real but put him in danger.

The Illusionist

With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crown prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector.

Find the Blackmailer

A private eye is hired by a mayoral candidate to prevent any sort of adverse publicity. It seems that, somewhere in town, there's a talking blackbird who insists upon saying that the candidate will commit a murder. When the killing occurs, the candidate is implicated, and the detective is off on a hectic pursuit of the incriminating crow and the actual murderer.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Gellert Grindelwald has escaped imprisonment and has begun gathering followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one capable of putting a stop to him is the wizard he once called his closest friend, Albus Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore will need to seek help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

Lord of Illusions

During a routine case in L.A., NY private investigator Harry D'Amour stumbles over members of a fanatic cult who are preparing for the resurrection of their leader Nix, a powerful magician who was killed 13 years earlier.

Devil in a Blue Dress

In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.

Evil Angel

Set in present day Chicago, the ancient avenging demon Lilith, attempts to destroy a young paramedic's life while destroying anyone who interferes with her plan.

Ghost Ship

Warned that it is haunted, a skeptical young couple buy a rundown yacht and fix it up to be their home-on-the-sea, only to slowly realize that it really is haunted.

Onward

In a suburban fantasy world, two teenage elf brothers embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there.

Devil Rider!

A young rebellious girl hooks up with a biker gang. Her father hires a private detective to find her and bring her back. The detective goes undercover as a biker to search for her.

Carnival Magic

A magician in a carnival--who actually can read minds and levitate people and objects--works with a superintelligent chimp named Alex, who can also talk. The magician and the chimp soon become the stars of the carnival, drawing in big crowds. However, the wild-animal trainer, who has been displaced by the team as the carnival's top act, decides to kidnap Alex and sell him to a medical laboratory for experimentation, thereby getting rid of his competition.

The American Side

Following a mysterious suicide at Niagara Falls, a low-rent detective unravels a conspiracy to build a revolutionary invention by enigmatic scientist, Nikola Tesla.

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

A man believed to be dead and buried escapes from his grave and returns to the scene of the crime seeking revenge.

The Guy From Harlem

Tough streetwise private investigator Al Connors, who works in Florida but originally hails from Harlem, is hired by the CIA to guard a visiting African princess. Moreover, Connors uses all his sharp street smarts and fierce fighting skills to find another woman who's been abducted by the evil Big Daddy.

Hammett

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

Life Without Dick

By accident, Colleen Gibson shoots and kills her gold-digging cheating boyfriend, Dick, a private eye who happens to have a hitman on his tail. Danny the hitman works for his brother-in-law, a cheerful but nasty Irish mobster, hasn't actually killed anyone, and wants to be a singer. He falls for Colleen. she likes him, too. He can solve her problem (Dick's body), she can solve his (meeting the mobster's demands that he kill people like Dick). Danny has an ex-girlfriend, who might still hold the key to his heart, two cops are sniffing around for Dick, a junk yard owner gets a conscience, and a talent show is coming up. Bullets, music, and true love are set to collide.

Magicians

A pair of rivaling stage magicians are forced to confront their falling out over a guillotine mishap when they compete in a magic competition.

Manhandled

Merle Kramer works as a stenographer for a psychiatrist. She is casually dating Karl Benson, a private eye and former cop. Merle mentions in passing that one of her boss's patients is an author with recurring dreams of murdering his wife, and she includes the fact that the wife owns valuable jewels. When the wife is found murdered in a manner identical to that of her husband's dream, the husband is naturally the prime suspect. But as the investigation of the police and insurance investigator Joe Cooper proceeds, it turns out that several people in the case, including Merle, are not what they seem.

The Missing Person

Private detective John Rosow is hired to tail a man on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Rosow gradually uncovers the man's identity as a missing person; one of the thousands presumed dead after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Persuaded by a large reward, Rosow is charged with bringing the missing person back to his wife in New York City.

Practical Magic

Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian's vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov -- and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.

Satan's School for Girls

A young woman enrolls at an all-girls college in New England to investigate her sister's suicide and is slowly lured into a witchcraft cult by a quartet of students wanting to make her their fifth member of their evil circle.

Throne of Elves

In the mythical Elven world of Altera, an epic battle unfolds between the beautiful Princess Liya and the Dark Elf Elena, who has gained possession of a jewel so powerful it allows its holder complete authority over all Alterans.

Too Late

Private investigator Mel Sampson is tasked with tracking down the whereabouts of a missing woman from his own past.

Too Many Winners

Michael Shayne mystery involving counterfeit tickets at a race track.

The Outsider

Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.

The Living Ghost

A detective investigating kidnapping case discovers the victim, who may be a zombie.

The Good Witch

A mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".

Fade to Black

Still reeling from the painful breakup of his marriage to screen siren Rita Hayworth, filmmaker Orson Welles makes his way to Rome, where he gets pulled into a tangled political plot involving murder and mysterious motives. A beautiful actress proves a tempting distraction. But if they want to stay alive, Welles and his young Italian driver need to stay focused.

Twenty Plus Two

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?

The Return of the Whistler

When a woman goes missing on the eve of her wedding, her fiancee hires a detective to track her down

Footsteps in the Dark

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.

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.

Blind Terror

After marrying a handsome man she barely knows, a woman experiences threatening calls and violent attacks from a mysterious woman who claims to be her new husband's former lover.

Darker Than Amber

Professional beach bum and 'knight errant' Travis McGee goes up against psychotic body-builder Terry Bartell. McGee pulls out all the stops when he joins a Caribbean cruise to bring the killer to justice.

Sunset Grill

Ryder Hart is a private investigator and former police officer who is down on his luck and drinks too much. His estranged wife Anita runs a bar and restaurant called the Sunset Grill and is romantically involved with Jeff Carruthers, a detective who worked with Hart. When someone close to them is murdered, Hart and Carruthers team up to try to solve the crime.

Alabama's Ghost

A nightclub janitor discovers the personal effects of a magician and uses them to become a popular magician himself. Tampering with the secrets of the beyond has its price, however, as he soon learns when he is confronted by voodoo, vampirism, and an eviscerated ghost.

My Ghost Dog

Dog's ghost returns to help boy win a custody battle, fight bullies and find his loving but shy step-dad a nice girlfriend.

Dragon Knight

Many years after the war has been lost, and all the dragons slain, a lone knight travels the lands of Agonos seeking to raise an army against the demon lord Abaddon. When a healer's vision reveals that one dragon still lives, and together with an eager young squire, the knight sets off in search of the fabled creature. As the armies of Abaddon descend on the human kingdoms, the dragon is their last hope of fending off the horde, before it lays waste to the lands of men. But does the creature even exist? And if it does, will it fight for them once more?

Ghost Team

A paranormal-obsessed man mounts his own investigation into the beyond with his depressed best friend, misfit nephew, a cable access medium and an overeager security guard.

The Investigation: A Haunting in Sherwood

Private Investigator Gareth Morris went missing in 2018 whilst investigating noises coming from a house in Sherwood. He hacked into the home's security system and recorded everything.

Ticket to a Crime

After a jeweler hires a private detective to help him find $50,000 missing from his company, he is murdered while attending a society party; and the private eye, aided by his comely secretary, vies with a bumbling police detective to find the murderer among several suspects, including the dead man's daughter, her current husband, her former husband, and an ex-convict.

Smile Jenny, You're Dead

David Janssen (The Fugitive) portrays dogged detective Harry in the telefilm that was the second of two pilots preceding his memorable Harry O series. Among the highlights: young Jodie Foster as Liberty, the wise-beyond-her-years homeless waif Harry befriends.

More Than Murder

Private eye Mike Hammer tries to clear his friend, Captain Chambers, who has been framed for cocaine possession.

Cannon

In this pilot film to the TV series, Cannon investigates the murder of a war buddy to clear the man's wife of suspicion in his death.

The Late Show

Over-the-hill gumshoe in Los Angeles seeks to avenge the killing of an old pal, another detective who had gotten himself involved in a case concerning a murdered broad, stolen stamps, a nickel-plated handgun, a cheating dolly, and a kidnapped pussycat.

The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A.

Detective Jim Rockford works to uncover facts of the death of a wealthy socialite whose two grown children are accused of murdering her. Complicating matters are Rockford's omnipresent "friend" Angel, and Rockford's ex-wife Kit, a lawyer who represents the children.

Murder Me, Murder You

Private eye Mike Hammer probes his long-lost love's death while seeking their daughter.

This Girl For Hire

In this pilot for a proposed TV series, B.T. Brady is a flippant, but somewhat klutzy female private detective in Hollywood who sets out to solve the murder of a obnoxious mystery writer. Along the way, Brady gets help from her flamboyant mother Zandra, a washed-up actress, as well as Brady's live-in boyfriend Wolfe who runs a memorabilia shop.

Third Degree Burn

A down-and-out private eye (Treat Williams) gets too close to the wife (Virginia Madsen) of a rich man (Richard Masur) soon found dead.

Lady Against the Odds

A private detective becomes involved in a new cast when her partner's guardian is murdered.

The Big Bang

A private detective is hired to find a missing stripper but the job turns complicated when everyone he questions ends up dead. From the mean streets of Los Angeles to the desolate desert of New Mexico, Cruz must contend with a brutal Russian Boxer, three brash LAPD detectives, an aged billionaire looking for the Big Bang, and the billionaire's stunningly gorgeous wife. The solution to the mystery will cost ten lives, net $30 million and just might explain - well - everything.

P.I. Private Investigations

A young architect finds himself being stalked by a gang of criminals who believe he knows something that could expose their activities.

Film Noir

Private detective Sam Ruben's clever plan falls apart with the onset of amnesia. Everyone is trying to kill him and he doesn't know why. The classic film noir milieu now comes to you in the form of an animated feature.

Shadows of a Stranger

A haunted investigator teams up with a psychic on a mysterious job that promises a fortune: a search to bring a missing stranger home by Christmas.

The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime

Laid-back private eye Jim Rockford and his brown Pontiac Firebird become embroiled in another case when he runs across an old flame, blind book editor Megan. Her no-good playboy cousin Patrick is involved with the Russian Mob, which puts everyone's life in danger. The weary Rockford must also deal with his old friend Angel, who is painting Jim's trailer to work off a debt.

Catherine's Grove

Undercover cop Doyle is working on a serial killer case that's left a trail of dead transvestites. Then, moonlighting as a private eye, Doyle and his girlfriend are hired by a rich young man to find his sister. The search leads to her mysterious uncle, and the possibility of becoming the killer's next victim.

Mickey's Tale of Two Witches

On Halloween, Mickey tells a tale of two witches-in-training, Minnie and Daisy, who must pass four tests to graduate from the With Academy in Happy Haunt Hills.

Speedtrap

After a wave of unsolved car thefts, an insurance company calls in a private investigator to solve the case. While the chief of police isn't thrilled about having an outsider come and show up his men, one of the officers is a former girlfriend who's more than willing to help him out in any way she can.

The Undercover Woman

Two women private detectives arrive at a dude ranch in time to investigate the murder of their client's philandering husband.

Psych 3: This Is Gus

In preparation for a shotgun wedding before the birth of Baby Guster, Shawn and Gus go rogue in an attempt to track down Selene’s estranged husband, as Lassiter grapples with the future of his career.

The Gorilla

When an escaped circus gorilla appears to have gone on a murderous rampage, a threatened attorney calls on the detective trio of Garrity, Harrigan and Mullivan to act as bodyguards. In short order, we discover that there is more to the attorney than meets the eye, and the ape may be innocent after all. When a pretty young heiress faces peril, it's up to our heroic trio to save the day.

Lonely Street

Bubba Mabry, a gullible private detective, becomes the prime suspect in a tabloid reporter's murder after being hired to snoop on him by a mysterious celebrity.

A Very Potter Sequel

Harry and his pals are back for more adventure than ever when they face off against dark wizards, demented monsters, and the most horrible woman in the world, Dolores Umbridge! So strap on your diapers because it's time to go back to Hogwarts!

Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit

Jordan White, a publisher friend of Perry, is called to a hotel where a guest, famous horror writer David Hall, has cleared out the hotel for a weekend and has called his "friends" - an actress, a fortune-teller, David's private assistant and the two remaining staff at the hotel to discuss business. They have come to the hotel as all of them are going to sue David over his new book - "The Resort" which characters are obviously based on Jordan and the guests. A practical joker, David plays tricks on them until he is thrown from the high tower of the hotel where Susan Warrenfield, the manager and owner of the hotel sees the fall and then Jordan at the tower causing the police to arrest Jordan. While Perry and Della try to solve the main mystery, Paul tries to find out who is trying to scare Susan away from the hotel. Could it really be a ghost or a more earthy visitor?

Breakaway

When Johnny Matlock whisks away a cold war secret from under the noses of Berlin's top secret agents, his every move is followed when he returns to England. His girlfriend Paula is kidnapped but her handbag is discovered at the scene of the crime by the aristocratic private eye, Duke Martin. Inside it he discovers the secret formula that the agents are searching for and tracks down her sister Paula. As Johnny grows frantic for the safe return of his girlfriend, Duke Martin plays a deadly game of double bluff with the enemy agents.

Three Blondes In His Life

Tough insurance investigator Mahoney goes to LA to look into the murder of a fellow investigator. It's found that the murdered man knew three different women — all blondes — and with each he had had a love affair. What is their connection to the crime? And will Mahoney bed all of them as well?

Travis McGee

Travis McGee is a world-weary private eye trying to help boat skipper friend Van Harder salvage his reputation that sank when his boat ran aground, resulting in a death that might have been faked.

Emerald City

Irish construction workers built New York City and had a grand time doing it. Each guy on the Emerald City crew is struggling with something: drinking, gambling, loss, the burden of a family legacy, and facing a city that doesn't need them anymore.

Magic Moments

A successful magician is approached to do a TV special, which he has not done before. He and the beautiful producer of the show fall in love with each other, much to the disappointment of her possessive guardian (who is the person she works for). He sets out to wreck their happiness.

Girl on the Run

A Hollywood private eye (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) seeks a singer being stalked by a hired killer.

Every Witch Way: Spellbound

Every witch way like you have never seen it before all your magic comes back in this movie

Merlin and the Book of Beasts

In the twenty years since the fall of Camelot, Merlin has become a recluse known as "the wild man of the woods." He is now summoned by a charge of young knights as they quest to destroy an evil wizard who rules the land from a throne of a "New Camelot."

Gotham

A New York private eye searches for a socialite who supposedly drowned 10 years before.

Constantine: The House of Mystery

John Constantine wakes up in the eerie House of Mystery with no recollection of how he got there. Fortunately, Zatanna and his friends are all there. Unfortunately, they have a bad habit of turning into demons and ripping him to shreds, over and over again!

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