95+ Best (and worst) Horror Movies of 2024 So Far, Ranked

The best (and the rest) of horror cinema in 2024. Each movie is ranked and briefly reviewed, with links to extended reviews included when available.

Strange Darling is one of the best surprises of the year.

Table of Contents

We’re halfway through 2024, and there have already been many good horror movies, a few great ones, and some that aren’t as entertaining. But every movie has the potential for greatness (or at least goodness). So instead of ranking only the best horror movies of the year, we like to rank everything that we see. From the best to the worst.

There are still plenty of highly anticipated horror films yet to come in 2024: Terrifier 3, Smile 2, The Front Room, Your Monster, Nosferatu. The list goes on and on. Therefore, you should expect this list to grow and change regularly throughout the entirety of 2024. Our Best of 2023 list grew to over 100 movies, and you can expect this year’s to be even bigger.

As always, what we consider to be a “new” horror movie for inclusion in this ranking is any film given its first wide release in North America sometime during 2024. The release can be in theaters, streaming, or physical media, but it must be a release that most people reasonably have a chance to see. That means you might see a few international movies listed that were released prior to 2024 in other countries, and there are movies here that were given film festival screenings or limited theatrical releases prior to 2024. But those movies weren’t released widely in North America until 2024.

The Top 10 Horror Movies of 2024 (so far)

1. Strange Darling

Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald in Strange Darling (2024).
Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald star in 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.

Read our extended review of Strange Darling.

2. Longlegs

Longlegs (2024)
Shortly after its release in theaters, Longlegs quickly rose to be one of the top box-office earners in the horror genre in 2024.

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

Owen looks over at Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow (2024).
I Saw the TV Glow stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine, and it is written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun.

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

Manon is caught in a web and holds a lighter as a spider approaches her face in Infested (2023).
The director of Infested, Sébastien Vanicek, was announced in February of 2024 as the director of an upcoming Evil Dead movie. (pictured: Lisa Nyarko as Manon in 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

Hunter Schafer in Cuckoo (2024).
Hunter Schafer plays Gretchen, a young woman who is is caught up in a bizarre conspiracy at a German resort.

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

Choi Min-sik in Exhuma (2024).
Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, I Saw the Devil) costars in Exhuma as a geomancer who becomes entangled in supernatural horrors.

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

Sdenka and Jacques cower at the sight of the vourdalak.
The Vourdalak is an adaptation of the 1839 novella titled The Family of the Vourdalak, written by A.K. Tolstoy. (pictured: Ariane Labed and Kacey Mottet Klein)

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

Demi Moore in The Substance (2024)
Demi Moore (pictured) and Margaret Qualley are mesmerizing as two parts of the same person in 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

Agnes holds a baby in The Devil's Bath (2024).
Anja Plaschg, who plays Agnes, is also a musician who creates music under the name Soap&Skin. Her music can be heard throughout 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

A scavenger tries to walk as quietly as possible down a narrow passage in Alien: Romulus (2024).
Alien: Romulus is a side-story in the franchise—a “legacy midquel/interquel” if you want to call it that—which takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986).

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.

2024 Horror Movies Ranked 11-50

11. Stopmotion

Ella works on her film in Stopmotion (2023).
At times Stopmotion might get too ambiguous and “arthouse” for some viewers, but it’s amazingly effective if you can connect with it.

Stop-motion animation is already creepy in the most calming of settings. Put it in a horror movie, especially in a horror movie where the stop motion is combined with live action, and you have the makings of a visually enthralling and totally unsettling film. Stopmotion is a psychological horror movie about Ella (Aisling Franciosi), a stop-motion animator who, after working for her filmmaking mother for years, is attempting to create her own short animated film for the first time in her life. Ella struggles with self confidence and her creative side, and when inspiration comes to her in the form of a young girl living in the same apartment building, Ella’s work begins to take over her life and mind.

12. Frogman

A man's face is affected by his encounter with the Frogman in Frogman (2023).
Frogman is best viewed on VHS if you can find a copy.

It can be difficult for a found-footage movie to be made so that it appears truly authentic. Frogman excels in its authenticity, and it does so in a highly entertaining fashion. The story is about a struggling filmmaker named Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk) who decides to make a documentary about a cryptid known as the Frogman of Loveland, Ohio. Dallas saw the Frogman when he was young, but nobody believes him. So, he travels to Ohio with two friends and, using the same camera he had when he first saw the Frogman, they go about making their documentary. The structure is a lot like The Blair Witch Project (1999) in how it starts with lots of talking and interviews before venturing into the woods for some scares. It’s a classic formula that works extremely well here, and the climax of the film is a ton of fun.

Read our extended review of Frogman.

13. MaXXXine

MaXXXine (2024)
MaXXXine was already early in development even before Pearl was released in 2022.

The best part about Ti West’s “X” trilogy—consisting of X (2022), Pearl (2022), and MaXXXine (2024)—is that each movie provides something completely different. X is a gory slasher, Pearl is Psycho meets The Wizard of Oz, and MaXXXine is an homage to Brian De Palma’s giallo-inspired thrillers. MaXXXine does a great job of creating a seedy atmosphere based on a certain perception of the darker side of Hollywood in the 1980s. It also takes its Hollywood setting to heart, creating a story that is bigger and arguably more outlandish than the previous films in the series.

14. Terrifier 3

Art the Clown in Terrifier 3 (2024)
Art the Clown quickly develops a fascination with Santa Claus, which is bad news for pretty much everyone.

Art the Clown is back for more murder, and this time he’s celebrating Christmas! Terrifier 3 improves upon the previous entry in the series in many ways, making this threequel a great addition to any splatter fan’s holiday-watching traditions. The gore is just as good as the previous Terrifier films, but what really stands out is the story. The ongoing rivalry between Art (David Howard Thornton) and Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is particularly well done here, making the final scenes in Terrifier 3 more impactful than all of their shared screen time in Terrifier 2.

15. Double Blind

Millie Brady as Claire in Double Blind (2023).
Double Blind is an excellent first-time feature for director Ian Hunt-Duffy. (pictured: Millie Brady as Claire, looking at the foreboding pills of the drug trial)

Double Blind is a tense thriller that builds up to a psychological horror finale. It is about a double-blind drug trial taking place in a completely isolated underground facility. The volunteers don’t know what the drug does, but they all submit to the trial for various reasons (mostly for the money they’ll receive). The effects of the drug turn deadly when the volunteers realize they will die if they fall asleep. Double Blind doesn’t take too many big risks with its storytelling, it just does everything exceedingly well. The sterile look of the production design supports the themes, the visual metaphors are clear and unobtrusive, the cast is engaging, and the suspense is tight and effective.

16. Immaculate

Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate (2024).
Immaculate has, hands down, the best final shot of any horror movie released so far this year (but we’re not going to spoil it here, so this image of Sydney Sweeney as Cecilia is not taken from the final scene).

Immaculate is an insidious horror movie. It starts off perfectly fine, though it is somewhat similar to other religious thriller and horror movies of the past, such as Deliver Us which was released late last year. But at a certain point early in Immaculate, you can tell it’s something special. The visual style is superb, and Sydney Sweeney is fantastic as Cecilia, an American nun who has just taken her vows in an Italian convent where she finds herself inexplicably pregnant. Immaculate draws on the history of nunsploitation and even more general religious-themed horror movies, but that’s not a bad thing. Immaculate is beautiful, unsettling, and has a finale that is going to be hard to beat this year.

17. Lisa Frankenstein

Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse in Lisa Frankenstein (2024).
Lisa Frankenstein is the feature-film directorial debut of Zelda Williams. (pictured: Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse)

Zelda Williams (the director), Diablo Cody (the writer), and Kathryn Newton (the star) should collaborate more often. Lisa Frankenstein is a cute horror comedy that emulates movies like Beetlejuice (1988) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) in a loving way. Though it doesn’t quite live up to those classics, Lisa Frankenstein still manages to elicit laughs and a few dark surprises in its tale of an outcast in 1989, Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton), who is surprised to find that a young man who died in 1837 has risen from the grave due to fate and a critical misunderstanding of a wish Lisa makes.

Naomi Ackie in Blink Twice (2024).
Blink Twice was directed and co-written by Zoë Kravitz in her feature directorial debut. The movie stars Naomi Ackie (pictured), Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Adria Arjona, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, and more in a superb ensemble cast.

With Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz establishes herself as a director to watch. The film is a psychological thriller that gets surprisingly dark and unexpectedly violent. The story begins with best friends Frida (Naomi Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) being invited to the private island of the absurdly rich Slater King (Channing Tatum). The hedonistic pleasures of the wealthy give way to a hidden darkness when Frida notices one morning that Jess has gone missing, but nobody remembers she was ever there. This takes Frida down a path that will change her life forever. Blink Twice is very obvious with the messages it’s trying to convey, but it tells its story with such style and substance that it keeps viewers hooked all the way to the end.

19. The First Omen

Nell Tiger Free prays as Margaret in The First Omen (2024).
Nell Tiger Free isn’t exactly new to horror (she was in the TV series Servant from 2019–2023), but she did introduce herself to many new horror fans with her performance as Margaret.

Most of the time, a prequel struggles to tell a story that makes it truly meaningful when placed next to the movies that came before it (but take place after it). So, since we know basically where any prequel to The Omen (1976) is going to end (with the birth of the Antichrist), the movie needed to be really good for it to have a true impact. Thankfully, The First Omen is really good. The story follows Margaret, a novitiate in a Catholic orphanage in Italy during 1971. Margaret begins to develop bad feelings about her new home, and she is drawn into a conspiracy that could lead to, well, the birth of the Antichrist. The film is surprisingly engaging thanks to a great cast and a wonderful attention to detail. It does stray into the area of sequel baiting from time to time, and some of its references to the other Omen movies teeter on the edge of drawing too much attention to themselves, but the core of The First Omen is very well done.

20. Trap

Josh Hartnett stares at us through a red light in Trap (2024).
Trap was loosely inspired by a true event.

Does Trap get ridiculous? Yes, it does. But that’s part of what makes it so enjoyable. Trap is like a “dad joke” of a movie. Meaning, it’s dumb in many ways, but it goes so far that it’s obviously supposed to be silly a lot of the time, and if your sense of humor is attuned its particular wavelength, then you’re really going to enjoy it. M. Night Shyamalan is a director who many moviegoers tend to either really like or really dislike. He was obviously having fun with Trap, and so was Josh Hartnett who is fantastic as both a caring father and a heartless killer. The fun the star and director are having in this movie is infectious.

21. Abigail

Alisha Weir as the vampiric Abigail in Abigail (2024).
Alisha Weir (pictured) is one part of a stellar cast that also includes Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, William Catlett, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito.

What is there to say? Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett simply know how to make fun horror movies. The first part of Abigail plays out like a crime thriller as we watch the kidnapping of 12-year-old Abigail and get to know the culprits, their personalities, and their growing distrust for the job and each other. Then, in a twist not so dissimilar from the switch in From Dusk till Dawn (1996), a crime movie becomes a vampire movie. Abigail the vampire attacks her kidnappers, and it’s a cat-and-mouse style bloodbath. A good cast, suitable writing, and amusing chases make Abigail a pleasure to watch.

22. Blackout

Charley transforms into a werewolf in Blackout (2023).
Blackout has a wonderfully classic aura to it from its werewolf design, to the way it slowly introduces the horror aspects while focusing on the drama of its main character and the people around him. (pictured: Alex Hurt as Charley in mid-transformation)

Blackout is a modernized tribute to classic monster movies, specifically Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man, but it’s not a remake of any of those Universal films. Instead, Blackout takes the idea of those movies being products of their time while portraying the monster (at least, the monster’s human side) in a sympathetic way. Blackout is about a painter, Charley (Alex Hurt), who knows he is a werewolf and is responsible for the unexplained deaths in the small town of Talbot Falls. Charley has a way to deal with his curse, but before he does he wants to make a lasting positive impact by taking down the racist, manipulative businessman who has bullied his way into a leadership role in the town.

23. Late Night with the Devil

David Dastmalchian, Ian Bliss, Ingrid Torelli, and Laura Gordon in Late Night with the Devil (2023).
As late-night talk show host Jack Delroy, David Dastmalchian is fantastic in Late Night with the Devil. (also pictured: Ian Bliss, Ingrid Torelli, and Laura Gordon)

Late Night with the Devil begins as a pseudo-documentary detailing talk show host Jack Delroy’s career, and the rise and decline of his show Night Owls. The movie then transitions into a found-footage style presentation of a recently discovered episode of Night Owls that “shocked the nation” when it aired live on Halloween night in 1977, a night in which Jack plans to showcase guests with connections to the supernatural. Sticklers who want their found footage to feel authentic might be irked by some scenes (and not only in the last twenty minutes), some of the early exposition hints at too much, and the final sequence isn’t going to work for everyone. Regardless, there’s more good than less-good in Late Night with the Devil, making it an enthralling and imaginative crowd-pleaser.

24. A Quiet Place: Day One

Sam and Frodo in A Quiet Place: Day One (2024).
Lupita Nyong’o plays Sam in A Quiet Place: Day One. Sam’s cat Frodo is played by two feline actors: Nico and Schnitzel.

A Quiet Place: Day One takes chances by being quite different from the previous two movies in the franchise, but the foundation of what makes the A Quiet Place movies good—a strong focus on character—is still there. Sam is a terminally ill cancer patient living in hospice beyond her life expectancy. While taking a trip into New York City, meteors burn through the sky, bringing with them countless alien creatures who hunt by sound. While most of New York tries to find ways to survive, Sam and her cat companion Frodo go on a different kind of journey, meeting another lost soul along the way.

25. Faceless After Dark

Bowie (Jenna Kanell) stands in front of flames in Faceless After Dark (2023).
Jenna Kanell stars in Faceless After Dark, a film that she also co-wrote and produced.

Bowie (Jenna Kanell) starred in a movie about a killer clown, but now her career is at a standstill. Auditions aren’t leading to new roles, and the most money she’s earning comes from selling photos and autographs at horror conventions. Bowie has her fans, but some of those “fans” take their love of that clown movie too far. On a particularly rough night of self-reflection, a stalker breaks into Bowie’s home, but that’s just the beginning. Faceless After Dark takes a spectacularly unexpected turn, becoming a story filled with dark humor, meta commentary, and twisted violence. Jenna Kanell is exceptional in Faceless After Dark in a role that fans of hers will love, and anyone who isn’t familiar with her role in a particularly famous killer-clown movie will still find this film incredibly appealing.

Read our extended review of Faceless After Dark.

26. Handling the Undead

Anna holds her zombified child in Handling the Undead (2024).
Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the Word) stars as Anna in the Norwegian zombie film Handling the Undead.

Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In), Handling the Undead is a somber movie that approaches a zombie uprising in a very different way than you might expect. The film is a drama first and foremost, and it uses a measured pace to tell the stories of three families affected by their loved ones regaining some semblance of life after death. Handling the Undead is a movie all about mood and emotion, and if you can let yourself be carried by its slower pace, then it can be a profound experience about grief and loss.

27. Destroy All Neighbors

Vlad is thrown towards the screen in Destroy All Neighbors (2024).
Special effects artist Gabe Bartalos—whose previous effects work includes Darkman (1990), The Guyver (1991), Shaky Shivers (2022) and much more—created the character makeup designs for Destroy All Neighbors.

Destroy All Neighbors is a loud, weird, and cacophonous horror comedy about a hapless musician who can’t stop accidentally killing his neighbors. Jonah Ray Rodrigues (Mystery Science Theater 3000) stars as William, an underachieving prog-rock musician who has been working on his first album for years. Vlad (Alex Winter under a ton of prosthetic makeup) moves into the apartment next to William’s, and the two get into an altercation that starts William down a path of accidental murder, desperation, and, oddly, inspiration. If you like strange and slightly surreal films that are akin to an assault on your senses (but in a good way), Destroy All Neighbors might be for you.

Read our extended review of Destroy All Neighbors.

28. Somewhere Quiet

Jennifer Kim and Marin Ireland in Somewhere Quiet (2023).
The subjective point of view of Somewhere Quiet will push some viewers away, but director Olivia West Lloyd’s commitment to telling the story in such an affecting way is admirable. (pictured: Jennifer Kim and Marin Ireland)

Somewhere Quiet is, as its name would suggest, a very quiet style of psychological thriller. Jennifer Kim stars as Meg, a woman who is trying to resume some semblance of her previous life after escaping from being abducted for six months and presumed dead. Meg travels with her husband Scott (Kentucker Audley) to his family’s isolated house in the woods where they are joined unexpectedly by Scott’s cousin Madeline (Marin Ireland). Meg’s struggles to find normalcy are exacerbated by Scott and Madeline’s increasingly odd behavior, but is it real, or is it all in Meg’s head? Somewhere Quiet is agonizingly tense throughout, and its way of handling the psychological aspects of the film in a way that encloses viewers completely in Meg’s perspective is fantastic.

29. Lowlifes

Two families sit down together for a meal in Lowlifes (2024).
Of all the Tubi Original horror movies released so far this year, Lowlifes is easily the best.

Lowlifes is a nice surprise. It’s a Tubi Original that, judging by the trailer, appears to be a somewhat typical backwoods cannibal movie. That’s partially a true statement, but the first act of Lowlifes sets something up that makes everything that follows even more enjoyable than you might expect. It also does a really good job of building interesting characters, some of whom you’ll pull for to survive, and some you’ll really want to see get taken out. It’s all very well done.

30. Night Shift

Phoebe Tonkin as Gwen in Night Shift (2023).
There’s a lot of mystery within Night Shift, and as Gwen, Phoebe Tonkin navigates the unknown extremely well.

Night Shift is a blending of genres, and it uses the varying expectations of those genres to propel its central mystery. The story follows Gwen (Phoebe Tonkin) as she, alone, works her first night shift at a rundown motel in the middle of nowhere. As we get to know Gwen, it’s clear she is on the run from someone, and her night gets worse when she’s told that the motel she’s working at is haunted. It sounds like it could be a lot, and it is, but it all comes together to tell a satisfyingly twisty story that leans on psychological horror more as the plot unfolds.

Read our extended review of Night Shift.

31. Wild Eyed and Wicked

Lily donning her armor in WIld Eyed and Wicked (2023).
Molly Kunz stars as Lily in Wild Eyed and Wicked.

The strength of Wild Eyed and Wicked is in its characters. The story is about a woman, Lily, who visits her estranged father, Gregory, when he calls to tell her that he’s finally going to get rid of her mother’s things after her death twenty years ago. When Lily was young, she watched as her mother died, and the memory has haunted her, and adversely affected her life, ever since. Now, Lily tries to come to terms with her grief and the resentment she holds for her father, while also unraveling a mystery involving her mother and an ancient curse. The film contains many very clear metaphors through the use of medieval fantasy imagery which culminates in cathartic action, and the reason it all works is thanks to the movie’s realistic, interesting, and well-rounded characters.

32. Here for Blood

Shawn Roberts as Tom O'Bannon in Here for Blood (2022).
The star of Here for Blood, Shawn Roberts, has a long career in genre films, and he played the role of Albert Wesker in Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil franchise.

Here for Blood is goofy fun. Tom O’Bannon (Shawn Roberts) is an independent professional wrestler who volunteers to cover for his girlfriend by babysitting a young girl named Grace (Maya Misaljevic) in her place. The job takes Tom to a secluded house where he ends up fighting for his and Grace’s lives when masked intruders break in. The plot veers in some wild directions after that, but it’s more fun if you let the movie take you where it wants to go. Just know that there is a lot of blood, a good amount of silliness, and a fair amount of watching a pro-wrestler beat people up.

33. Arcadian

Nicolas Cage in Arcadian (2024).
Nicolas Cage stars in Arcadian as Paul, the father of two teenage boys, Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins).

Fifteen years after an apocalyptic event, Paul lives with his two sons, Joseph and Thomas, in an isolated farmhouse. Everyone has a strict curfew, because every day they have to secure the house from monsters that only come out at night. But one day, Thomas doesn’t make it back home before dark, and Paul is forced to go looking for him. Arcadian is a good family drama/coming-of-age/apocalypse movie that builds to some very tense and exciting scenes towards the end. The monsters, when we finally see them, are particularly interesting, and are probably the best part of the movie.

34. Oddity

Oddity (2024)
Oddity is from writer and director Damian Mc Carthy. (pictured: Caroline Menton and Carolyn Bracken)

Oddity combines a murder mystery plot with revenge, the paranormal, and a haunted house to create a dark and moody film. Darcy is a blind psychic whose sister was killed. She visits the home of her former brother-in-law Ted—who still lives in the house where Darcy’s sister was murdered—and makes herself at home. While Ted goes to work, Darcy has a conversation with his new girlfriend Yana, and it’s not long before Yana understands that her clairvoyant house guest has an ulterior motive for her visit. Oddity has some intensely scary moments in the latter half of the movie after a tense buildup, and overall it is an excellently executed film.

35. In a Violent Nature

In a Violent Nature (2024)
In a Violent Nature is one of the most difficult 2024 horror movies to rank.

What happens when you take a typical backwoods slasher movie and try to show all the stuff you don’t normally see in a slasher movie (e.g. the killer between kills, the time after the final girl escapes, etc.)? You get In a Violent Nature, a movie that plays out like a pseudo-arthouse slasher, and a great example of why most slasher movies aren’t made this way. The film is interesting, and there are a few good and bloody kills, but it doesn’t always commit enough to its proposed nature to be as effective as it could be. Also, the final sequences aren’t great, and they break the precedent set by the rest of the movie in a way that undermines some of its best features. Even with all that said, In a Violent Nature is still really good in many ways, and it’s worth watching for slasher fans.

Read our extended review of In a Violent Nature.

36. Dancing Village: The Curse Begins

Badarawuhi whispers to Mila in Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (2024).
This movie is a prequel to the 2022 film KKN di Desa Penari, but you don’t need to see the original to enjoy Dancing Village: The Curse Begins.

The pace of Dancing Village: The Curse Begins might be a bit slow for some viewers, especially in the first half of the movie, but if you stick with it then you’ll be treated to some exceptional Indonesian folk horror. When we meet Mila (Maudy Effrosina), she is on a trip with her cousin, a friend, and their guide to find a remote village on the island of Java. Mila is tasked with returning a mysterious object that was taken away from the village twenty-five years prior, and her arrival begins a series of events that restarts an ancient ritual that involves a curse, a sacrifice, and—as the movie’s title suggests—dancing.

37. Lumberjack the Monster

Lumberjack the Monster (2023).
Lumberjack the Monster is directed by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer).

Lumberjack the Monster has a lot going on. Some places call it a horror movie and even a revenge film, but even though it’s more of a crime thriller, it’s easy to see why people have a difficult time pinning down exactly what it is. Lumberjack the Monster is about a serial killer, Akira (Kazuya Kamenashi), who is targeted by an ax-wielding killer in a mask. Akira tries to find out who the masked assailant is and why he’s after him, while at the same time dealing with a surprising side-effect of the killer’s initial assault. Meanwhile, a dedicated police detective on the case is getting dangerously close to uncovering Akira’s own murderous activities and his ties to the masked maniac. It’s a lot, but it all comes together well in an entertaining mashup of blood, action, mystery, and drama.

38. Monolith

Lily Sullivan in Monolith (2022).
Monolith takes place entirely in a single location with only one actor, Lily Sullivan, appearing on screen (she speaks to everyone else over the phone).

Monolith is a cerebral thriller made for fans of slow burns and great acting. Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) is an unnamed journalist who starts a podcast after her career is derailed by a scandal concerning one of her articles. Her podcast is about strange mysteries, and her dismissive attitude about the stories changes when she starts following the trail of a story about odd artifacts described as black bricks. The mystery might be a little underwhelming or unsatisfying for viewers looking for simple answers, but the questions Monolith raises, and the acting of Lily Sullivan, carry the film very well.

39. Kill Your Lover

Kill Your Lover (2023)
Kill Your Lover won the Director’s Prize at the 2023 FilmQuest Film Festival. (pictured: Shane Quigley-Murphy who was nominated for Best Actor at FilmQuest 2023)

Sometimes subtlety isn’t necessary. One of those times is when you’re making a movie in which the central metaphor requires showing a toxic relationship as a literally toxic substance secreting and growing out of the two people involved in that relationship. So, no, Kill Your Lover isn’t subtle. But it is good. Kill Your Lover is a body-horror/breakup movie that stars Paige Gilmour and Shane Quigley-Murphy as lovers who are at the end of a relationship that was doomed to fail from the start. We see them in better times through flashbacks, while in the present we watch as a bizarre sickness envelops them both and drives them toward a direct confrontation.

Read our extended review of Kill Your Lover.

40. The Exorcism

Russell Crowe in The Exorcism (2024)
Russell Crowe elevates pretty much any movie he stars in.

The story in The Exorcism is okay. It’s about an actor, Tony (Russell Crowe), who has a troubled past and a history of addiction. Tony takes a role as a priest and exorcist in a movie, a role that was previously filled by an actor who mysteriously died while rehearsing the part. As production gets underway, Tony seems to be reverting to his old, self-destructive habits, but it might actually be something more sinister (and supernatural). The plot has some odd quirks that aren’t always great, but Russell Crowe’s dedicated performance makes Tony interesting to watch, which makes the whole movie better by default.

41. Founders Day

The Founder flashes a peace sign in Founders Day (2024).
The Founder has a unique look that would fit nicely alongside the killers from Uncle Sam (1996) and The Tripper (2006).

Founders Day is a fun slasher that feels like an homage to the gimmicky slashers of the 1990s and early 2000s. Despite its premise of a masked killer in a powdered wig going on a murder spree in the days before a heated mayoral election, don’t expect any particularly pithy political satire. Instead, expect some light political posturing to go along with a Scream-like mystery and a few good kills.

Read our extended review of Founders Day.

42. The Bridge Curse: Ritual

Wang Yu-xuan as Ting in The Bridge Curse: Ritual (2023).
The Bridge Curse: Ritual is a sequel and it does have connections to the movie that came before it, but it works well as a (mostly) standalone film, so you don’t need to see The Bridge Curse (2020) in order to enjoy it. (pictured: Wang Yu-xuan as Ting)

Like the movie that came before it, The Bridge Curse (2020), The Bridge Curse: Ritual asks its viewers to go along with it on a journey that doesn’t always make perfect sense. If you can get into the spirit of it though, it’s a good time. The story is about a group of students developing an augmented reality game. They test the game in their school which is already haunted, and, well, you get the idea. This Taiwanese ghost movie is surprisingly entertaining, though the finale does act like it makes things up as it goes along.

43. Under Paris

Under Paris (2024)
Under Paris is from French director Xavier Gens, who may be best known to horror fans for Frontier(s) (2007).

When it begins, Under Paris appears as if it will be one of the countless Jaws-a-like shark movies in existence. And for a while, it kind of is. The story follows Sophia (Bérénice Bejo), a Parisian marine biologist who is shaken when she learns that the shark that killed her entire crew a few years ago has taken up residence in the Seine river. Sophia and a group of eco-activists each have different ideas about how to deal with the shark, but the mayor of Paris doesn’t want to hear any of it because she has a big event triathlon coming up that can’t be canceled because of some silly shark in the river! This setup takes a while to unravel, and it’s all very average. Then, about halfway through the movie, Under Paris takes a sharp turn into ridiculous, violent action, and the whole experience becomes a lot of shark-attack fun. It’s kind of a silly movie in the end, and it’s all the better for its silliness.

44. Stupid Games

Stupid Games was released on March 22, 2024 on the Mometu streaming service.

It was supposed to be a night of dinner, games, and maybe even a little romance. At least, that’s what Jaxon and his two friends think when they are invited to Alyssa and her friends’ apartment. But the evening takes a turn for the sinister when the board game they decide to play gets way too personal, and when supernatural events begin happening all around the players. Stupid Games has a great cast, and its atmosphere makes for a fun time.

Read our extended review of Stupid Games.

45. Deer Camp ’86

Deer Camp '86 (2022)
Deer Camp ’86 won Best Special Effects at the 2022 Screamfest Horror Film Festival.

When a group of friends travel to a remote cabin in the Michigan woods to hunt deer, their personal issues with each other soon become the least of their concerns. After a Native American woman is killed by an unknown assailant, something in the woods wants deadly vengeance, and the hunters are all fair game. Deer Hunter ’86 takes a while to get to the gore, but the humor infused in the characters and their interactions with each other help keep the movie completely entertaining while waiting for the real action to begin.

46. Laced

Dana Mackin as Molly in Laced (2023).
Molly (Dana Mackin) is at the center of Laced, and she has to think quickly as her plan falls apart repeatedly throughout the night.

Laced has a simple and gripping premise: a wife plans to murder her abusive husband, but nothing goes according to plan. The film is set in an isolated cabin during a snowstorm, which keeps the cast small and the tension high as more and more twists and turns pop up throughout the evening. The plot does start to veer off track at times, but all together Laced is a nicely-made thriller.

47. You’ll Never Find Me

Patrick and The Visitor plays cards in You'll Never Find Me (2023).
Brendan Rock and Jordan Cowan star in You’ll Never Find Me.

A woman stranded in a storm takes shelter in the mobile home of a man. They don’t know each other, they both have secrets, and they’re stuck together until the storm passes. You’ll Never Find Me is a tense and claustrophobic psychological thriller that progresses at a deliberate pace. The finale might not be worth the buildup for some viewers, but it is engrossing the way the film handles the back-and-forth batting of suspicions between the two characters.

48. Dagr

The and Louise watch footage from a tablet in Dagr (2024).
There are different levels of found footage in Dagr, meaning we’re sometimes watching footage of people watching footage of someone else, and it works surprisingly well. (pictured: Riz Moritz and Ellie Duckles as Louise and Thea)

Dagr begins by introducing viewers to online pranksters/criminals Thea (Ellie Duckles) and Louise (Riz Moritz). In a found-footage format, we watch as the pair record themselves as they plan their greatest heist yet. They’re going to steal from the crew of a commercial being filmed in an isolated mansion, but what they don’t know is that the town the mansion is located in is the home to supernatural happenings. Naturally, Thea and Louise soon discover the danger for themselves. Dagr is really good, and the structure of its plot is something unique and tremendously memorable for found footage.

Read our extended Dagr review.

49. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Garraka's eyes shine in Ghostbuaters: Frozen Empire (2024).
The Big Bad in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Garraka, could’ve used more personality.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is satisfactory big-budget franchise filmmaking. It’s entertaining and has its charm, but the writing is just okay most of the time, and the cast—although great—is too big to be able to keep a strong focus on the main plot thread. There is a lot going on, and not all of it is explored well enough, or even conceived well enough. But yeah, it’s totally fine. People say funny things from time to time, the current Ghostbusters team up with the previous Ghostbusters, and there’s a big ice monster.

50. Bag of Lies

Matt and Claire hesitate before a kiss in Bag of Lies (2024).
Patrick Taft and Brandi Botkin as Matt and Claire are the biggest highlights in Bag of Lies.

Bag of Lies has an odd premise, but once you get into the story and meet the two main characters, it will draw you in. Claire (Brandi Botkin) has cancer at an advanced stage, and her husband Matt (Patrick Taft) can’t bear the thought of losing her. Matt conducts a ritual that involves blood and a large bag with something in it that should not be looked at, touched, or spoken to once the ritual is complete. This leads to a story that is part supernatural horror and part heartfelt drama about a husband and wife who no longer understand where each other is coming from.

Read our extended review of Bag of Lies.

2024 Horror Movies Ranked 51 and Beyond

51. What You Wish For

What You Wish For (2024)
Nick Stahl is great as Ryan, a frustrated chef who gets into something he is completely unprepared for.

Though it is much more of a thriller than a horror movie (which it’s tagged as on certain sites), What You Wish For does deliver effective suspense. The movie is about Ryan, a chef whose career is going nowhere, and who is in serious debt to dangerous people. Ryan visits an old friend from culinary school who is living life as an in-demand chef for rich people with specific tastes. When an opportunity presents itself, jealousy and desperation drive Ryan to take his friend’s place, but he has no idea what is going to be required of him. What follows is a night of tension, danger, lies, and testing just how far Ryan will go to get what he wants. The suspense in What You Wish For is good, but some odd quirks in the writing make the logic and tone of the proceedings a bit unstable, which keeps it from being great.

52. Clickbait: Unfollowed

Cickbait: Unfollowed (2024)
Clickbait: Unfollowed was written and directed by Katherine Barrell and Melanie Scrofano.

Clickbait: Unfollowed proves that you should never underestimate a Tubi Original. There is no shortage of movies satirizing/examining social media influencers, and a quick glance at Clickbait: Unfollowed might give you the impression that it’s yet another average horror-comedy about that subject. And, well, it is a horror-comedy about influencers, but it does a lot of things extremely well. It sets up some truly despicable characters you’ll want to see get their comeuppance, it establishes likable characters you’ll want to see prevail, and the central premise of a deadly social media competition is a surprisingly engaging format for the story. It’s comical horror done well.

53. Model House

Model House (2024)
Model House was written and directed by Derek Pike.

In Model House, five swimsuit models are staying together in a rented house when two masked intruders break in. The intruders have a cunning (and naive) plan to make money off the models, but things go awry, trust is threatened, and violence takes over. Parts of the second half of Model House don’t work as well as the first half, but it’s still a good recommendation for fans of crime thrillers that are, for the most part, character-driven.

Read our extended Model House review.

54. The Strangers: Chapter 1

May cries when faced with the Pin-Up Girl in The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024).
All three parts of this new trilogy of The Strangers were shot at the same time. (pictured on the left: Madelaine Petsch as Maya)

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is essentially a remake of The Strangers (2008). By comparison, the newer movie doesn’t fare well against the original, but on its own The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a pretty good home-invasion film. There are some egregiously foolish character decisions that will prohibit much enjoyment for viewers who get hung up on that kind of thing, but if you can get into the likable main characters’ story, then there are some good horror moments to be had here. Overall it’s a very middle-of-the-road movie that does its job, and it seems to make a promise that what’s to come might be even better.

55. My Bloody Galentine

Ella-Rae Smith, Miriam-Teak Lee, and Cassie Clare in My Bloody Galentine (2024).
It’s okay if you don’t know what a “Galentine” is, they explain it in the movie. (pictured: Ella-Rae Smith, Miriam-Teak Lee, and Cassie Clare)

My Bloody Galentine is kind of like a slasher version of an anti-rom-com. It’s about a naive/innocent American woman who becomes friends with two of her new coworkers in London when they bond over their displeasure with men and romance in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. They plot revenge on their exes, but a killer in a mask is adding to their revenge with murder. My Bloody Galentine is quite silly most of the time, but it’s also really charming.

Read our extended review of My Bloody Galentine.

56. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II

Tigger prepares to kill in Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024).
Tigger (pictured) is a welcome new addition to the Pooh Universe (officially called the Twisted Childhood Universe), but Owl is probably the most interesting character in the entirety of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II.

We said that Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II would be better than the first Blood and Honey, and it is. By a lot. Pooh and his friends look better, there’s more killing, and the story is greatly improved. Christopher Robin (played by Scott Chambers) drives the story this time as he deals with the effects of the first film and memories of his past when he first became friends with Pooh. The movie does run out of steam by the end, but seeing Pooh and Tigger run wild through a rave is great.

57. Departing Seniors

Ignacio Diaz-Silverio as Javier in Departing Seniors (2023).
Departing Seniors was directed by Clare Cooney and written by Jose Nateras. (pictured Ignacio Diaz-Silverio as Javier)

Departing Seniors is a high-school slasher comedy with a supernatural twist. After Javier (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) is bullied and tumbles down a flight of stairs, a knock on his head unlocks a psychic power. Javier can now see into the past and future of any person he touches. This leads him to the discovery of a killer dispatching his classmates, so Javier and best friend Bianca (Ireon Roach) try to stop the murderer before they strike again. Departing Seniors is light and cute, but the action can be awkward, and the mystery ultimately isn’t very mysterious.

58. Slay

Heidi N Closet, Cara Melle, Trinity the Tuck, and Crystal Methyd in Slay (2024).
Slay stars (from the left): Heidi N Closet, Cara Melle, Trinity the Tuck, and Crystal Methyd.

Slay is essentially From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) meets To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), and it’s as fun as that sounds. It is a horror comedy about four drag queens who mistakenly book a show at a dive bar in a remote and (mostly) unwelcoming town, and during their performance vampires arrive to crash the party. Now the queens and the locals are forced to work together as vamps surround the bar while trying to find their way in. The movie might be a bit long at an hour and forty minutes, and some of the jokes are run into the ground by the end, but Slay still provides plenty of laughs with its unabashed campiness.

Read our extended review of Slay.

59. The Girl in the Pool

Freddie Prinze Jr. and Gabrielle Haugh in The Girl in the Pool (2024).
The Girl in the Pool feels like it should be a Lifetime Original Movie. (pictured: Freddie Prinze Jr. and Gabrielle Haugh)

In a setup reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), the plot of The Girl in the Pool centers on a dead body hidden in a box while a party is being held. The body in question is that of Hannah (Gabrielle Haugh), the mistress of Thomas, a man with a wife and two young-adult children. The party is for Thomas. It’s a surprise birthday party taking place in the backyard of his home, just hours after he hid Hannah’s body in a box located on the side of the house. How did Hannah die? Did Thomas do it? Will he be caught? These are the questions that drive the story. As a thriller, The Girl in the Pool is okay, but the movie gets strangely goofy at times, and the resolution might not be very satisfying for most viewers.

60. Amp House Massacre

The killer's light-up mask shows a dollar sign in Amp House Massacre (2024).
Amp House Massacre was directed by Dame Pierre and Mike Ware.

A house full of nothing but social-media influencers sounds like a horror show all on its own. If you agree with that statement, then the beginning of Amp House Massacre might put you off the rest of the movie. It begins in a sort-of pseudo-documentary style as it explains the backstory of Amp House, an influencer-run content mill that is home to various aggravating internet personalities. Stick with it though, because once the story really begins (which is presented in a more traditional narrative style that makes abundant use of in-world cameras), you’ll be treated to a nicely-made whodunit slasher with a surprisingly good final act.

61. The Camp Host

The camp host stands in front of a bloody tent in The Camp Host (2024).
The first half of The Camp Host is better than the second, but the movie as a whole is still entertaining throughout. (pictured: Brooke Johnson as the camp host)

Brooke Johnson stars as the title character in The Camp Host, and she is a woman who takes her job way too seriously. Sadie (Rachel Colwell) and Ed (Dillon Casey) are living the van life and decide to stop at a scenic campground for the night. They meet the camp host who tells them the rules of her forest, and they realize too late that breaking her rules could very well mean death. This isn’t a straightforward slasher movie though. It turns into something else about halfway through which keeps things interesting even if it does stretch believability pretty far.

62. All You Need is Death

Olwen Fouéré as Rita in All You Need is Death (2023).
Olwen Fouéré, who plays Rita in All You Need is Death, was named as the 22nd greatest Irish actor of all time in 2020 by The Irish Times.

All You Need is Death is a unique blending of folk horror and cosmic horror. It follows a couple, Anna (Simone Collins) and Aleks (Charlie Maher), who travel throughout Ireland looking for rare folk songs to secretly record and sell. It’s a strange premise that gets even stranger when they meet a woman, Rita (Olwen Fouéré), who sings a forbidden song for them that has disastrous effects on their minds (and possibly more). The pacing of All You Need is Death is rather slow, but it tells its story in a way that supports the ideas of musicality and creeping dread.

Read our extended review of All You Need is Death.

63. Prey for the Bride

The Wolf in Prey for the Bride (2024).
The killer in Prey for the Bride has a simple look, but it’s good for this style of low-budget slasher flick.

A weekend getaway for a bachelorette party turns into a bloodbath when a killer in a wolf mask arrives uninvited. Prey for the Bride is a decent slasher movie with a few good twists and some nice slasher kills. The ending sequence is a bit odd and awkward, but the mystery leading up to it is handled well. Without giving too much away, the story involves a secret being kept by one or more members of a bride’s close circle of friends, and it soon becomes clear that the killer knows what that secret is.

Read our extended review of Prey for the Bride.

64. The Seeding

Scott Haze as Wyndham Stone in The Seeding (2023).
The Seeding was shot on location in the city of Kanab, Utah. (pictured: Scott Haze as Wyndham Stone)

The Seeding is a gorgeous movie, but it never becomes as dangerous or surprising as it should. The Seeding tells the story of Wyndham Stone (Scott Haze) who becomes trapped in an enclosed canyon when he gets lost in the desert. At the center of the canyon is a dilapidated house where a woman named Alina (Kate Lyn Sheil) lives, and now Scott lives there too. The drama between Wyndham and Alina is set against the fear of the gang of boys who watch from above and keep them trapped.

Read our extended review of The Seeding.

65. No Way Up

Sophie McIntosh stars as Ava in No Way Up (2024).
Sophie McIntosh stars as Ava in No Way Up (2024).

With the sheer number of shark movies that come out every year, how can you possibly make one that stands out? No Way Up does it by putting a shark in an airplane after it crashes into the ocean in exactly the right position so that a tiny group of survivors have a pocket of air. If you enjoy a lot of the lower-budget, lower-profile shark movies that are released with regularity, then you’ll probably enjoy No Way Up as well.

Read our extended review of No Way Up.

66. Trim Season

Trimmers trimming in Trim Season (2023).
Trim Season is director Ariel Vida’s second feature film after 2022’s Vide Noir.

Trim Season has some interesting ideas, and it has some striking visuals, but the characters, tone, and story are too uneven to produce great results. The story is about a group of young people who are enticed by the idea of earning a load of money by trimming marijuana for a few weeks. They’re taken to an isolated farm deep in the woods, and soon enough they realize they are now trapped with a trio of dangerous people, including a woman with supernatural powers and sinister plans. The movie struggles to find a fitting tone, vacillating between inarticulately comedic to underwhelmingly scary. The characters are also rather flat, with the most interesting arcs moving forward in sudden leaps that feel expected yet disingenuous. The more horror-forward stuff towards the end is pretty good though.

67. The Watchers

The Watchers (2024).
The Watchers is the first feature film directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan wrote the script based on the novel of the same name by A.M. Shine.

In The Watchers, Mina (Dakota Fanning) becomes hopelessly lost in the woods and is forced to take shelter with three strangers in a small structure. Every night mysterious, potentially deadly creatures known as the “Watchers” approach the structure and watch the four survivors through a one-way mirror. There is an interesting mystery to the story when we, as viewers, don’t know exactly what is happening. But that period of not knowing what is happening lasts way too long, and it only leads to something mildly worth the wait. The Watchers also stretches logical sense too far at times, and the ending is wrapped up in a strangely melodramatic way that feels obvious and odd. In all, it’s too little substance and not enough style to make up for it.

68. Baghead

Baghead points to Iris in Baghead (2023).
Baghead could’ve been great, but it loses its way towards the end.

Baghead begins with an intriguing premise somewhat reminiscent of Talk To Me (2022) in how its horror could be approached. Iris (Freya Allan) inherits her estranged father’s pub, and after arriving there she finds something strange in the basement. A creature, the eponymous Baghead, lives in the walls of the basement with the ability to not only channel the spirits of the dead, but to completely take the dead’s form. The movie is quite creepy and intriguing for the first two thirds, but the story takes a strange, convoluted turn towards the end that leaves a lot of its most interesting drama and character development behind.

69. #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead

Guy gets punished for gluttony in AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead (2024).
AMFAD was directed by Marcus Dunstan who also directed The Collector (2009) and The Collection (2012). (pictured: Jack Doupe-Smith)

If the title, #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead, seems to you like it’s a bit much with a hashtag, an initialism, and a full title, then the actual movie itself is going to feel like too much as well. This slasher is a “hat on a hat” situation where the motives and twists and red herrings become detrimental at a certain point, despite the biggest part of its whodunit mystery being astoundingly easy to figure out if you’re paying attention. There’s fun to be had, but the movie just goes in too many directions to be satisfyingly entertaining, and the copious amount of CGI blood (with, to be fair, some practical effects mixed in) doesn’t help much.

70. Blackwater Lane

Blackwater Lane (2024).
Minka Kelly stars in Blackwater Lane.

Blackwater Lane is a psychological thriller that dips into the crime thriller, murder mystery, and even haunted house genres. The mystery at the heart of the action involves a murder in a car on a road, the eponymous Blackwater Lane, during a dark and stormy night. Cass (Mika Kelly) passed by the car on her way home, and now she’s having a myriad of problems. She’s becoming forgetful, she’s seeing and hearing things in her house, and she fears she might be the next victim of the unknown killer. Blackwater Lane attempts to achieve a slightly gothic, “Old Dark House” vibe, but, despite some nice moments, the plot gets too twisty for its own good. To top it off, the resolution has a twist that undermines most of what we’ve seen up to that point, making the whole movie a frustrating experience.

71. Latency

Hana faces off against a horde of video-games monsters in Latency (2024).
Sasha Luss stars as a pro-gamer named Hana in Latency.

Hana is agoraphobic, a condition that stems from her tragic past. The good news for Hana is that her time spent indoors has led to her getting really good at video games. As a professional gamer, she is sent a new device to test: a headset that synchronizes with the user’s brain activity so that they can control their computer with their mind. Hana is super into it, but it’s not long before she’s having terrifying visions and losing chunks of time. Ultimately, Latency is a rather tepid psychological thriller that never really embraces its video-gaming subject matter in a meaningful way.

72. Refuge

Aston McAuley in Refuge (2023)
Refuge was directed by Renny Harlin. (pictured in the foreground: Aston McAuley)

Refuge has the feeling of a well-made made-for-TV movie. Like an impressive Hallmark Channel movie, but with horror. Refuge is about an American soldier, Rick, who encounters something supernatural while deployed overseas. He comes home with what is thought to be PTSD, but he’s actually possessed by an evil spirit, and his only hope might be the Imam of a local mosque. There are good ideas here, but the delivery of those ideas comes across as melodramatic thanks to the dialogue, and largely superficial thanks to stock characters with little development. It’s not bad, it just feels very slight, especially when considering the heavy topics it attempts to explore.

Read our extended review of Refuge.

73. Imaginary

Chauncey the Bear in Imaginary (2024).
The “imaginary friend” in Imaginary initially takes the form of a teddy bear named Chauncey.

Imaginary stars DeWanda Wise as Jessica, a wife and mother who is doing her best to connect with her two step-daughters. The family moves into the house where Jessica grew up, but Jessica remembers almost nothing about living there as a child. Her youngest step-daughter finds a stuffed bear in the basement, and that begins a series of increasingly dangerous events as the girl begins doing whatever her new imaginary friend tells her. The story of Imaginary isn’t bad, though the execution isn’t always the most exciting or scary.

Take a look at a few movies similar to Imaginary.

74. Primbon

Flavio Zaviera as Rana in Primbon (2023).
Primbon is an Indonesian horror movie from director Rudy Soedjarwo and writer Lele Laila. (pictured: Flavio Zaviera as Rana)

After getting lost in the woods and remaining missing for a week, Rana (Flavio Zaviera) is presumed dead by everyone except her mother. Rana unexpectedly returns home, but most people don’t believe it’s Rana who returned. Instead, they think something sinister from the forest that has taken Rana’s form. The first half of Primbon is rather clichéd with its attempts to scare, but the second half of the movie—when the drama starts to really pick up—is actually pretty good.

75. Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Lennon (Georgina Campbell) is on a mission. She lost someone close to her (like, literally lost them in the woods) when she was young, and she’s dedicated herself to a life of service as a national park ranger as a means to continue searching locations where many people have gone missing over the years. After years of work, she’s finally gotten a position in the backcountry, and she might finally be on the verge of discovery, but her own trauma combined with the mysterious forces in the forest send Lennon into a mind-bending nightmare. Lovely Dark and Deep is a psychological horror movie that means well, but it spends way too much time wandering around lost in its mysteries to produce anything particularly meaningful or engaging. Before we get to any big revelations, many viewers will have lost interest.

76. Ship of the Damned

Ship of the Damned (2024)
Hannaj Bang Bendz stars as Elena in Ship of the Damned.

If you can manage your expectations, Ship of the Damned is pretty good. Four hundred years ago, the crew of a pirate ship cannibalized a witch, and they were cursed to sail the seas forever. Now, in modern times, the ship is found, and two people are taken prisoner by the undead pirates. It’s a fun premise, and the lead actors make the whole scenario worth watching. Just don’t expect much in the way of sets, oceans, horror, graphic cannibalism, or even the outside of the pirate ship. This movie was made with a tiny budget, but they made the best of it with fun characters.

Read our extended review of Ship of the Damned.

77. Night Swim

Kerry Condon as Eve in Night Swim (2024).
Night Swim is based on a short film of the same name. The director of the feature, Bryce McGuire, also co-directed the short with Rod Blackhurst. (pictured: Kerry Condon as Eve)

If you think a movie about a haunted swimming pool would be hard to pull off, then Night Swim proves you right. Despite a good cast led by Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon, Night Swim is just okay. It does have a few good scenes and creepy moments, but they all add up to something very average.

78. ROMI

Maddie covers her ears in ROMI (2023).
ROMI tries to do a lot, and it doesn’t always work, but it can be a mildly diverting film for fans of movies about AI gone wrong.

ROMI is a smart-home thriller with supernatural elements, potential stalker vibes, and family drama. It’s a lot, and it doesn’t always mesh well, but it’s intriguing more often than not. The story is about a young woman, Maddie (Alexa Baraja), who runs afoul of the artificial intelligence installed in the house she is temporarily staying in. Maddie has serious troubles with her mother, the AI won’t listen to her half the time, and the technician who installed the system is getting a bit too friendly. Plus there might be a ghost in the machine.

79. Sunrise

Guy Pearce in Sunrise (2024).
Guy Pearce is great as the villain Reynolds in Sunrise.

Guy Pearce costars in Sunrise as the film’s outrageously infuriating villain, and he is the best reason to watch the movie. The plot involves a mysterious man named Fallon (Alex Pettyfer) who wanders into town and winds up staying with a single-parent family led by Yan Loi (Crystal Yu). Fallon has dangerous secrets, some of them involving his past enemies, and some of them involving exactly who (or what) he is. There are good ideas in Sunrise, but it is slow to get where it’s going, and it disappointingly falls apart towards the end.

80. History of Evil

Ron watches TV alone at night in History of Evil (2024).
The mental journey of Ron (Paul Wesley), the father figure in the family on the run, has the potential to be very interesting, but his character is handled very haphazardly.

In a near future where America is overtaken by extremist ideology, a family of three is on the run as terrorists and fugitives. Accompanied by a member of the resistance, the family stays at an old house in the woods until a rescue team can pick them up. Why do they think the house is safe from the prying eyes of the enemy? Because the house is said to be haunted. History of Evil is kind of like The Shining (1980) in how the house affects the family (specifically the father), but it’s nowhere near as good. It’s like History of Evil can’t decide what to focus on—the horror, the politics, or the family drama—so it waters down all three. It also fails to realize what the most tense part of the movie is, getting rid of it prior to the actual finale.

81. Last Night at Terrace Lanes

A masked man speaks into a microphone in Last Night at Terrace Lanes (2024).
Jamie Nash, the director of Last Night at Terrace Lanes, also wrote and codirected the 2006 low-budget Christmas horror movie Two Front Teeth.

Last Night at Terrace Lanes is a horror comedy that feels almost disjointed in its switch from the drama and horror buildup in the beginning, to the weird comedy and nonsensical plot points towards the end. The story is about a young woman, her father, and her friend/crush who try to survive the night when members of a cult invade a bowling alley. There are some fun gore effects, and the movie is fine overall. There’s just too much squandered potential.

82. The Inheritance

The Inheritance (2024)
The Inheritance is from director Alejandro Brugués (Satanic Hispanics, Juan of the Dead).

The Inheritance needed to spend more time fleshing out its characters. Instead, this story—which is about an old man who gathers his family together to protect him from something that he says will kill him tonight—is all plot and no sauce. Nothing particularly interesting happens, and the paper-thin characters are little more than archetypes slotted into position to move the plot along in a predictable way. There’s little to get invested in here.

83. Festival of the Living Dead

People parade into the Festival of the Living Dead in Festival of the Living Dead (2024).
Festival of the Living Dead was directed by the Soska Sisters (American Mary, Rabid).

Festival of the Living Dead is set 55 years after the events of Night of the Living Dead (1968). Ash (Ashley Moore), the daughter of Ben from George Romero’s original movie, attends a music festival with her douchey boyfriend and his friends. Then a zombie outbreak occurs. The result is an okay action-horror movie that would have been much better (but still only okay) if it hadn’t tried to associate itself with one of the classics of the zombie genre.

Read our extended review of Festival of the Living Dead.

84. Cold Blows the Wind

Cold Blows the Wind (2024)
The title of Cold Blows the Wind comes from a folk song titled “The Unquiet Grave.” Verses of the song are sung at the beginning and end of the movie.

Cold Blows the Wind begins as a thriller about a couple who have accidentally hit a jogger with their car, put the jogger’s body in their trunk, and are now spending their night trying to figure out how to cover up the incident. The horror of the movie gradually enters the story in the form of a mysterious and spooky woman who knocks on the couple’s door in the middle of the night. Cold Blows the Wind looks good and has an interesting premise, but the way the story is told comes across as a little too vague and meandering to keep its hooks in you.

85. Cinderella’s Revenge

Cinderella's Revenge (2024)
Cinderella is played by Lauren Staerck (pictured), and her fairy godmother is played wonderfully by Natasha Henstridge.

Cinderella’s Revenge delivers exactly what you’d expect. It’s a low-budget version of the classic Cinderella story, but the glass-slipper-wearing heroine gets really angry and starts killing people. Cinderella is helped out (i.e. encouraged to kill) by her fairy godmother who has a weirdly detached air about her, and who has a portal to the modern world where she can pull out famous people and cars. It’s very weird. Cinderella’s Revenge is a horror-revenge-comedy that only sort-of works some of the time.

Read our extended review of Cinderella’s Revenge.

86. The Hangman

The Hangman (2024)
There isn’t enough of The Hangman in The Hangman.

The Hangman isn’t what you might expect. From the trailers and even the marketing artwork, it looks like a monster movie. What it really is, is a crime thriller about a man, Leon, who is searching for his missing son in an unfamiliar rural area where criminals run the town. The criminals are involved in a cult, and that’s where The Hangman comes in, but the movie takes a long time to get there. And when it does get there, it’s underwhelming. However, LeJon Woods, who plays Leon, is super-fun to watch, and he’s easily the best part of the movie.

Read our extended review of The Hangman.

87. Tarot

The Jester frowns in Tarot (2024).
Tarot was codirected by Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen, and it was both directors’ first feature film.

Tarot is about a group of friends who each find themselves cursed to die after having their horoscopes read told using an old deck of tarot cards. Each friend is targeted by a monster resembling the being pictured on the final tarot card drawn for them. The monsters in Tarot look great and creepy, but unfortunately the monsters are the best part of the movie. The story and plot feel like a cross between Final Destination (2000) and Ouija (2014), with the quality skewing way close to the latter.

88. This Never Happened

This Never Happened (2024).
This Never Happened is a rare miss in this year’s Tubi Original horror movies.

The setup of This Never Happened is good. A woman travels to the childhood home of her boyfriend. She discovers he’s really rich, and over the course of a night she also discovers he and his friends have a dark past that has been waiting to get revenge. So, This Never Happened is a ghostly revenge movie, and in the first half it’s not bad. Then, when the killing starts and more supernatural events occur, it’s not so good. Effects are distractingly bad at times, character actions and reactions get ridiculous, and the big reveal at the end is just okay.

89. Punch

The Mr. Punch killer from Punch (2023).
Basing a slasher villain on Mr. Punch is a great idea.

Punch is a slasher set in a small seaside town in England featuring a killer wearing a mask inspired by the Mr. Punch character from the puppet show “Punch and Judy.” Frankie (Alina Allison) is back in her hometown for a few days before returning to university, and as she reconnects with a few estranged friends, the Punch-masked killer appears to be murdering his way towards her. Punch is a decent slasher, but the pace slows down at times, and it ends up coming across as a little flat overall.

90. Project Dorothy

Project Dorothy (2024).
Scream queen Danielle Harris is the voice of the malevolent AI in Project Dorothy.

Project Dorothy is a sci-fi/crime thriller that follows two criminals who hide from pursuing police in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, but is really a scientific facility that houses a dangerous artificial intelligence. The idea is good, but the execution struggles to provide much sympathy for the humans, or much tension between the humans and the machines (which mostly consist of AI-controlled killer forklifts).

91. Séance Games – Metaxu

A seance is held in Séance Games - Metaxu (2024).
The most unbelievable thing in Séance Games – Metaxu is the absurd number of livestream viewers the characters get (but they had to get to 666 million!).

Séance Games – Metaxu has some interesting ideas, but its mixture of haunted house, vengeful spirits, streaming influencers, relationship drama, and online “games” is a bit too much for it to handle. The basic plot is about four aspiring social media influencers who take part in a game/challenge to stream from the scariest places they can find. They decide to perform two séances over two nights at an old house in the middle of nowhere. The séance conjures something real, secrets are revealed, and people start dying in what is an unnecessarily convoluted supernatural horror film.

92. Horny Teenagers Must Die!

Horny Teenagers Must Die keeps it simple. The story is about a group of friends who go to a cabin in the woods and end up dying one by one.

Billed as an homage to slashers from the 1980s, Horny Teenagers Must Die is a valiant attempt at a slasher comedy that is unfortunately underdeveloped in most ways. It is eye-rolling in a way that might connect with people who love bad movies, but otherwise it’s really awkward a lot of the time.

93. Byte

The werewolf in Byte (2024)
The “werewolf” costume in Byte absolutely looks like it has the head of a hairy bat creature. Look at the flat nose (instead of a snout) and the tall, ridged bat ears. The costume also does not match the more wolfish monster on the film’s promotional art.

Byte appears to be one of those movies that started with a clever(ish) title, then the script was written to somehow make sense of that title. Byte is a movie about a mobile app that turns people into werewolves. A guy performs the ritual required by the app, he turns into a werewolf, and his friends try to figure out how to save him. The movie is silly enough to be funny, but it’s also dumb enough to be, well, just dumb.

94. Witches’ Well

Witches' Well (2024)
Writer, director, and star Amanda K. Morales was inspired to make Witches’ Well while under quarantine in Edinburgh, Scotland during the pandemic.

Witches’ Well tells a story about an author, Leona Chantraine, who is writing a book about witch trials in Scotland. Through found footage, we watch as Leona—who is a skeptic about the supernatural—endures a potential haunting while a stalker watches her every move. Unfortunately, found footage probably wasn’t the best choice for this story. The hidden cameras spread throughout Leona’s apartment significantly reduce the tension and drama of certain scenes, and the stalker’s camera is only effectively creepy in a few brief moments. There’s also not enough story to fill up the already brief one-hour run time.

95. Alice in Terrorland

The Rabbit in Alice in Terrorland (2023).
The characters inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, like the White Rabbit seen here, are all presented in disappointingly static scenes that don’t add up to much.

Alice (Lizzy Willis) is orphaned when her parents die in a fire, so she moves in with her grandmother Beth. Beth claims that her house is where Lewis Carroll used to live, and when Alice becomes gravely ill, she begins having nightmares about twisted versions of characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The movie never takes full advantage of its whimsical source material, instead opting to be a psychological thriller with a mystery that becomes tedious when it becomes very obvious what is happening early in the proceedings.

Read our extended review of Alice in Terrorland.

96. Snow Valley

Barbara Crampton and Rachel Michiko Whitney in Snow Valley (2024).
If you’re watching Snow Valley for Barbara Crampton, you’ll probably be disappointed because she’s barely in the movie. (also pictured: Rachel Michiko Whitney)

In Snow Valley, Laura (Rachel Michiko Whitney) learns a lot of things she didn’t know about her boyfriend Heath (Cooper van Grootel) when they spend a weekend at Heath’s family ski chalet. There’s also the matter that the land might be cursed, and that Laura senses a strange presence in the lodge. Snow Valley feels unfinished in a lot of ways, and it takes some very abrupt transitions from tepid thriller, to bizarre comedy, to tacked-on horror.

Read our extended review of Snow Valley.

97. The Mouse Trap

Mickey stalks a woman using a VR headset in The Mouse Trap (2024).
The Mouse Trap was announced in January of 2024, making it one of, in not the, first horror movie announced to be using “Steamboat Willie” as an inspiration.

The Mouse Trap falls into the same unfortunate trap as the first Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023). Neither movie makes a real attempt at using its public-domain inspiration as a basis for its story. Instead, The Mouse Trap is a generic slasher movie that just happens to have a killer wearing a Mickey Mouse (technically Steamboat Willie, I guess) mask. And as a slasher, it is disappointing at best, and annoying nonsensical at worst.

Read our extended review of The Mouse Trap.

98. Inverted

Inverted (2024)
Inverted really does nail a grimy 1970s aesthetic in certain moments.

Inverted sounds interesting. It’s a retro-styled movie made to look like a 1970s Satanic-cult-inspired exploitation film. In some ways it accomplishes that goal, but not all of those movies are very good. Inverted feels stiff and awkward a lot of the time. It’s also quite repetitive, with its story involving cult members “testing” a small group of potential members/victims in gruesome ways.

99. Insane Like Me?

Insane Like Me (2024)
In addition to a vampire infestation, there’s a big conspiracy going on in town.

Jake, a combat veteran, is wrongly accused of killing his girlfriend—who is missing after an attack by vampires—and sent away to a mental asylum. Years later, he returns to his hometown with a mission: to kill vampires and find his girlfriend. It’s a fine pitch for an action-horror movie, but the execution of that premise in Insane Like Me lacks in almost every way.

100. They Turned Us Into Killers

Scout Taylor-Compton and Brian Anthony Wilson in They Turned Us Into Killers (2024).
They Turned Us Into Killers is a sequel to Room 9 (2021), so maybe this movie makes more sense if you’ve seen that one. (pictured: Scout Taylor-Compton and Brian Anthony Wilson)

They Turned Us Into Killers is like watching three or four different movies thrown into a blender and dumped onto the screen. The plot is amazingly convoluted which keeps viewers at a safe distance from coming close to anything like tension, excitement, or coherence. The basic idea is about revenge, but trying to explain the full story is pointless. It’s frustrating to watch, and all the detours lead to nowhere in particular.

101. Shadows Side

Shadows Side (2024)
Shadows Side is tedious to begin, and then it just throws everything at the audience (and Sophie) to try to get a reaction.

Shadows Side is bad. It’s Birdemic levels of bad. It follows Sophie as she travels to Brazil with her fiance Cal for a romantic getaway. Cal is originally from Brazil, and the house they’re renting used to belong to his parents. Almost immediately, Sophie starts to have creepy experiences, and soon she is left alone in the house while enduring a wide variety of supernatural happenings. The movie is awkward and awful to the point of humor, if that’s your thing.

Further Reading

Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.