If you’re hunting tonight for movies like Coherence, this micro‑budget sci‑fi chamber piece thrives on paranoia, off‑the‑cuff dialogue, and quantum‑tinged party games that spiral into dread. It’s a reality‑bending drama where eight friends at a dinner collide with a cosmic anomaly, forcing split‑second identity tests, fragile alliances, and choices that fracture trust as much as space‑time.
To build this guide, we pinned similarity to five clear axes pulled straight from Coherence’s DNA: a paranoid sci‑fi mood, a conversational but knife‑edge pace, ensemble bottle‑episode pressure, dinner‑party suspense, and choices that make ordinary people face extraordinary rules. Every selection below earns its spot because it mirrors that engine while changing the variables enough to surprise.
We measure closeness on five axes: tone, narrative engine, themes, character dynamics, and stakes. We further weight films that stage pressure‑cooker conversations, identity puzzles, and rule‑based twists. To avoid tunnel vision we ensure an era & region mix across the list while keeping the core feel intact. Where relevant, we call out when our movies like Coherence score is driven by ensemble friction rather than spectacle. Secondary texture tags you’ll see once each: chamber thriller, multiverse mystery, time‑loop puzzle, reality‑bending drama, ensemble bottle episode, dinner‑party suspense, low‑budget high‑concept, and paranoid sci‑fi.
Smart, tense picks that truly feel like movies like Coherence
1) Primer (2004)
- Runtime: 77 min
- Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan
- Director: Shane Carruth
- Genre: Sci‑fi / Puzzle
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Why it’s similar: Intimate rules, ethical spirals, and fragile friendships under time pressure.
Two engineers stumble into a breakthrough and discover that the smallest exploit can split lives. The premise is a garage‑level experiment whose side effects multiply faster than anyone can track. The tone stays hushed and practical, letting dread build through jargon, notebooks, and missed calls. Like the seed, loyalties fracture as partners hide duplications and second passes to protect advantage. Suburban warehouses and diners stand in for laboratories, keeping the world tactile and limited. Emotional payoffs come from betrayal’s quiet shattering rather than action beats. If you loved movies like Coherence for rule literacy and consequences, this scratches the same itch. The closer lands with a chilly, plausible ambiguity that lingers.
2) Timecrimes (2007)
- Runtime: 92 min
- Starring: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández
- Director: Nacho Vigalondo
- Genre: Thriller / Sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: 7.1/10
- Why it’s similar: Domestic space, tight causality, and moral knots from tiny desperate choices.
A middle‑aged man in the countryside stumbles into a loop where every fix breeds a worse tangle. The premise turns a backyard and a lab into a closed circuit of mistakes chasing themselves. The tone is grimly playful, counting beats until the next collision of versions. Group dynamics mirror dinner stress as secrets and quick lies expand the blast radius. Woods, fences, and a hillside bunker feel like a chessboard with too many queens. The emotional landing is rueful, weighing responsibility against inevitability. Fans of movies like Coherence will appreciate the precise rule‑tracking and domestic stakes. The final image snaps shut like a trap you recognise too late.
3) The Invitation (2015)
- Runtime: 100 min
- Starring: Logan Marshall‑Green, Tammy Blanchard
- Director: Karyn Kusama
- Genre: Thriller / Dinner party
- IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
- Why it’s similar: Dinner‑table mind games, cultish vibes, and fragile social contracts under strain.
An estranged couple hosts friends for a sleek Los Angeles gathering that hums with unresolved grief. The premise weaponises toasts, parlour games, and locked doors until courtesy erodes to panic. The tone glides from awkward to ominous as every smile reads like a dare. Interpersonal fault lines map neatly to shifting allegiances and whispered sidebars. The glass‑and‑hills setting plays the same box‑within‑a‑box trick as a chamber thriller. The payoff redefines the night’s stakes with a single, chilling reveal. If movies like Coherence hook you on social tension first, this is prime. The closer widens the lens without breaking its tight emotional focus.
4) Triangle (2009)
- Runtime: 99 min
- Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman
- Director: Christopher Smith
- Genre: Mystery / Time‑loop
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Why it’s similar: Time‑loop puzzle aboard a floating bottle episode with fractured identities.
A day sail goes sideways when a storm delivers an empty ocean liner with echoes in its halls. The premise corrals the cast into repeating corridors where choices replay with hairline differences. The tone is propulsive but mournful, counting down resets like guilty heartbeats. Shifting trust mirrors Coherence’s party dynamics, only with corridors instead of cul‑de‑sacs. The oceanic limbo becomes a stage where props and bloodstains memorise your missteps. Emotionally it lands as a tragedy about self‑deception and the cost of denial. Seek it if movies like Coherence appeal for identity riddles that pay off. The ending’s symmetry feels inevitable and cruel in the best way.
5) Predestination (2014)
- Runtime: 97 min
- Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook
- Director: Michael & Peter Spierig
- Genre: Sci‑fi / Paradox
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Why it’s similar: Rule‑driven paradoxes, identity collapse, and intimate stakes over spectacle.
A temporal agent’s last mission intersects a bartender’s impossible life story in a looping confession. The premise is part barroom yarn, part bureaucratic time policing with a knife‑twist reveal. The tone is measured, letting the riddle tighten before it snaps. Character focus mirrors the seed’s concern with choices that reverberate through relationships. Drab offices and dim bars ground the high concept in ordinary rooms. The payoff is both shocking and mathematically neat, rewarding attention. If movies like Coherence work for you because rules matter, this sings. The final turn reframes every prior scene without cheating.
6) The Endless (2017)
- Runtime: 111 min
- Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
- Director: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
- Genre: Sci‑fi / Cosmic oddity
- IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
- Why it’s similar: Low‑budget high‑concept loops, sibling bonds, and rules etched into the landscape.
Two brothers revisit a cult‑like commune and find the countryside stitched with impossible repetitions. The premise grows from awkward reunions into a map of invisible cages and recurring skies. The tone is patient and curious, then suddenly terrifying when patterns reveal jaws. The relationship at its core mirrors Coherence’s friend‑group tests, only with family debt. Cabins, campfires, and a tangle of trails make the world feel hand‑drawn and haunted. The emotional payoff blends reconciliation with the dread of an indifferent watcher. Seek it if movies like Coherence grip you with cosmic rules enforced by etiquette. The last choice is simple, human, and razor‑edged.
Deeper, eerier currents for fans of movies like Coherence
7) Resolution (2012)
- Runtime: 93 min
- Starring: Peter Cilella, Vinny Curran
- Director: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
- Genre: Horror / Metafiction
- IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
- Why it’s similar: Friends trapped by unseen rules that catalogue their worst choices.
A man handcuffs his friend in a shack to force detox, and something starts watching. The premise threads found media and local folklore into a lattice that anticipates every misstep. The tone is scrappy, humane, then cold as authorship itself turns predatory. Friendship strain maps directly to the seed’s brittle group loyalties. The back‑country setting plays like a notebook margin where the story writes back. The payoff is a glance upward that chills more than any jump scare. If movies like Coherence hooked you on meta rules and consequences, file this high. The final beat is both plea and punchline.
8) The Man from Earth (2007)
- Runtime: 87 min
- Starring: David Lee Smith, Tony Todd
- Director: Richard Schenkman
- Genre: Drama / Bottle room
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Why it’s similar: One room, big ideas, and intellectual sparring that strains friendships.
A professor announces an impossible personal history at his going‑away party and lets debate detonate. The premise is pure conversation, a fire‑side seminar where belief and affection collide. The tone is gentle yet needling, turning academic credentials into weapons. Group dynamics echo the seed’s fragile alliances and shifting trust. A cabin stuffed with books becomes a pressure cooker, not a sanctuary. The payoff arrives as a small, devastating human reveal. Fans of movies like Coherence who prize idea duels over effects will feast here. The last line feels like a hand briefly squeezed in the dark.
9) Source Code (2011)
- Runtime: 93 min
- Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan
- Director: Duncan Jones
- Genre: Thriller / Sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Why it’s similar: Closed‑loop missions, identity puzzles, and ethics inside tight ticking windows.
A soldier wakes on a commuter train with eight minutes to stop a bombing, again and again. The premise makes repetition a tool for empathy, detective work, and self‑recognition. The tone is urgent yet tender, pausing for small kindnesses between resets. Relationships form under pressure like Coherence’s alliances across uncertain timelines. Trains, labs, and screens make a crisp triage of spaces. The payoff balances heroism with a sideways metaphysical mercy. If movies like Coherence thrill you for humane puzzles, this delivers. The closing tableau invites debate without undercutting feeling.
10) Another Earth (2011)
- Runtime: 92 min
- Starring: Brit Marling, William Mapother
- Director: Mike Cahill
- Genre: Drama / Sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Why it’s similar: Multiverse mystery used for intimate grief, guilt, and second‑chance choices.
A duplicate planet appears in the sky as a young woman seeks atonement for a life‑shattering mistake. The premise mates cosmic possibility with the most private kind of apology. The tone is quiet and penitent, letting silence carry weight. Two‑hander conversations mirror Coherence’s fragile efforts to restart trust. Suburban rooms and roadside fields keep the scale personal. The payoff offers a simple image that detonates meaning. If your movies like Coherence craving leans reflective, this is essential. The last shot is a door opening where none existed.
Airier, playful angles that still read as movies like Coherence
11) The One I Love (2014)
- Runtime: 91 min
- Starring: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss
- Director: Charlie McDowell
- Genre: Romance / Surreal
- IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
- Why it’s similar: Relationship test inside house rules where identity and desire misalign.
A couple’s therapy retreat serves up a guesthouse with impossible, seductive physics. The premise turns wish fulfilment into a maze of boundaries and self‑image. The tone is spry and unsettling, walking a line between whimsy and threat. Two‑hander dynamics echo the seed’s negotiation of trust under observation. Sunny California spaces become a funhouse of mirrors and doors. The emotional payoff is bittersweet, choosing honesty over fantasy. Viewers seeking movies like Coherence but with wry romance will click with this. The final beat is a perfectly folded note.
12) Palm Springs (2020)
- Runtime: 90 min
- Starring: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti
- Director: Max Barbakow
- Genre: Comedy / Time‑loop
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Why it’s similar: Time‑loop puzzle with sardonic banter and evolving rules for intimacy.
Wedding guests wake to the same desert day until acceptance becomes a jailbreak plan. The premise weaponises repetition for jokes, growth, and DIY science. The tone is breezy but thoughtful, sneaking melancholy under pool floats. Duo and trio dynamics echo Coherence’s shifting alliances under weird sky. Golf courses and caverns provide sun‑drenched laboratory benches. The payoff marries earned affection with a neat rules‑based escape. If you want movies like Coherence that also crack smiles, start here. The coda is a hammock of relief.
13) Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
- Runtime: 84 min
- Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass
- Director: Colin Trevorrow
- Genre: Comedy / Sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Why it’s similar: Low‑budget high‑concept quest where belief, faith, and risk define outcomes.
A magazine team chases a classified ad seeking a partner for time travel “bring your own weapons.” The premise balances a shaggy investigation with the ache of wanting impossible things. The tone stays gentle and lightly spiky, never mean to its dreamers. Interpersonal trust games mirror Coherence’s tests, just with warmer stakes. Coastal towns and cul‑de‑sacs keep the canvas human‑scale. The payoff rewards sincerity without overexplaining. If movies like Coherence entice you for heart under head games, this fits. The last tableau makes hope feel like a machine you can build.
14) Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
- Runtime: 83 min
- Starring: Chris O’Dowd, Anna Faris
- Director: Gareth Carrivick
- Genre: Comedy / Pub sci‑fi
- IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
- Why it’s similar: Pub‑set ensemble, branching shenanigans, and rules explained across pints.
Three friends discover their local has become a junction box for temporal nonsense. The premise is a lads’ night that keeps tripping over future selves and staff from elsewhere. The tone is jaunty with affectionate nerdiness, never losing track of feelings. The buddy dynamic echoes the seed’s ensemble bickering and quick coalition shifts. A single pub becomes a stage for costume changes and paradox gags. The payoff ties friendship to the courage to act despite confusion. If your hunt for movies like Coherence can end with laughs, this will do it. The curtain falls as the jukebox plays the same song with new meaning.
Conclusion: where to go after movies like Coherence (Coherence in Title Case)
Start with Primer and Timecrimes for gentle but relentless clue‑chase momentum, then take The Invitation and Resolution if you crave higher‑stakes unease without gore. For quick wins with wit, try Palm Springs or Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, which twirl the time‑loop puzzle without losing heart. If you want classic identity‑twist structure with emotional ballast, pick Predestination or Triangle. Prefer talky, idea‑first nights? The Man from Earth and Another Earth deliver reflective, reality‑bending drama. Fans of cosmic, rule‑heavy oddities should pair The Endless with Resolution for a complete myth. For humane action‑logic, Source Code remains a bright, generous thriller. To dig deeper into craft conversations about this corner of sci‑fi, browse the British Film Institute’s overview of time‑twist cinema at BFI and the American Film Institute’s perspectives on genre storytelling at AFI.
FAQ — practical picks and logic for movies like Coherence
Q1: What makes a film truly feel like Coherence?
Q2: Why so many bottle‑room or dinner‑party settings?
Q3: Which title should I watch first if I loved the social tension most?
Q4: Which pick best scratches the mathy rules itch?
Q5: Do these recommendations avoid big‑budget spectacle on purpose?
