16Movies Like The Witch — Folk-Horror Films

In the wake of prestige horror, seekers of movies like The Witch will find a film defined by colonial-era folk terror, severe puritan doctrine, and an inexorable story engine that grinds a farmstead into confession. It builds menace from whispered scripture, starved harvests, and a family whose love curdles under suspicion, while key relationships fracture between parents and children as a goat, a forest, and a promise of freedom become signature moments.

For this guide we match titles that mirror the seed film’s chill along five axes: tone that privileges dread over shock, a narrative engine that tightens rather than twists, themes of faith, heresy, and the old ways, character dynamics forged in households or small communities, and stakes that feel both intimate and eternal. Across eras and regions we prioritise authenticity and atmosphere, curating movies like The Witch that carry the same candlelit fear even when the costumes, languages, or monsters change.

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Quiet, unholy dread: the best movies like The Witch to watch next

1) Hereditary (2018)

• Runtime: 127 min
• Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff
• Director: Ari Aster
• Genre: Horror / Psychological
• IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
• Why it’s similar: An austere family curse and gathering dread echo colonial-era doom.

If you crave movies like The Witch, this modern chiller is the first stop. A family’s grief uncoils into occult legacies as a daughter’s death exposes buried loyalties. It plays in slow-burn terror, letting each reveal creep rather than jump. Mother and son mirror The Witch’s parent–child ruptures as faith and control fray. Suburban interiors replace New England woods, but ritual symbols colonise every room. The emotional payoff is a tragic coronation that matches the seed film’s fatalism. Fans drawn to psychological dread and simmering panic will feel right at home. It closes on a calmly blasphemous tableau that lingers like ash.

2) The Lighthouse (2019)

• Runtime: 109 min
• Starring: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe
• Director: Robert Eggers
• Genre: Horror / Surreal
• IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
• Why it’s similar: Isolation, superstition, and masculine guilt spiral into maritime witchery.

From the same director, this is another beacon for seekers of movies like The Witch. Two keepers trap themselves in ritual, labour, and secrets as storms erase time. The tone is briny and abrasive, built from repetition and delirium rather than shocks. Power struggles and surrogate father–son rancour echo the seed’s household fractures. A craggy lighthouse replaces a farmstead, yet ancient lore scrapes at the walls. Its final image promises punishment for ambition, rhyming with puritan reckoning. Viewers who relish isolation thriller textures will savour the sea-salt madness. You leave feeling barnacled by whispers, gulls, and guilt.

3) It Comes at Night (2017)

• Runtime: 91 min
• Starring: Joel Edgerton, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
• Director: Trey Edward Shults
• Genre: Horror / Post‑apocalyptic
• IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
• Why it’s similar: Cabin-bound paranoia and strict rules curdle family bonds into menace.

This tense chamber piece scratches the same itch as movies like The Witch. A plague-haunted world narrows to a household where trust is rationed like water. Its pace is spare and nocturnal, cutting deep with what it withholds. The father–protector role strains just as authority collapses in the seed film. Pine corridors replace cornfields, but nightmares patrol the doorframe. The emotional endpoint is hollow victory, safety purchased at a moral cost. If you loved period paranoia transposed to modern dread, this is your bridge. The last shot fades like a candle guttering in stale air.

4) The Babadook (2014)

• Runtime: 94 min
• Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman
• Director: Jennifer Kent
• Genre: Horror / Psychological
• IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
• Why it’s similar: Maternal fear and faithless nights manifest as a storybook demon.

Among movies like The Witch, this stands out for grief worn as armour. A widowed mother battles a children’s-book intruder that feeds on denial. Its tempo is taut and interior, tuned to whispered threats and creaking floors. Parent–child friction traces the seed film’s fragile bonds under supernatural pressure. A modest home becomes a haunted nursery, wallpaper closing in like woods. The final acceptance mirrors the seed’s sober acknowledgment of fate. If domestic unease is your favourite register, you’ll find it sharpened here. It ends with a secret kept in the cellar like a sleeping animal.

5) The Wailing (2016)

• Runtime: 156 min
• Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min
• Director: Na Hong-jin
• Genre: Horror / Supernatural
• IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
• Why it’s similar: Rural folklore, possession, and parental despair spiral toward ritual doom.

Those hunting movies like The Witch will recognise a village turning against itself. A bumbling cop faces plagues, shamans, and a sick child as omens multiply. The tone swells from black comedy to ritual terror without losing control. Father–daughter love corrodes into suspicion, as in the seed film’s stern household. Mountain mists swap for colonial forests, but talismans bind both worlds. Its finale marries pity and horror in a trap sprung by doubt. If old rites and investigative dread hook you, this is essential. You’ll hear drums and dogs long after the credits.

6) Hagazussa (2017)

• Runtime: 102 min
• Starring: Aleksandra Cwen, Celina Peter
• Director: Lukas Feigelfeld
• Genre: Horror / Art-house
• IMDb Rating: 6.2/10
• Why it’s similar: Alpine witch lore and ostracism bloom into hallucinated nature worship.

Few films approach the austere chill of this mood of candlelit dread quite like this. A shunned goatherd slips from grief to visions as seasons grind her down. Its cadence is glacial, sculpted from silence, firelight, and wind. Motherhood and community cruelty reprise the seed film’s tightening noose. Peaks and forests replace clapboard cabins, yet the earth still hungers. The ending is a fever rite that refuses comfort or judgment. If folk horror at its starkest appeals, this is a dark chalice. It leaves a taste of smoke, milk, and moss.

7) The Ritual (2017)

• Runtime: 94 min
• Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali
• Director: David Bruckner
• Genre: Horror / Monster
• IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
• Why it’s similar: Grief-stricken friends meet a forest deity born of old-world worship.

For outdoors menace that still feels like this mood of candlelit dread, try this. Four friends hike into Scandinavian woods shadowed by guilt and totems. The tempo alternates campfire confession with sprinting nightmare. Male camaraderie fractures, mirroring The Witch’s family under moral strain. Pine cathedrals and runes provide a new but kindred wilderness. The payoff offers revelation and cost, not easy triumph. If solitude horror beats with pagan whispers work for you, it delivers. Its last image is both defiant shout and smallness before the old gods.

8) Apostle (2018)

• Runtime: 130 min
• Starring: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen
• Director: Gareth Evans
• Genre: Horror / Folk
• IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
• Why it’s similar: Island cult, blood rites, and captive deity echo puritan fears.

This feverish island tale beckons anyone seeking this mood of candlelit dread with pulp bite. A prodigal brother infiltrates a sect to rescue his sister from sacrifice. It moves from mystery to splatter while keeping ritual logic intact. Power, faith, and exploitation replay the seed’s theocratic tensions. Bracken-choked fields hide engines slurping life from roots and bodies. Its emotional crescendo is rescue through ruin, a salvation steeped in loss. If old rites and political rot are your draw, it scratches deep. The final shot feels like soil breathing through a wound.

Down the thorny path: the grimmer movies like The Witch to test your nerve

9) The Devil’s Backbone (2001)

• Runtime: 106 min
• Starring: Fernando Tielve, Eduardo Noriega
• Director: Guillermo del Toro
• Genre: Horror / Gothic
• IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
• Why it’s similar: War-haunted orphanage, stern guardians, and a sorrowful spectre.

Del Toro’s elegy welcomes viewers drawn to this mood of candlelit dread for quiet sorrow. A boy meets a ghost that reveals adult betrayals during a civil war. The tone is candlelit and patient, more bruise than stab. Authority figures fail their charges, echoing the seed film’s severe parenting. Deserts and dormitories swap for barns and woods, yet superstition rules. Its payoff is compassion for the dead without exorcising history. If you favour historical suspicion braided with memory, it sings softly. You exit with pockets full of sand and secrets.

10) The Night House (2020)

• Runtime: 107 min
• Starring: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg
• Director: David Bruckner
• Genre: Horror / Mystery
• IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
• Why it’s similar: Grief, mirrored spaces, and a predatory void stalking the widow.

If this mood of candlelit dread hooked you on dread-as-logic, this is your puzzle box. A grieving teacher discovers her husband’s doubles and a house with a negative twin. Its rhythm is measured discovery punctured by jolts of impossible geometry. Marital intimacy curdles into secret rites, paralleling the seed’s hidden sins. A lakeside modernist home becomes a maze as personal as any forest. The emotional resolution is bittersweet survival without full answers. If cosmic dread whispered through human grief appeals, this is precise. It closes by redefining absence as something with teeth.

11) Kill List (2011)

• Runtime: 95 min
• Starring: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring
• Director: Ben Wheatley
• Genre: Horror / Crime
• IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
• Why it’s similar: Domestic strain slides into hired-violence and masked pagan rites.

Here is the nastier road for viewers exploring this mood of candlelit dread. A hitman couple’s money problems open a trapdoor to cult obligations. The tone lurches from kitchen sink to ritual with mounting nausea. Husband–wife dynamics warp like the seed film’s faith-soured marriage. Suburban roundabouts hide tunnels into pre-Christian bargains. The payoff is cruel inevitability, destiny drawn in antlers. If you want the darkest solitude horror branch, step carefully. The final frame is a riddle you answer with a shiver.

12) The Village (2004)

• Runtime: 108 min
• Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix
• Director: M. Night Shyamalan
• Genre: Horror / Thriller
• IMDb Rating: 6.6/10
• Why it’s similar: Insular community, moral strictures, and looming creatures in the woods.

Craving village rules and whispered monsters after this mood of candlelit dread? Start here. A blind young woman challenges elders who police fear through colour and stories. Its pulse is hushed romance and creeping dread rather than gore. Generational control and mythmaking rhyme with the seed film’s puritan cage. Pennsylvania forests double as forbidden New England borders. The payoff reframes monsters as guardians, not absolution. If you like parables that question safety, it rewards patience. The closing path glows with risk and tenderness.

Lantern glow and cautionary tales: gentler movies like The Witch for a softer night

13) The Blair Witch Project (1999)

• Runtime: 81 min
• Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams
• Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
• Genre: Horror / Found footage
• IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
• Why it’s similar: Backwoods myth, mapless panic, and a house that remembers.

For raw roots of movies like The Witch, this landmark keeps it primitive. Three filmmakers lose bearings as legends become twig and bone. Its tempo is nausea and repetition, a march into dread. Group dynamics collapse into blame, as in the seed film’s pressure cooker. Maryland woods provide a cousin to colonial wilderness. The end is a nursery rhyme sung in rot and corner time. If solitude horror minimalism thrills you, this is the prototype. It leaves you afraid of sticks, corners, and tapes.

14) Witchfinder General (1968)

• Runtime: 86 min
• Starring: Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy
• Director: Michael Reeves
• Genre: Horror / Historical
• IMDb Rating: 6.7/10
• Why it’s similar: Puritan England, moral panic, and man-made evil hunting the accused.

If your taste in this mood of candlelit dread leans historical, this is bracing. A sadistic witch-hunter profits from war and superstition across villages. Its mood is pitiless, drawn from drums, stocks, and smoke. Lovers torn by authority echo the seed’s pious cruelty. Greenswards and gallows stand in for farms and fences. Its payoff is vengeance that cannot restore what was burned. If historical suspicion and human monsters disturb you most, attend. You’ll hear hooves and sermons long after.

15) The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

• Runtime: 86 min
• Starring: Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox
• Director: André Øvredal
• Genre: Horror / Supernatural
• IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
• Why it’s similar: Father–son morticians face a body tied to colonial witchcraft.

This night-shift puzzle appeals to fans of this mood of candlelit dread for lore. A mysterious corpse unspools a curse with every incision and clue. Pacing is claustrophobic and methodical, a morgue lit by thunder. Filial trust strains like the seed film’s embattled household. Basements and ductwork replace woods, yet history breathes in vents. The finale admits survival can still taste like damnation. If you relish old rites decoded like evidence, it’s satisfying. The last whisper feels exhaled from centuries of blame.

16) The Innocents (1961)

• Runtime: 100 min
• Starring: Deborah Kerr, Pamela Franklin
• Director: Jack Clayton
• Genre: Horror / Gothic
• IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
• Why it’s similar: Ambiguous hauntings, threatened children, and repressed faith in a grand house.

To round out this mood of candlelit dread with a classic, choose this masterwork. A governess suspects her wards are occupied by the dead’s desires. Its tempo is candlelit patience, every curtain a veil of secrets. Guardian and child dynamics mirror the seed film’s fraught care. Topiary and lakeside lawns make an Eden where whispers bruise. Its ending is mercifully cruel, hope choked by good intentions. If measured dread and suggestion are your compass, this points true north. The final note is a kiss you cannot forget.

What to cue up after midnight: a short map of movies like The Witch

For austere despair and family implosions, pick Hereditary or Hagazussa; for authority cracking under salt and storm, try The Lighthouse or The Night House; for measured, slightly kinder parables, choose The Village or The Devil’s Backbone; for found-footage immediacy with witch‑myth roots, reach for The Blair Witch Project; for classic hauntings where caretakers fail, settle into The Innocents; for ritual and cult machineries, test Apostle or Kill List; for grief‑ridden puzzles with tactile clues, opt for The Autopsy of Jane Doe. To dig deeper into folk‑horror craft and history, explore the British Film Institute’s primer Where to begin with rural occult and their curated list 10 great lesser-known rural occult films. Each title here honours the seed’s candlelit threat while offering new paths through forest, chapel, and cellar. Whichever route you choose, keep your voice low, your mind open, and your lantern trimmed.

FAQ: finding movies like The Witch that truly fit