To tweak Hugh Grant's best line in "Love Actually," horror actually is all around.
Whether you're riding into the new year on your high horse or calmly preparing to walk into the sea, 2025 is a turning point. There's no genre that tells us who we are or what we're made of like this one, and the past twelve months have offered audiences a slew of scary stories full of shocks and surprises that were mostly open to interpretation.
Not all of us found powerful metaphors for social change in popular titles, and plenty of terrifying efforts flew under the radar in the genre's generally high-grossing landscape. There were enough abortion analogies released last spring to merit their own ranking ("First Omen" should be No. 1 there, and almost merited inclusion here.) And there's a reason "MaXXXine" -- the definitive film of Brat Girl Summer! -- didn't make many year-end lists. Fittingly, the Mia Goth-starring sequel is also the one letter grade this critic wishes she could change. Not because the movie got worse, but because giving an "A-" based on The Vibes lost Harris the election.
2024 marked six years since the so-called horror renaissance kicked off by Ari Aster in 2018. While international films like "Exhuma" and semi-arthouse works like "Heretic" continue to champion symbolism-laden nightmares, mainstream audiences are pushing further into the lean and mean than ever before. Was "Terrifier 3" setting the table for a feminist action epic destined to prove slashers are the next superhero movies? Or is that another critical interpretation your girl should be reconsidering?
To bastardize a John Green quote next, we accept the horror we think we deserve. No matter the reading, "Longlegs" was overhyped, "Abigail" was bad, and it is still utterly baffling that "Night Swim" -- the year's worst scary movie -- took place during the day. Respecting the balance is one thing (you bet your ass "The Substance" is on here!) but what we demand from these genre filmmakers going forward will directly impact how they choose to Pump It Up.
The following top 10 best horror movies of 2024 are all quality films that will stand the test of time thanks to their punctilious craft. They're also ominous omens reflective of where the genre seems to be going. Honorable mentions for "The Devil's Bath," "Infested," "Out of Darkness," and the brilliant short film "Dream Creep" are a must -- but hard-to-classify triumphs like "Alien: Romulus" and "Love Lies Bleeding" weren't considered. Happy haunting and, hey, good luck out there.
Note: "The Rule of Jenny Pen" (acquired by Shudder) and "I Don't Understand You" (acquired by Vertical) are the two best 2024 horror films we saw that have yet to come out for general audiences. You can expect them both sometime in 2025.
"Smile 2" ruined the tour. The world tour. The best genre surprise of the year saw writer/director Parker Finn deliver a sequel to Paramount's "Smile" that was not only leagues better than the original film but struck a chord with modern audiences eager to see mental health explored on screen. Combining the suspense and theatricality of M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap" with the body horror goodness at the heart of "The Substance," this clever script follows pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, exhilarating) as she navigates the aftermath of a devastating car crash. She's subsequently pursued by a mysterious entity feeding off her trauma -- a metaphor that felt heavy-handed in 2022 but lands delicately here.
With Kyle Gallner as its Janet Leigh-type, "Smile 2" boasts one of the better horror ensembles in 2024. Ray Nicholson and the creepy grin he inherited from his dad (heeere's Jack Nicholson!) appears in a rotating carousel of skinsuits that will keep you guessing every beat. Rosemarie DeWitt is especially excellent as a recognizable mom-ager, but lead actress Scott rips through the slippery material like a bullet. In times of severe stress, it's not uncommon for people to have inappropriate reactions. When the final reveal in the rise and fall of Skye Riley snaps into focus, this devastating supernatural torture may make you scream, weep, and smile...too.
"Terrifier 3" didn't break boundaries this year so much as violate them, revolutionizing indie horror with a grassroots distribution model that let filmmaker Damien Leone bring his ultra-violent holiday slasher to theaters unrated. The low-budget sequel cleaned up at the box office by once again embracing practical effects and giving zero -- count 'em, zero! -- fucks in an increasingly extreme genre landscape. Now, decision makers across horror are wising up to the power of the Iconic Events-Cineverse-Bloody Disgusting three-ring circus and questioning if they can get away with the same act.
The mythic fandom still emerging around "Terrifier" star David Howard Thornton and his sadistic mime character continued to grow, while Leone's latest pulp-for-confetti explosion solidified both Art and final girl Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) as genuine nu genre icons. That accolade gets thrown around far too often, but short of dating Travis Kelce, Art the Clown could not have had a bigger 2024 and "Terrifier 3" is the franchise's best outing to date. It secured Leone for two more installments and the support of fellow shit-stirrer Eli Roth, among others. When the "Hostel" guy is into your depravity, you know you're shocking right -- and this year, not even the Elite Hunting Club could kill this clown.
Ghost stories often double as explorations of grief, but "Exhuma" approaches literally burying the hardships of the past through a singularly artful language all its own. Striking visuals and a script that feels like it's actively festering as the plot progresses makes writer/director Jang Jae-hyun one of the most important contemporary voices on the spirituality of human remains. Across international horror, his latest was also the buzziest movie to come out of Asia in a year largely dominated by the French, and it features some of the most proactive horror protagonists in recent memory.
When a Korean shaman (Kim Go-eun) and her protégé (Lee Do-hyun) are summoned to Los Angeles to help a rich Korean-American businessman (Kim Jae-cheol) with his sick infant son, they soon recruit a feng shui master (Choi Min-sik) and a funeral home director (Yoo Hae-jin) to help break a complicated, cross-cultural curse related to an improperly buried body. Foxes, pigs, and a snake with a human head bring pops of creature-feature fear to "Exhuma" -- also known as "Pamyo" -- but it's the grounded commitment to representing authentic death practices that made this film South Korea's highest-grossing of 2024.
The times when you see only one set of footprints -- and the scratch marks of a gigantic metal hook dragging behind them -- that is when Johnny carried you. With "In a Violent Nature," IFC Films and Shudder went for a walk in the woods and came out holding a franchise in the making. Chris Nash's revelatory atmospheric slasher about a stolen necklace, a silent killer, and the power of pairing breathtaking landscapes with literal breath-taking has a sequel coming next year -- a victory in its own right.
From a magical mirror matte that tells you exactly what kind of genre homage you're watching to a log-splitter dismemberment you won't soon forget, this 2024 Sundance premiere divided IndieWire critics the way only truly brazen horror efforts can. Star Ry Barrett brings his hulking villain to life with a ferocious-yet-naturalistic performance that sees him and the rest of the cast operating around the camera like grounded skysurfers. The ultra-violent effort achieves a kind of mesmerizing effect that, for the ready and willing participant, can feel like taking a haunted hike through your favorite new comfort watch.
Surviving the past year in genre film festivals meant relentlessly running into the Wooden Man. An unforgettable artifact from Damian McCarthy's "Oddity," the massive sculpture -- depicting a seated man with fear on his face and holes drilled in his head -- was designed by the Irish filmmaker and fellow countryman Paul McDonnell. It's nothing short of nightmare fuel, and the terrifying prop's presence at industry events (shout out to its human entourage) proved essential to marketing this low-budget supernatural whodunnit.
Slow-burn myth-building is baked into "Oddity," and that pacing was essential to McCarthy's folklore-infused effort becoming Shudder's best of horror film of 2024. In the running for scariest opening scene (beating "Longlegs" by a mile), "Oddity" begins with one of the year's best jump cuts and the unforgettable image of a glowing yellow tent spattered with blood. Then, Carolyn Bracken sets in with her dazzling star performance as a blind clairvoyant woman struggling to solve her twin sister's murder: a chilly and darkly hilarious performance that should have casting agents carving the actress' initials into their brains.
The big twist in "Strange Darling" may have been overhyped, but JT Mollner's portrait of a serial killer is even more punk rock because it's divisive. The definitive genre two-hander of the year (fewer when you account for those handcuffs), Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner go for broke in a sideways cat-and-mouse chase that sees the pair practically bore a hole through the screen. A vicious murderer's last days pursuing a final victim in the Pacific Northwest grants cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi a singular craft debut under the unforgettable opening slate: SHOT ENTIRELY ON 35MM FILM.
That vanity plate and subsequent "chapter" headings in Mollner's six-part, nonlinear puzzle box didn't land with all cinephiles. But for the right genre aficionados and "Pulp Fiction" fans, this lethal reexamination of rape revenge is as rich as its crimson reds. With a script sharper than a knife's edge, and featuring exacting performances from supporting stars Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. to boot, "Strange Darling" is just that: an instant cult classic sure to be treasured forever by the 2024 audiences who loved her first.
Watching a famously bald vampire lick blood from his bushy new porn-stache, your scare mileage may vary. And yet, Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu" adaptation was 2024's defining horror end game -- a luminous and lurid reimagining of F.W. Murnau's silent film that audiences lusted after all year. The Oscar contender isn't for everyone. Its intricate period details have elated as many genre lovers as they've pissed off, and although that kick-starter jump-scare might put you on the ceiling, the terror is mainly atmospheric. Still, the sheer artistry across departments on display here is an undeniable shock: a testament to the timelessness of gothic horror and Eggers' purity of vision.
More "The Northman" than "The Witch" (or "The Lighthouse" for that matter), "Nosferatu" offers an electric portrait of a nubile woman (Lily-Rose Depp) revisited by a menacing "comfort" from her youth (Bill Skarsgård). What starts as the story of a real-estate agent (Nicholas Hoult) getting in over his head with the occult operates somewhat like an open house, inviting audiences to wander through a version of the early 19th century that's so thoroughly imagined it can feel at once beautifully arcane and unsettlingly pedestrian. That discordance helps "Nosferatu" haunt the right viewers as pops of realism nail Eggers' flights of fancy to the floor -- and one of the year's most gorgeous nightmares is laid bare.
Between broadcast news and made-for-streaming documentaries, true crime is typically a problem that's reserved for the small screen. And yet, Pascal Plante's "Red Rooms" is a theatrical triumph -- one that had scads of critics comparing the French-Canadian filmmaker to David Fincher and his masterful "Gone Girl." The macabre-yet-understated horror movie stares deep into the amoral abyss of publicly won justice through a fictional technothriller that mostly scares by suggestion. Set against a media circus emanating from a courtroom in Montreal, the highly publicized trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) centers on a series of snuff films showing young girls tortured on the dark web.
You never explicitly see those moments of intense violence, although the audio is deeply haunting. And instead of following the prosecutors, defenders, judge, or even Chevalier himself, "Red Rooms" centers the perspectives of two seemingly random attendees. Treating the tragedies of others like a spectator sport is almost always repugnant, but the calculating Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) and Ted Bundy fan girl-type Clémentine (Laurie Babin) approach the perverse pastime from opposite ends of the attention-seeking spectrum. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is complex ethical territory that hasn't been explored in media nearly as much as its inverse. But Plante's colorful rendering challenges with methodical precision -- never watering down the ink-black essence of the question it considers and instead building to one spine-curling scene so all-consumingly upsetting, it feels like a shot taken straight.
Is it the crushing weight of everything you are and aren't? Or just a really good TV show?
Jane Schoenbrun's ethereal "I Saw the TV Glow" cements the kaleidoscopic filmmaker as an artistic authority on the mediated self, staring down many of the same themes addressed in their earlier "We're All Going to the World's Fair." A foremost interpreter of genre, Schoenbrun uses a bigger budget and even grander existential ambitions to capture the queer essence of horror community in one of the year's most imaginative worlds.
Starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as two late-'90s teens obsessed with a monster-of-the-week TV show called "The Pink Opaque," this gender transition/coming out allegory packs a serious punch while gently liberating audiences from their most personal fears. The stories we love reflect who we are, and A24's best scary movie of the year suggests the studio may yet pull back from the brink of its increasingly mixed horror slate by platforming voices with something real to say.
Slicing to the core of her artistic spine -- and deboning the patriarchy in the process -- Coralie Fargeat delivered her magnum opus with "The Substance." Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley as two halves in a fickle cloning experiment, MUBI's sci-fi fairytale about a Hollywood actress yearning to be a "younger, better, more perfect version" of herself enjoyed its own glow-up in 2024.
Although the film's extreme body horror was initially divisive out of Cannes (trigger warning: Dennis Quaid eating shrimp), Fargeat's brutal experiment in self-hatred is now a buzzy Oscar contender with a remarkably active fanbase on TikTok. Elisabeth Sparkle's tortured Walk of Fame star is proof that industry accolades aren't everything, but mainstream support for "The Substance" suggests arthouse horror fans needn't be so insecure. With imagery so striking it could break your nose and edits so sharp you might leave with LASIK, cinematic confidence is "The Substance." There's a reason Fargeat's latest made our Best Movies Moments of the Year list twice.