Films similar to Smile and It Follows

One of the rookies asked the following question at the Horror Rookie Academy the other day:

Hello rookies! I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for horror movies like "Smile" (the first one, I'm afraid of the second one; and not because I don't dare watch it...) and "It Follows"? I grew up with classic horror, from "Rosemary's Baby" via Freddie Krueger and other cute characters.

Hm. Not the easiest question in the world to answer! These are two films that are a bit difficult to compare with other films, they have such an intrinsic uniqueness. And both are distinctly great horror films.

It's almost as if one's a little hesitant to compare them with other films.

As if one not dares.

However: the rookies dug into their twisted minds to answer this question, which resulted in this little list below.

Enjoy!

Tittel	År	IMDb
The Harbinger	2022	5.4
Gehenna: where death lives	2016	4.9
Never let go	2024	5.4
The Dead Center	2018	5.8
The Taking of Deborah Logan	2014	6
The Signal	2007	6
Beezel	2024	4.9
The Wailing	2016	7.4
Pontypool	2008	6.5
Mirrors	2008	6.1
The Witch	2015	7
The Happening	2008	5
The Crazies	2010	6.5

Others are checking out:

Scary movies for kids!

When I was a kid, i loooved horror movies. Not horror movies for kids, no no no: the hardcore stuff. Movies children ought not watch. Movies that made me run up stairs like I was being chased by the Devil himself. I sometimes still do. And I'm 49 now. You see, my dad worked as a captain on ships that sailed in international waters when I was a kid. Norway has their own international church for sailors and other Norwegians residing abroad, The Norwegian Sailor's Church. These guys among many services supplied norwegian ships with books and films. Every ship had a little library trolley full of books and VHS's. At the same time, the HSE factor was quite low: sailors were allowed to bring their kids aboard their ships for summer holiday. I often spent 4-6 weeks aboard my dad's ships -and boy did I get all up in those movie trolleys! At night, when no one else was around, I brought my bag of foreign exotic candy, snuck into the galley, stole some treats from the pantry, p...

Yūrei: pray you never encounter one!

Dear reader: a violent storm is approaching Scandinavia. Red alerts of all sorts have been issued, and the populus is busy removing loose objects, filling up their water tanks and checking if they have enough batteries to last. Later tonight, when all Hell breaks loose , they will huddle together, step away from the windows, brace themselves and excert a nordic form of calm born through experience with hellish weather. But i digress. Now, let me take this occasion, to tell you about the nightgown - wearing ghost. Her face is covered by her long black hair. She is the one that comes crawling down the stairs and out of closets in you nightmares. The ghost that make this throat gurgling "moaaaaaaaaaaaaa" - sound that makes your skin crawl. The one that that comes crawling towards you, behind you, in the darkness to pull you... away. Away from this world. Let me tell you about yūrei! I will do so by telling you about one of the world's most well known and dreaded yūrei: Kay...

The Rookies love Stephen King!

The calendar reads september 21st, and it's Stephen King's birthday! Just hearing or seing his name invokes strong feelings in the minds of those prone to horror. And those prone to books, of course. The bibliophiles that walk among us. The rookies, many of them confessing to both the love of books and of horror, are no exception: in fact, they love Stephen King so much that they dedicated an entire week to exploring his books and the films originating from them! One can say a lot about the film adaptions of Stephen King. Many of these film adaptations were made in the nineties, a time when... well, let's say the film industry was still finding its way into the "new" world. Some of these are brilliant, others are... well, effects, glitter and crap in a blissful mix. Several of these adaptations reside on the lower half of the IDMb scale. However, they all have in common this... thing about them, then. This King thing. A coming of age, cosy, creepy and often sli...

Weather horror!

Storms are violent atmospheric disturbances, characterized by low barometric pressure, cloud cover, heavy precipitation, strong winds and thunderbolts and lightning. Storms are also the perfect backdrop for many horror films. Of course. A stormy night with thunder ripping through heavy clouds has an inherent unrest, an inherent feeling of violent disturbance which a sunny summer day simply does not . It is almost like the stormy weather itself becomes an actor in the film. One of many many stormy Scandinavian nights, as the pitch black ocean thrashed relentlessly against our northern shores, made animals huddle and made people close the curtains and step away from the windows, the Rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy decided to roll with the punches and simply enjoy the raging chaos right outside our doors by conjuring up this list of horror movies portraying storms and extreme weather of all sorts. They did this for you, dear reader. This is all for you. 💗 Nr Title...

Dental Horror!

Teeth are hard, calcified structures in the mouth that are essential for breaking down food through chewing, forming words for speech, and maintaining overall oral health. They are also dreadful sources of pain, an object for torture and things that can get smashed out of your skull in a bloody instant. One starry friday night, a night of icy gusts of wind and of gerenal unrest in the populus, the Rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy decided to dive into the topic of dental horror: the portrayal of teeth in horror films. We decided to limit the topic to mainly human teeth, but since the sphere of horror is a transcendant and messy one, we of course welcomed other types of teeth in horror as well. Tusks, for example. Or simply messed up tooth-related stuff. The films listed below either centers around the topic of teeth or has predominant scenes portraying teeth in them. It is a creepy collection of films, this. Films that make your molars ice and throb just by th...

Lunar horror!

An unholy lunar trinity occured september 7th 2025: a full moon, a blood moon and a lunar eclipse. The rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy looked forward to experiencing a lycantropic transformation the likes of which this world has never seen: knuckles cracking, hair protruding, teeth and claws developing... Alas. We all remained in our frail human form. No lycantropic wave across the globe. No shiny teeth chomping on human flesh. No claws ripping faces to shreds. Maybe next time! Filled with moderate disappointment, the rookies decided to put their heads together to conjure movie tips on lunar horror films: films orbiting (pun intended) the topic of the moon in horror. For your viewing convenience. Enjoy! 😁 Title Year IMDb Moon 2009 7,8 Sinners 2025 7,6 Silver Bullet 1985 6,4 The Company of Wolves 1984 6,6 An American Werewolf in London 1981 7,5 A Trip to the Moon 1902 8,1 Iron Sky 2012 5,9 The Dark side of the Moon 1990 4,9 Moonfall 2022 5,2 When Animals Dream 201...

Film tips for seasoned horror veterans!

Some people have seen a sickening amount of horror films. I myself is proud to be among them, having watched a triple digit number of horror and sci-fi films yearly for the last 30 years. Several of the rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy consume horror at this extraordnairy level, a level which the general population may consider to be... disturbing. But what do they know about the joy of living a life surrounded by all things horror? What do they know about the beauty of darkness, of utter dread? On a dark December evening, as a relentless blizzard swept over Scandinavia instilling an almost apocalyptic unrest in the populus, a question popped up at our school . The question was from a deeply seasoned horror fan who according to herself has seen an incredible amount of horror movies. An incredible amount. She wondered if there was any good films that had escaped her horror-hungry gaze. Say no more: challenge accepted! This very question lit ...

Sci-fi or DIE!

Sci-fi is nothing short of glorious entertainment. Science fiction takes you to the outer realms of space, to strange planets inhabited by alien creatures whose workings are unbeknownst to us. It also takes you deep into the human fear of technology, of hybridization, alien lifeforms, artificial intelligence, time travel, cyborgs and into our very future itself. One starry night, as there were no skies covering the Scandinavian peninsula, the rookies of The Horror Rookie Academy looked up towards the skies. They let their gaze wander between stars, the moon and the infinite expanse of our universe. They let their minds drift, their fantasy wander. They stared into the the very void itself. Awe-stricken by it all, their minds simply set ablaze by cosmic complexity, they decided it was time to put their heads together. The goal? To curate an extensive list of tips on top notch science fiction movies and series. Below, you find no less than 96 movie tips on sci-fi movies ...

103 tips for 80's horror films!

The eighties were nothing short of awesome. This was before the world became dangerous and messed up, so there was a playful sense of ease strongly present. As was the case in eighties horror films too: they are often excellent testaments to an era that never gets old. If it was cool and modern, you could bet you'd find it in horror films. Dudes in cropped tank tops, jocks and prom queens, the noble art of jumping into roofless cars without opening the doors, walkmans, hackers with long coats and head bands... The horror films of the eighties had it all! The Rookies at the Horror Rookie Academy love eighties horror. Flat out loves it. One dark and icy cold week, just as an unholy mist came rolling in from the sea to cover the jagged shores of Scandinavia, the rookies put their weird and wonderful heads together to conjure no less than 103 movie tips for eighties horror films. For your vieweing convenience, of course. We aim to please...

Lucio Fulci films you need to watch!

Lucio Fulci (1927-1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor. With his sharp tongue and a dark sense of humor, his career spanned from comedy via giallo to splatter films of the 1970s and 1980s he became particulary well known and loved for. Fulci made his international breakthrough with Zombi 2 in 1979 (a nominal sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was called Zombi in Italy). The film featured bold cinematography, tangible atmosphere and a lot(!) of blood and gore. Zombi 2 gave him a reputation as a veritable master of horror, and he followed up Zombie 2 with several other horror films that led to him being compared to Italy's other horror master, Dario Argento. The two never worked together, and Fulci also became known for constantly slamming Argento and his work. An ever so toxic bromance straight out of Hell, I guess. I love you but I hate you but I love you but I hate you, sort of. One dark and stormy evening, an evening of u...

Horror Rookie Academy

Search This Blog