Horror fans, 2024 has delivered some unforgettable films. If you’re craving something spooky to watch before 2025 rolls in (or on Christmas), here’s our list of the year’s best.
1. Strange Darling
Strange Darling masterfully delivers thrills and surprises from beginning to end. The movie begins with a chase. A man with a gun chases a woman through the backstreets and wooded areas of a rural location. The story then progresses in a non-chronological order as we witness the time before and after the chase, which jumps back and forth in time to establish and re-establish shifting contexts for the chase we just saw. It is a beautifully subversive, achingly tense, and, at times, surprisingly humorous journey propelled by gorgeous photography, smart directing, and fabulous performances. For what Strange Darling attempts to do, it’s just about perfect.
2. Longlegs
If you like horror that is filled with creeping dread, then Longlegs should be at the top of your list for 2024. Maika Monroe stars in Longlegs as FBI Agent Lee Harker. After Harker’s unusually accurate intuitive abilities are recognized by her superiors, she is put on a decades-old unsolved case involving a string of murder-suicides with an unsettling connection. As Harker gets closer to solving the case, the mysterious person behind the deaths gets closer to her. The horror in Longlegs stems from a sense of overwhelming dread that begins with Maika Monroe’s uncomfortably tense performance, and ends with a finale that feels excruciatingly inevitable. The stark imagery and the unforgettable appearance of Nicolas Cage as the mysterious Longlegs further heightens the dark effect of this bleak horror film.
3. I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow works on many different frequencies, some of which the viewer might never have known they could hear and feel. The film begins in 1996, and it follows the life of Owen from adolescence to adulthood. Owen feels out of touch with himself, but while in high school, he finds a connection with his schoolmate Maddy and their shared obsession with a TV show titled The Pink Opaque. What this connection means to both of them, and how they both react to it over the course of their lives, is what I Saw the TV Glow explores in a beautiful and devastating way. This is the type of film that won’t work for everyone, but for those it touches, it can be a profound experience that will stick with them for a very long time.
4. Infested
Infested delivers pure, skin-crawling adrenaline. It follows Kaleb (Théo Christine) and a small group of his family, friends, and neighbors as they try to survive and escape when their rundown apartment building is overrun with large, vicious, and rapidly-reproducing spiders. The film is claustrophobic even if you’re not prone to being nervous in tight spaces, it’ll get under your skin even if you’re not an arachnophobe, and it even has some good character development to make you care about the characters who are in tight spaces with more spiders than they can count. Also, the movie looks great, with impactful camera movements, fittingly distressed locations, and great uses of light and darkness.
5. Cuckoo
If you like your horror movies nightmarish and odd, Cuckoo might be just what you’re looking for. The story is about a teenager named Gretchen who moves to a resort isolated in the Bavarian Alps with her father, stepmother, and younger stepsister. Gretchen is still reeling from the death of her mother, and she is struggling to find acceptance within what remains of her family. To make matters worse, Gretchen can tell there is something strange going on in secret at the resort, and she has no choice but to get involved when she is attacked one night by… something. The first half of Cuckoo might be better than the second half as the surprisingly complex plot is illuminated in greater detail, but the scares are phenomenal, the strangeness is unnerving, and the heart of the story is straightforward and emotional.
6. Exhuma
Exhuma is a South Korean mixture of many different subgenres of horror. It begins with a supernatural curse that is affecting a wealthy family. A shaman and her partner enlist the help of a mortician and a geomancer to try to get rid of the curse, but when they exhume the remains of one of the family’s ancestors, they may be doing more harm than good. Before Exhuma is over, viewers will witness curses, folk horror, possessions, monsters, and more. It’s quite the journey, and it’s a fantastically good horror movie.
7. The Vourdalak
The Vourdalak is a gothic fairy tale come to life. Set in the mid-18th century, it begins with Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfé—a nobleman and envoy to the King of France—stranded in the wilderness after an attack by bandits leaves him with no escort and no means of getting home. Jacques is promised aid by a local family, but the family has problems of their own to deal with first. The patriarch of the family, Gorcha, has been gone for days, and he returns home the same day that Jacques arrives. But Gorcha is not the man he used to be, and whatever is afflicting him threatens to tear the family (and Jacques) apart. With a gorgeous aesthetic, a sense of dark humor, and a bold choice in creating a highly stylized interpretation of its supernatural elements, The Vourdalak is a beautifully haunting movie with a timeless appeal.
8. The Substance
The Substance might be the most visually compelling movie of the year. With its unrestrained body horror and highly stylized aesthetic, it is a movie that demands your attention with every frame. The themes—including absurd beauty standards, ageism, self-loathing, etc.—are hammered home repeatedly with body horror that gets suitably more horrific as the story moves along. Ushering us through this wild journey in a darkly humorous and satirical way are Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley who both give bold and riveting performances, even when they’re covered in pounds of prosthetics and makeup effects. If you missed The Substance in theaters, then you missed out on one of the best theatrical experiences of 2024.
9. The Devil’s Bath
The Devil’s Bath instills a sense of profound sadness in its viewers. Set in Austria during the 1700s, the story follows Agnes, a deeply religious woman who, at the beginning of the film, is newly married and full of hope. But Agnes has a difficult time adjusting to the new way of life that is expected—even demanded—of her, and the toll weighs heavier and heavier on her mind, body, and soul as the days pass by. The Devil’s Bath inches along at a methodical pace that grows to a palpable sense of dread before its devastating finale. It is a beautiful and affecting film that delves deep into psychological and societal horror.
10. Alien: Romulus
From director Fede Álvarez, Alien: Romulus provides one of the best theatrical experiences of 2024. With a story that stands alone while at the same time unmistakably drawing from the extensive lore of the Alien franchise. This movie feels like a blending of the action-forward horror of Aliens, while still retaining some of the dread-horror of Alien. It’s right in-between those two movies (tonally and chronologically), and it’s a mix that creates a familiar and intensely fun time. And though the movie could be broken down into distinct set pieces and action sequences, the central story of a young woman (Cailee Spaeny) and her synthetic brother (David Jonsson) trying to find their place in the universe is compelling enough to tie it all together well. Plus, there are never enough outer-space horror movies like this.
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