Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "town-with-a-dark-secret"
- Movies or TV
- Genres
- Keywords
- IMDb Rating
- Instant Watch Options
- In Theaters
- Release Year
1. From (2022– )
TV-MA | 52 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Unravel the mystery of a city in middle U.S.A. that imprisons everyone who enters. As the residents struggle to maintain a sense of normality and seek a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest.
Stars: Harold Perrineau, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Eion Bailey, David Alpay
Votes: 70,378
2. Stranger Things (2016–2025)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour
Votes: 1,337,497
3. Midsommar (2019)
R | 148 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Director: Ari Aster | Stars: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper
Votes: 403,761 | Gross: $27.33M
4. Twin Peaks (1990–1991)
TV-MA | 50 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.
Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook
Votes: 215,555
5. The Lost Boys (1987)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
After moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes
Votes: 161,264 | Gross: $32.22M
6. Sharp Objects (2018)
TV-MA | 53 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After treating her mental illness, crime reporter Camille Preaker returns to her hometown to solve the murder of two young girls. However, she is forced to face and deal with her own demons too.
Stars: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen
Votes: 118,908
7. The Black Phone (2021)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies
Votes: 194,601 | Gross: $90.12M
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 262,634 | Gross: $25.50M
9. Hot Fuzz (2007)
R | 121 min | Action, Comedy, Mystery
An overachieving London police sergeant is transferred to a village where the easygoing officers object to his fervor for regulations, all while a string of grisly murders strikes the town.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy
Votes: 535,499 | Gross: $23.64M
10. Blue Velvet (1986)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Votes: 215,815 | Gross: $8.55M
11. The Faculty (1998)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.
Director: Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett
Votes: 135,169 | Gross: $40.06M
12. Sinister (I) (2012)
R | 110 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A controversial true-crime writer finds a box of Super 8 home movies in his new home, revealing that the murder case he is currently researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer whose legacy dates back to the 1960s.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson
Votes: 280,400 | Gross: $48.09M
13. The Cursed (2021)
R | 111 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
In rural 19th-century France, a mysterious, possibly supernatural menace threatens a small village. John McBride, a pathologist, comes to town to investigate the danger - and exorcise some of his own demons in the process.
Director: Sean Ellis | Stars: Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, Alistair Petrie, Roxane Duran
Votes: 16,719
14. It (1990)
TV-14 | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.
Stars: Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson
Votes: 140,919
15. Safe (2018)
TV-MA | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After his teenage daughter goes missing, a widowed surgeon begins uncovering dark secrets of the people closest to him.
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Amanda Abbington, Marc Warren, Hannah Arterton
Votes: 52,223
16. It Chapter Two (2019)
R | 169 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
Director: Andy Muschietti | Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa
Votes: 302,183 | Gross: $211.59M
17. First Blood (1982)
R | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.
Director: Ted Kotcheff | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney
Votes: 275,711 | Gross: $47.21M
18. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,365 | Gross: $0.06M
19. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
Director: John Landis | Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Joe Belcher, Griffin Dunne
Votes: 120,587 | Gross: $30.57M
20. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
R | 134 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Laura Palmer's harrowing final days are chronicled one year after the murder of Teresa Banks, a resident of Twin Peaks' neighboring town.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook
Votes: 105,231 | Gross: $4.16M
21. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023)
R | 87 min | Fantasy, Horror
In 1969 a young Jud Crandall and his childhood friends band together to confront an ancient evil that has gripped their hometown of Ludlow.
Director: Lindsey Anderson Beer | Stars: Jackson White, Natalie Alyn Lind, Forrest Goodluck, Isabella LaBlanc
Votes: 11,249
22. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 111,113 | Gross: $34.60M
23. The Fog (1980)
R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller
An unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman
Votes: 83,045 | Gross: $21.38M
24. Winter's Bone (2010)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
Director: Debra Granik | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Isaiah Stone
Votes: 150,582 | Gross: $6.53M
25. The World's End (2013)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from twenty years earlier unwittingly become humanity's only hope for survival.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike
Votes: 298,288 | Gross: $26.00M
26. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
R | 97 min | Action, Horror
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees return to terrorize the teenagers of Elm Street. Only this time, they're out to get each other, too.
Director: Ronny Yu | Stars: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Kelly Rowland, Monica Keena
Votes: 127,321 | Gross: $82.62M
27. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger
Votes: 24,267
28. Fear Street: Part One - 1994 (2021)
R | 107 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.
Director: Leigh Janiak | Stars: Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald
Votes: 94,284
29. Cop Land (1997)
R | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The Sheriff of a suburban New Jersey community, populated by New York City police officers, slowly discovers the town is a front for mob connections and corruption.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro
Votes: 106,438 | Gross: $44.89M
30. Salem's Lot (1979)
PG | 100 min | Horror
A novelist and a young horror fan attempt to save a small New England town which has been invaded by vampires.
Stars: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia
Votes: 27,496
31. The Stepford Wives (2004)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The secret to a Stepford wife lies behind the doors of the Men's Association.
Director: Frank Oz | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Glenn Close
Votes: 69,843 | Gross: $59.48M
32. Top of the Lake (2013–2017)
TV-MA | 750 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Obsessed with the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl near a freezing lake in New Zealand, a brave detective will find herself up against small-town secrets and a side of herself that was meticulously kept at bay.
Stars: Elisabeth Moss, David Wenham, Peter Mullan, Thomas M. Wright
Votes: 37,732
33. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
R | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer's books have on his fans is more than inspirational.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner
Votes: 79,373 | Gross: $8.95M
34. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
PG-13 | 108 min | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
In 1968, the night of Halloween brings mayhem in a small town when a group of friends discovers a notebook written by a mysterious girl that foretells terrifying events.
Director: André Øvredal | Stars: Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams
Votes: 85,313 | Gross: $68.95M
35. Children of the Corn (1984)
R | 92 min | Horror, Thriller
A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believes that everyone over age 18 must be killed.
Director: Fritz Kiersch | Stars: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, John Franklin
Votes: 57,361 | Gross: $14.57M
36. Hemlock Grove (2013–2015)
TV-MA | 46 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Secrets are just part of daily life in the small Pennsylvania town of Hemlock Grove, where the darkest evils hide in plain sight.
Stars: Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, Landon Liboiron, Joel de la Fuente
Votes: 42,627
37. The Woman in Black (2012)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A young solicitor travels to a remote village where he discovers that the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Director: James Watkins | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds, Emma Shorey
Votes: 192,689 | Gross: $54.33M
38. Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021)
R | 109 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Shadyside, 1978. School's out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.
Director: Leigh Janiak | Stars: Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye
Votes: 76,361
39. Antlers (2021)
R | 99 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher and her sheriff brother become embroiled with her enigmatic student, whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with an ancestral creature.
Director: Scott Cooper | Stars: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene
Votes: 44,549
40. River's Edge (1986)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself.
Director: Tim Hunter | Stars: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck
Votes: 20,703 | Gross: $4.60M
41. Beautiful Creatures (2013)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Ethan Wate longs to escape his small southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena Duchannes. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history, and their town.
Director: Richard LaGravenese | Stars: Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Alden Ehrenreich
Votes: 91,026 | Gross: $19.45M
42. Swamp Thing (2019)
TV-MA | 60 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Abby Arcane returns home to Marais, Louisiana to investigate a deadly swamp-borne virus, only to discover the dark, terrifying mysteries of the swamp.
Stars: Crystal Reed, Virginia Madsen, Andy Bean, Derek Mears
Votes: 27,739
43. Slender Man (I) (2018)
PG-13 | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In a small town in Massachusetts, a group of friends, fascinated by the internet lore of the Slender Man, attempt to prove that he doesn't actually exist - until one of them mysteriously goes missing.
Director: Sylvain White | Stars: Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Annalise Basso
Votes: 38,414 | Gross: $30.57M
44. The Fog (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Horror, Mystery
A thick mist full of vengeful spirits haunts a prosperous island town off the coast of Oregon, as its inhabitants try to learn their town's dark secret in order to stop it.
Director: Rupert Wainwright | Stars: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis
Votes: 39,184 | Gross: $29.51M
45. Disturbing Behavior (1998)
R | 84 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The new kid in Cradle Bay, Washington stumbles across something sinister about the town's method of transforming its unruly teens into upstanding citizens.
Director: David Nutter | Stars: James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, Tobias Mehler
Votes: 25,300 | Gross: $17.41M
46. The Wicker Man (2006)
PG-13 | 102 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island discovers there's a larger mystery to solve among the island's secretive, neo-pagan community.
Director: Neil LaBute | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski, Kate Beahan
Votes: 71,440 | Gross: $23.64M
47. The White Ribbon (2009)
R | 144 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 77,678 | Gross: $2.22M
48. Lone Star (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama, Mystery, Western
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Stephen Mendillo, Stephen J. Lang
Votes: 32,359 | Gross: $13.27M
49. Dagon (2001)
R | 98 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A boating accident runs a young man and woman ashore in a decrepit Spanish fishing town which they discover is in the grips of an ancient sea god and its monstrous half human offspring.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gómez
Votes: 21,054
50. The Stepford Wives (1975)
PG | 115 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Joanna Eberhart has come to the quaint little town of Stepford, Connecticut with her family, but soon discovers there lies a sinister truth in the all too perfect behavior of the female residents.
Director: Bryan Forbes | Stars: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman
Votes: 19,581 | Gross: $8.72M