Cinearium Picks Movies Like...
50 movies like Tumbbad: Indian folk horror, cursed treasure, period dread and dark mythological fables, plus the international films that share its spell.
Tumbbad works because it is a fable first and a horror film second: a story about greed, set in a rain-soaked Maharashtra village, with a monster drawn from myth. These 50 picks share its folklore, period atmosphere or moral bite, from Bulbbul, Bramayugam and Kantara to Pan's Labyrinth, The Wailing and Exhuma. Every note is spoiler-safe.
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Why it belongs on this list
A Telugu village is hit by a chain of mysterious deaths that the locals blame on black magic. A tightly plotted mystery-horror with the same sense of a community paying for an old sin.
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A young woman marries into an old family in a remote Kerala village and finds it bound to a centuries-old curse. A dark fairy tale that shares Tumbbad's idea of a family bargain with forces it cannot control.
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The prequel goes back centuries to the origins of the Kantara legend and its forest deities. Bigger and louder than the first film, with the same devotion to folk ritual; best after watching Kantara.
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A bumbling village cop investigates a sickness spreading through a Korean mountain village after a stranger arrives. Na Hong-jin mixes folk belief, shamanism and dread into one of the great horror films of the 2010s.
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In 1944 Spain, a girl escapes her brutal stepfather into a mythic underworld of fauns and tests. Guillermo del Toro's fable is as beautiful as it is cruel, much like Tumbbad.
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A shaman, her apprentice, a geomancer and an undertaker are hired to move a wealthy family's ancestral grave. South Korea's biggest horror hit of 2024 turns burial rites and old history into a gripping ride.
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Why it belongs on this list
Two women survive a 14th-century war by killing stray samurai in the tall reeds and selling their armour. Kaneto Shindo's folk-horror classic is a fable about hunger and greed, with a demon mask at its heart.
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Fazil's 1993 classic follows a couple who move into an ancestral tharavad said to be haunted by a dancer's spirit. Part ghost story, part psychological mystery, and the original that Bhool Bhulaiyaa remade.
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A pregnant woman hides out in a house surrounded by sugarcane fields, where a children's game of hide-and-seek takes on a sinister meaning. The Marathi original that Chhorii later remade.
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A doctor is pulled into a race across India to find a relic linked to Lord Krishna, chased by a secret society. More adventure than horror, but it shares Tumbbad's pull of myth, hidden history and treasure.
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Two peasants chase fortune and glory during Japan's civil wars, and one falls under a mysterious noblewoman's spell. Kenji Mizoguchi's ghost story is a classic fable about what ambition costs.
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A Puritan family banished to the edge of a New England forest in the 1630s starts to fall apart when their baby vanishes. Robert Eggers' debut is folk horror at its most patient and period-perfect.
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Why it belongs on this list
Anushka Sharma plays a young woman found chained in a forest hut and taken in by a shy man who soon regrets it. A bleak, strange Hindi horror film built around a demonic cult and old folklore.
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A couple in Kochi buy an antique Jewish box and bring something ancient into their home. A slick haunted-house film with roots in the city's Jewish history.
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A timid young man from Pune is chased by a Munjya, a mischievous spirit from Konkan folklore who wants a bride. Lighter than Tumbbad, but steeped in the same Maharashtrian myths.
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A small-town tailor gets caught up in the legend of a spirit that abducts men during a festival in Chanderi. The funny, folklore-rich film that launched Hindi cinema's horror-comedy universe.
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A young woman returns to her family's ancestral village in Java, hoping to claim an inheritance, and finds a curse waiting. Joko Anwar's Indonesian folk horror is steeped in shadow puppetry and dread.
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Why it belongs on this list
Four Japanese ghost stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn, filmed on vast painted sets. A slow, gorgeous anthology for anyone who loved Tumbbad's storybook framing.
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Nushrratt Bharuccha plays a pregnant woman hiding in a farmhouse ringed by sugarcane fields. The Hindi remake of Lapachhapi keeps its unsettling message about how daughters are treated.
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A single mother turns to her shy neighbour when her teenage daughter starts behaving strangely. A well-crafted Telugu horror film that takes its time before the scares arrive.
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Three down-on-their-luck Americans go prospecting for gold in 1920s Mexico, and the gold goes to work on them. No monsters, but the definitive film about greed, which is Tumbbad's real subject.
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Why it belongs on this list
A mother and her unemployed son, both struggling with grief and depression, begin to sense something in their house. Revathy and Shane Nigam make this chiller as much a family drama as a horror film.
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A village in the 1990s is shaken by deaths that strike every Tuesday after anonymous graffiti exposes secret affairs. Ajay Bhupathi's mystery-horror has the same village-secrets texture as Virupaksha.
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A police officer investigates a woman's apparent suicide in an apartment block where water itself seems haunted. Arivazhagan's thriller uses rain and water as eerily as Tumbbad does.
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A documentary crew follows a shaman in rural Thailand whose niece may be possessed. Produced by Na Hong-jin of The Wailing, it is folk horror in found-footage form.
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In a dystopian India, a new interrogator at a secret military prison meets a detainee who may be something else. A tight three-episode series that borrows its monster from Arabian folklore.
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A 10-year-old girl returns to her father's Punjab village, where an old well hides the memory of female infanticide. Uneven but sincere folk horror with a clear message.
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After their mother dies following a long illness, a struggling Indonesian family is visited by something that will not let her go. Joko Anwar's remake of an early-'80s cult film is a crowd-pleasing haunted-house ride.
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Why it belongs on this list
Kaneto Shindo followed Onibaba with this story of two women who return as vengeful spirits to prey on samurai. Beautiful and eerie, like a folk tale told by firelight.
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Why it belongs on this list
Priyadarshan's remake of Manichitrathazhu moves the haunted palace to Varanasi and adds Akshay Kumar's comic energy. A crowd favourite that balances laughs with a genuinely creepy legend.
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A road contractor bitten in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh starts turning into something wild. Varun Dhawan's creature comedy pairs werewolf lore with a real message about forests.
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Chanderi faces a new headless terror, and the gang from Stree reunites to fight it. Watch Stree first; this broader sequel became one of Hindi cinema's biggest hits.
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A family's weekend at their farmhouse turns into a nightmare when a charming stranger uses black magic to take control of their daughter. A tense home-invasion horror with Ajay Devgn and R. Madhavan.
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A pizza delivery man makes a drop at a strange bungalow and cannot find his way out. Karthik Subbaraj's debut is a clever, twisty horror-thriller.
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A surgeon and his wife in the Himalayan foothills start hearing things after a new family moves in next door. Siddharth's slick haunted-house film was also released in Hindi as The House Next Door.
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Why it belongs on this list
Nayanthara stars in an interlinked tale of a haunted forest, a single mother and a horror film that may be cursed. A stylish chiller with a clever structure.
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Why it belongs on this list
Four friends visit a notorious abandoned mansion in Chennai for a thrill and bring something back with them. A low-budget horror film that became a cult favourite.
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Why it belongs on this list
Ram Gopal Varma's 1992 chiller follows a college student whose family moves into a house with a dark history. One of the scariest Indian horror films of its era, and ahead of its time.
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Why it belongs on this list
A cruel king from ancient times is flung into the present day, where his lost treasure is still being hunted. A Telugu fantasy adventure with Tumbbad's obsession with hidden gold.
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A grieving young woman joins her boyfriend's friends at a midsummer festival in rural Sweden. Ari Aster's sunlit folk horror is unsettling in broad daylight.
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A devout police sergeant flies to a remote Scottish island to look for a missing girl and finds a community with its own old religion. The 1973 original that defined folk horror.
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After the family matriarch dies, a grieving household begins to uncover what she left behind. Ari Aster's debut is one of the most frightening films of its decade.
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Two lighthouse keepers on a remote New England island in the 1890s slowly lose their grip. Robert Eggers' black-and-white fever dream is full of sea myths and mounting madness.
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Dev Patel plays Sir Gawain, King Arthur's nephew, who sets out on a quest to face a mysterious green giant. A slow, hypnotic medieval fable about courage and temptation.
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Two sisters return to their country home after a hospital stay and clash with their cold stepmother as strange things happen. Kim Jee-woon's horror, inspired by a Korean folk tale, is beautiful and deeply sad.
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Why it belongs on this list
In 1980s Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, a mother and daughter are haunted by what may be a djinn. A smart, frightening film that mixes folklore with the terror of war.
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A childless couple on a remote Icelandic sheep farm make an unusual discovery in their barn. A quiet, strange fable that plays like a folk tale.
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Why it belongs on this list
Anvita Dutt's gothic fable is set in late-19th-century Bengal, where a child bride grows up in a zamindar's mansion as rumours of a witch spread through the village. Blood-red and dreamlike, it is Tumbbad's closest cousin in look and anger.
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Why it belongs on this list
Shot in black and white, this 17th-century Kerala chamber piece follows a folk singer who takes shelter in a crumbling mansion ruled by Mammootty's unnerving host. Like Tumbbad, it is really a fable about power and hunger.
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Why it belongs on this list
Rishab Shetty's hit is rooted in the Bhoota Kola rituals of coastal Karnataka, with villagers, a landlord and a forest officer locked in a feud over the forest. Its final stretch is one of recent Indian cinema's most talked-about.
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Behind the picks
Picks are ranked by how closely they match Tumbbad's appeal: folklore and mythology, period atmosphere, slow-building dread and a moral fable at the centre. Indian folk horror leads the list across six languages, followed by international films with the same spell. Rankings are Cinearium editorial choices.
Movie facts and community ratings come from TMDB. Streaming information is provided by JustWatch through TMDB and varies by country. Missing availability means no option was returned by the provider; it does not prove a film is unavailable everywhere. Dates above refer to editorial updates.
