Movies Like The Desperate Hours (1955)

The Desperate Hours is a 1955 crime, thriller film from William Wyler with a MovieMagicScore of 7.0/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Desperate Hours and Dead Man's Wire.

Crime Thriller

Desperate Hours

1990

An escaped con, on the run from the law, moves into a married couple's house and takes over their lives.

5.4

MagicScore

Dead Man's Wire

2026

In 1977, former real estate developer Tony Kiritsis puts a dead man's switch on himself and the mortgage banker who did him wrong, demanding $5 million and a personal apology.

6.5

MagicScore

Supremacy

2014

The story centers on paroled white supremacist who has just killed a cop, and takes a black family hostage. Within hours of being released from 14 years of solitary confinement in maximum-security Pelican Bay State Prison, Garrett Tully is on the run again. When he finds a house off a dirt road and takes a family hostage, he thinks the Aryan Brotherhood has his back–and his kidnap victims are black. The family’s patriarch, Mr. Walker, is a jaded ex-con who hates cops so much he disavowed his own son for becoming one. Seeing a familiar desperation in Tully, Walker refuses to call the authorities for help, causing familial tensions to escalate, and soon grave missteps are made.

5.7

MagicScore

The Dark Past

1948

A gang hold a family hostage in their own home. The leader of the escaped cons is bothered by a recurring dream that the doctor of the house may be able to analyze.

5.8

MagicScore

Madness

1980

An escaped convicted murderer invades the cottage of a man, his wife and the wife's sister, whereupon he proceeds to torment this already dysfunctional trio with rape and violence.

5.3

MagicScore

A Perfect World

1993

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

7.5

MagicScore

No Good Deed

2014

Terri is a devoted wife and mother of two, living an ideal suburban life in Atlanta when Colin, a charming but dangerous escaped convict, shows up at her door claiming car trouble. Terri offers her phone to help him but soon learns that no good deed goes unpunished as she finds herself fighting for survival when he invades her home and terrorizes her family.

5.9

MagicScore

That Darn Cat!

1965

A young woman suspects foul play when her cat comes home wearing a wristwatch. Convincing the FBI, though, and catching the bad guys is tougher than she imagined.

6.6

MagicScore

Becky

2020

A teenager's weekend at a lake house with her father takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts wreaks havoc on their lives.

6.3

MagicScore

#10

Gummo

1997

Solomon and Tummler are two teenagers killing time in Xenia, Ohio, a small town that has never recovered from the tornado that ravaged the community in the 1970s.

6.6

MagicScore

#11

Killing American Style

1988

A gang of hot headed brutes lead by Tony Stone and sexual sadist John Lynch execute a robbery with some inside help. A bloody shoot-out with the LAPD ensues and the criminals are apprehended. After a brief stint in the slammer, the gang escapes a prison-bus with the help of Tony s brother Jesse who is critically wounded in the process. He needs a doctor, fast. A hospital visit too risky, they seek out other options. Now on the run, they commandeer a palatial residence, taking hostages. All - American good guy John Morgan returns home becoming a pawn; sent out to retrieve the doctor.

4.3

MagicScore

#12

Point Blank

1998

Convicted corporate criminal Howard engineers a prison break as he and a number of fellow inmates are being transferred to a new facility. The escapees storm a shopping mall and take a group of shoppers hostage (after killing many more of them) before making their demands. Only Rudy, a former mercenary and brother of one of the fugitives, can take out the criminals before more of the hostages die.

4.4

MagicScore

#13

Jeopardy

1953

A woman is kidnapped when she goes to get help for her husband who is trapped on a beach with the tide coming in to surely drown him.

6.6

MagicScore

#14

Black Tuesday

1954

Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to the electric chair, taking with him Peter Manning – a bank robber and cop killer who was to die right after him. Taking several hostages along, they try to get their hands on the loot from Manning’s robbery to finance their escape from the country.

5.9

MagicScore

#15

Panic Room

2002

Trapped in their New York brownstone's panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders - Burnham, Raoul and Junior - during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.

6.8

MagicScore

#16

Mother's Day

2010

Crazed members of a sadistic family return to their childhood home to terrorize the new owners.

6.5

MagicScore

#17

The Trip

2021

A dysfunctional couple head to a remote lakeside cabin under the guise of reconnecting, but each has secret designs to kill the other. Before they can carry out their respective plans, unexpected visitors arrive and the couple is faced with a greater danger than anything they could have plotted.

6.7

MagicScore

#18

Breaking In

2018

Shaun Russell takes her son and daughter on a weekend getaway to her late father's secluded, high-tech vacation home in the countryside. The family soon gets an unwelcome surprise when four men break into the house to find hidden money. After managing to escape, Shaun must now figure out a way to turn the tables on the desperate thieves and save her captive children.

6.0

MagicScore

#19

Family Vanished

2018

A happy family returns from a vacation to find their home invaded by a criminal family and must fight for survival.

4.7

MagicScore

#20

Cherry Tree Lane

2010

Prosperous professional couple Mike and Christine are settling in for a standard evening of wine, TV and low-level marital hostility when a ring on their doorbell changes everything. Turns out their son Sebastian is in a little trouble with some local boys, who are quite prepared to camp out and wait for him to get home ... the resulting culture-clash chamber drama is raw, revealing and nerve-splittingly tense.

4.6

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Desperate Hours?

The top films similar to The Desperate Hours by MovieMagicScore are Desperate Hours (5.4), Dead Man's Wire (6.5), Supremacy (5.7). Each shares crime/thriller themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Desperate Hours worth watching?

The Desperate Hours holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.0/10 from 168 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is The Desperate Hours?

The Desperate Hours (1955) is a crime, thriller film directed by William Wyler, starring Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Desperate Hours?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more crime recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Desperate Hours Movies like Dead Man's Wire Movies like Supremacy Movies like The Dark Past Movies like Madness Movies like A Perfect World

About movies like The Desperate Hours

This ranked list pairs The Desperate Hours (1955), a crime and thriller film from William Wyler, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Humphrey Bogart take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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