Saying 2024 was a busy year for horror is a huge understatement, but honestly, it’s been that way for quite some time. And although there have been previous (and misguided) talks of “fatigue” setting in, the truth is this: horror isn’t going anywhere, and horror fans aren’t tired. No, we’re an insatiable lot.
Now, with it being such a fruitful year, compiling a best-of list would seem challenging; there were more than enough standouts to compensate for the lows and disappointments. However, the only real challenge is keeping things to a tidy ten.
So, without further ado, here are my ten favorite horror movies of 2024. They may not be deemed the best by the majority, yet they feel like it to me.
10. Frogman
To say the least, I was won over by Frogman. To say the most: Anthony Cousins achieved the impossible; he made the Loveland Frog cryptid seem plausible, not to mention frightening. Seriously, who would have thought a wand-wielding, hopping-mad, and cult-worshipped frog-humanoid could be… Scary? There is also a sense of insanity to the movie that more new first-person horrors would be wise to mimic.
9. Lowlifes
Generally low expectations for Tubi’s original fare helped Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver‘s Lowlifes become a sleeper hit on the streaming service. I for one certainly didn’t see it ranking so high among my most memorable horror experiences this year. And what it does best is catch you off guard at multiple times.
8. Stopmotion
In the tradition of movies like Fade to Black and May, Robert Morgan‘s Stopmotion does one of my favorite things in horror: Make someone’s obsession and sole comfort feel dangerous. What maximizes the theme here, of course, is the gnarly and titular animation technique used to bring out the main character’s psychosis. That artistic manifestation does wonders for Morgan’s debut.
7. All You Need is Death
One of the most unique horror movies of the year is Paul Duane‘s All You Need is Death, an Irish curio that deals in haunted folk ballads. This slow-burner turns an obscure interest, one that I normally wouldn’t seek out myself, into a compelling subject matter. The exceptionally eldritch atmosphere also makes this movie sing.
7. Cuckoo
Tilman Singer‘s Cuckoo didn’t live up to my initial expectations, but I don’t mean that negatively. It surpassed whatever plot I had conceived in my head, based on a sole image, before watching the movie at SXSW. In the end, I savored its weird energy and ate up the high Euro-arthouse aesthetic. Dan Stevens, as usual, proved why he’s our greatest and most committed character-actor right now, and Hunter Schafer doesn’t get enough credit as a fallible horror heroine. Cuckoo may be too out-there for some, but really, that’s what genre cinema needs this day. The real shame is Neon’s failure to give it the same support as Longlegs.
6. Smile 2
I liked but not loved the original Smile, so when Parker Finn followed up with a more absorbing follow-up, I was surprised. I anticipated a bad case of sophomore slumpness with Smile 2 and instead got a dose of sequel superiority. Naomi Scott’s increasingly deranged and bodied performance is a large part of why I gravitate more to this second helping of inscrutable and now-cosmic horror.
5. Sleep
While Jason Yu‘s Sleep premiered in 2023 in its home country of South Korea, it was only sent our way this year. Nevertheless, it remains one of my more rewarding “no expectations” watches of 2024. The characters, excellently played by Jung Yu-mi and the late and missed Lee Sun-kyun, fill out an intriguing story of new parentage and coping mechanisms. This isn’t a clear-cut horror pic, mind you, but boy does it become unsettling.
4. The Substance
There was only one other person in the audience at my screening of Coralie Fargeat‘s The Substance. And on our way out of the theater, this other cineaste (jokingly) asked, “What the hell did we just watch?” I wasn’t sure if he wanted an actual answer, so I just smiled and walked away. Now, I can’t subscribe to the general opinion that this movie is operating on the same wavelength as Cronenberg’s body horror; I don’t understand that comparison, to be honest. This spectacle plays out more like an extended Tales From the Crypt episode, morbid entertainment and all. Did I find humor in the pathetic protagonist’s dilemma? Surely, yes, but my amusement was not out of cruelty or sick pleasure, but out of recognition for my own messy self-image. Bravo, Fargeat.
3. Best Wishes to All
Some current social issues in Japan that very much have to do with each other are the low birthrate and the lack of care for the elderly. Best Wishes to All director Yūta Shimotsu tapped into the correlation with a story that abandons all sense of plausibility, all while driving home the underlying fear intrinsic to the movie’s real-life inspiration. And as someone who has been caring for older parents, ones who cannot take care of themselves all the time, the solution that Shimotsu proposes for one aging couple here is effectively sickening. Read my further thoughts in a full review, if you wish.
2. Chime
Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s Chime achieves far more in the way of scariness than its longer contemporaries. This immaculate-looking, 45-minute featurette is a master lesson in finding fear in everyday spaces and sustaining suspense. Set against a haunting cityscape, Kurosawa pulled off a story that feels timely; it demonstrates the horror of confronting untraceable unease, and how escape is futile.
1. Oddity
Horror has reached a point where scariness is often deemed a negligible factor, but if we were to still include it as a requisite, then Oddity qualifies and then some. Damian Mc Carthy‘s second outing is akin to a classic horror story from the EC Comics vault, except the fright beats are genuinely frightening. I held my breath at least once as I saw this movie at SXSW, then again during its general release. Truly, what an achievement in atmosphere and tension.
Tales from the Paulside 
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