Shutter Island backdrop

Films like Shutter Island (2010)

Published: Feb 22, 2026

In this collection, we’ve gathered films similar to “Shutter Island” — psychological thrillers and mysteries that keep you on edge until the very end. What unites them are secrets, twist endings, an unreliable view of events, and stories where reality keeps slipping away. The characters become trapped in their own memories, trauma, and suspicions, and the investigation gradually turns into a crisis of identity. The mood across the selection is isolation, paranoia, a sense of hopelessness, and a tense pace that lingers long after the credits roll.

A Cure for Wellness

1. A Cure for Wellness

Horror Mystery Science Fiction
6.4

2017 · 2h 26min

United States

Director: Gore Verbinski

A young and promising company executive is tasked with retrieving the CEO from a mysterious remote wellness center in the Swiss Alps. But when the CEO refuses to return, on his way out of the clinic he gets caught in a strange incident and becomes a patient there himself.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Tone, Tropes


Stonehearst Asylum

2. Stonehearst Asylum

Thriller Mystery Horror
6.8

2014 · 1h 52min

United States

Director: Brad Anderson

A young Oxford graduate arrives to work at a remote psychiatric hospital, where the methods of treating patients seem very strange and unconventional. As he gets to know the staff and patients, he becomes obsessed with one of the hospital’s female patients.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Pacing, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Bleakness (-23%), Darkness (-12%), Tension (-12%), Complexity (-14%)

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Secret identity, Mystery, Belief challenged by reality

Style

Tension
72%
Darkness
70%
Complexity
62%

Fractured

3. Fractured

Thriller Drama
6.5

2019 · 1h 41min

United States

Director: Brad Anderson

During a trip, a couple is forced to visit a hospital after an accident involving their daughter. Waking up in a visitors’ chair, the man suddenly learns that his wife and daughter have vanished—along with all records of their visit.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Bleakness, Darkness, Tension, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Mystery, Belief challenged by reality, Unreliable narrator, Paranoia spiral, False reality

Style

Tension
84%
Darkness
82%
Bleakness
78%

The Machinist

4. The Machinist

Thriller Drama
7.6

2004 · 1h 42min

Spain

Director: Brad Anderson

Trevor Reznik has been suffering from insomnia for over a year. After a series of eerie events and incidents, he begins to doubt what’s truly real—and his own sanity. Trevor tries to figure out what’s really happening to him before he finally loses his mind.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Bleakness, Darkness, Complexity, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Unreliable narrator, Paranoia spiral, Guilt

Style

Darkness
82%
Bleakness
78%
Tension
76%

Identity

5. Identity

Mystery Thriller
7.3

2003 · 1h 30min

United States

Director: James Mangold

During a fierce storm, ten strangers end up in a small motel in Nevada. After someone starts killing them one by one, they realize this meeting wasn’t a coincidence.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Tension, Complexity, Darkness, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Identity crisis, Mystery, Unreliable narrator

Style

Tension
84%
Darkness
78%
Complexity
74%

God's Crooked Lines

6. God's Crooked Lines

Drama Mystery Thriller
7.1

2022 · 2h 35min

Spain

Director: Oriol Paulo

A private detective enters a psychiatric hospital posing as a patient to investigate the mysterious murder of one of the inmates. The deeper she digs into the case, the greater the danger to her becomes.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Complexity, Pacing, Tension, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Bleakness (-16%), Darkness (-12%)

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Mystery, Unreliable narrator

Style

Tension
78%
Complexity
74%
Darkness
70%

Forgotten

7. Forgotten

Thriller Mystery Crime
7.4

2017 · 1h 48min

South Korea

Director: Jang Hang-jun

A family with two sons moves into a new house. One night, one brother is kidnapped right in front of the other and returned a few weeks later, but after coming back, the boy seems like a different person.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Tension, Complexity, Darkness, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Identity crisis, Mystery, Unreliable narrator, Guilt

Style

Tension
84%
Darkness
78%
Complexity
74%

Insomnia

8. Insomnia

Thriller Crime Drama
7.2

2002 · 1h 58min

United States

Director: Christopher Nolan

To investigate the brutal murder of a girl, two experienced detectives from Los Angeles arrive. Under the pressure of unusual Arctic weather, the press, and a lack of evidence, they try to find the real culprit.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Pacing, Tension, Bleakness, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Unreliable narrator, Guilt

Style

Tension
78%
Darkness
72%
Bleakness
68%

Side Effects

9. Side Effects

Thriller Crime Drama
7.1

2013 · 1h 46min

United States

Director: Steven Soderbergh

A young woman struggles with severe depression and turns to a clinic, where she’s put on an experimental treatment. But her normal life starts falling apart even more when the prescribed medication brings unexpected side effects.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Complexity, Pacing, Tension, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Bleakness (-16%), Darkness (-12%)

Shared keywords

Twist, Mystery, Unreliable narrator

Style

Tension
78%
Complexity
74%
Darkness
70%

The Invisible Guest

10. The Invisible Guest

Drama Mystery Thriller
8.0

2017 · 1h 47min

Spain

Director: Oriol Paulo

A young businessman wakes up in a hotel room locked from the inside, beside the body of his lover. To prove his innocence and understand what really happened in that room, he turns to one of the city’s best lawyers for help.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Tension, Complexity, Darkness, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Mystery, Belief challenged by reality, Unreliable narrator

Style

Tension
85%
Complexity
78%
Darkness
75%

Secret Window

11. Secret Window

Mystery Thriller
6.5

2004 · 1h 36min

United States

Director: David Koepp

After writer Mort Rainey is betrayed by his wife, he moves to his country house to deal with a life crisis and finish his book. One day, an aggressive stranger shows up on his doorstep, claiming Mort has plagiarized his story.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Bleakness, Pacing, Darkness, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Tension (-12%), Complexity (-16%)

Shared keywords

Twist ending, Unreliable narrator, Guilt, False reality

Style

Bleakness
78%
Darkness
74%
Tension
72%

Frailty

12. Frailty

Drama Thriller Crime
7.2

2002 · 1h 40min

United States, Germany

Director: Bill Paxton

Police are searching in vain for a serial killer. Meanwhile, a mysterious man comes to an FBI agent and says that his deeply religious father had visions in childhood, urging him to kill people who are, in fact, demons.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Darkness, Bleakness, Pacing, Tone, Tropes

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Secret identity, Mystery, Unreliable narrator

Style

Darkness
78%
Tension
74%
Bleakness
72%

Lost Highway

13. Lost Highway

Drama Thriller Mystery
7.6

1997 · 2h 14min

United States, France

Director: David Lynch

A married couple receives strange videotapes filmed by someone watching them from inside their home. After a string of chilling events, the wife is found dead, and the husband becomes the prime suspect. But the real madness is only just beginning.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Bleakness, Tension, Darkness, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Violence (+24%)

Shared keywords

Identity crisis, Mystery, Belief challenged by reality, Unreliable narrator

Style

Darkness
88%
Complexity
86%
Tension
82%

The Girl on the Train

14. The Girl on the Train

Crime Mystery Thriller
6.5

2016 · 1h 52min

United States, India

Director: Tate Taylor

Divorced woman Rachel Watson watches, day after day, the life of a seemingly perfect couple in a house near the railway tracks. But one day a woman from that perfect home disappears, and Rachel is drawn into a tangled web of investigation—because she’s the one who saw what most people never did.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Darkness, Pacing, Bleakness, Tone, Tropes

Notable differences: Complexity (-14%)

Style

Darkness
78%
Tension
74%
Bleakness
72%

Stay

15. Stay

Mystery Thriller Drama
6.7

2005 · 1h 39min

United States, Switzerland

Director: Marc Forster

Student Henry tells psychiatrist Sam that he plans to take his own life in the coming days. The psychiatrist decides to do everything he can to help him out of a crisis and prevent it.

Similarity

Closest characteristics: Darkness, Bleakness, Tension, Tone, Themes

Notable differences: Pacing (-16%), Complexity (-24%)

Shared keywords

Twist, Twist ending, Belief challenged by reality, Unreliable narrator, False reality

Style

Darkness
78%
Tension
74%
Bleakness
72%

About the movie Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island plot: On an isolated island that houses a psychiatric facility for the most dangerous patients, one of the inmates disappears without a trace. War veteran and U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels arrives on the island with his partner to investigate the mysterious disappearance.

Keywords: Twist, Twist ending, Secret identity, Trauma, Identity crisis, Psychological drama, Identity, Mystery, Psychological thriller, Belief challenged by reality

Style characteristics: Tension, Darkness, Bleakness, Complexity, Pacing