2024 is almost done and so are the movies of this year. What surprised the movie lovers this year is the big parade of horror movies on the list. Here are the top 10.
Horror movies are often considered the best genre because it has the power to tap into our primal fears. At the same time, watching horror movies provides viewers with a safe place to confront anxiety and create acute emotional experiences through shock and suspense. Horror has a distinctive power on our collective minds, it can use its heightened parameters on your anxieties and driving fear of your minds home. As everyone experiences some sort of fear, horror movies also have the flexibility to explore unpopular social themes. 2024 was one of the biggest years of horror movies in a long time.
Just like any other genre, this year really gave a chance to the horror genre, bringing out some of the finest horror movies ever made. One of the most prevalent themes of horror movies this year was definitely women losing the power of their bodily anatomy. Right two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, forced birth centered a lot of this year’s horror films including Alien: Romulus, The First Omen, Immaculate, and Apartment 7A, which depicted women losing and then gaining agency over their bodily anatomy.
We also saw some physical horror movies, including this year’s primal The Substance. However, something similar that we could see in most movies this year of the genre is that every horror movie had something to say. Not that every horror movie must carry something deep and meaningful, some are there just to scare the shit out of you and that is also worth celebrating.
So, here are the top 10 best horror movies of 2024 that you cannot miss.
- Oddity
Writer/Director Damian Mc Carthy has brought one of the most celebrated bodily horror movies in 2024 with The Oddity. It is his sophomore effort and it is commendable, to say the least. The defining image in the film is definitely one of the most unsettling images you will see this year and that is what makes the film so good. However, if you think the Golem-inspired creature is the scariest thing in the movie, it is far from reality. It is from the opening scene where Dani (Carolyn Bracken) opens the door to a knock from one of her psychiatrist husband’s patients who swears someone is inside her home. The rest of the film will give you a feel of a “Tales From the Crypt–style morality tale”, securing a horrifying watch too.
- Longlegs
One thing that makes 2024 a successful year for horror movies is the ability to catch the viewers’ attention and curiosity and Longlegs is one of those movies that helped in the quest. The Oz Perkins’ latest gives you a tale of FBI recruit Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) and her journey to uncover the identity of an elusive serial killer. The movie is based on a true-crime story that added a bit of putrid Satanism. Altogether, the movie serves as a deep-rooted rebuttal of society’s need to find logic in the most heinous of crimes. What will mesmerize you throughout the entire film is definitely the performance of the actors, especially Nicolas Cage.
- Immaculate
2024 saw two movies about an American nun joining a convent in Italy and Sydney Sweeney starring Immaculate is one of them, making your skin crawl with its horrifying scenes. In the story, Sweeney plays the character of Sister Cecilia who joins an Italian convent and becomes a holy figure by being pregnant despite being a virgin. A similar plot is what we witness in ‘The First Omen’, but Michael Mohan’s take on the story is more conventional. What surprises the audience is Sweeney’s dedicated performance and shocking and gory ending!
- A Quiet Place: Day One
A Quiet Place: Day One is the prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place merely uses the story of the initial alien invasion in the first two movies. Instead, writer-director Michael Sarnoski chooses something that is far more meditative and restrained for this film which helps the film take its place so high on this list. While the backdrop of the alien invasion surely makes a brief appearance in the story, the director is more interested in exploring the human triumph in the situation. The movie ensures that the requisite genre thrills and the creature sequences are there in the story, however, this time they are comparatively tender. The unlikely friendship between the characters of Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn along with the scene-stealing cat makes this prequel a truly remarkable one.
- The First Omen
Something that the world was sure of is that Arkasha Stevenson’s take on The Omen would be creative and extremely visually rich for a horror film and that is what we got with The First Omen. Although the origin story for Damien Thorn was not needed another time, which was present in the five preceding Omen films. However, if we did, we cannot imagine a better one than The First Omen. Richard Donner’s 1976 horror classic was centered on the Antichrist and this sequel is everything that a horror fan loves. You might think that this would be a typical cash grab but it turned out to be a compelling film featuring impressive performances and extremely enjoyable direction.
- Sleep
2024 had a solid number of feature debuts both in the horror genre and outside of this gory world, although only a few could impress movie lovers as much as Jason Yu’s Sleep. In the story, Jung Yu-mi and the late Lee Sun-kyunplay newlyweds who are disturbed by Hyeon-soo’s sleepwalking, played by Sun-kyun. Not just sleepwalking but her extremely odd nocturnal behavior also creates a disturbance in the couple’s lives. Sleep begins as a creepy dark comedy that slowly rises and reveals itself to be unnerving in the third act of the film. The director’s past working experience with director Bong Joon appears to have boosted his confidence and storytelling which is visible throughout the entire film. Even Bong voted for Sleep to be one of his favorites this year!
- Smile 2
If you have seen Smile and considered the horror elements in the film, Smile 2 is bound to catch you off guard. It is like the best of two worlds, a horror film based on trauma. When you think about sequels, this movie will stun you because the scars are deeper and more visceral this time with no route to escape. The writer/director Parker Finn’s exceptional growth between the two films is also another reason that will make you excited to see this one. The movie focuses on singer Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) who is a doomed public figure. The actress here delivers her career-best performance and tackles way many layers of her own trauma with an effortless ease. This is also a movie about how the world treats its pop stars, starting from the toxic fan communities, and “soul-destroying pressures of fame” to the easy enabling of addiction. The director also showcases his true self mounting with confidence who honed his scare-crafting chops to the sharpest of edges and looks like he had a blast doing so.
- Exhuma
For the most part, exorcism horror remains in the category of tired tropes and outdated ideas to sell a film. However, Exhuma will take you by surprise. The director Jae-hyun Jang combined introspective historical and cultural themes with creepy horror, making the movie extremely loved by true horror fans. Told through a “yin-and-yang style narrative structure” the movie used a cursed grave to set free supernatural horror along with a “potent folkloric examination of the dark history between Japan and Korea”. The distinctive story highlights the contrast between two different cultures, ancient customs, and the modern world without limiting the genre’s scare factors of shocking parameters in the process. It is a type of horror movie that brings out the cultural depth, making you go back to the film over and over again.
- Nosferatu
The last movie of 2024, Nosferatu impresses every single facet with its V throughout the entire movie. It might be our favorite in the list and soon it will be your favorite too! Whether you have already seen the previous versions of the film (the 1922 F.W. Murnau film or the 1979 Werner Herzog remake) or any other adaptations from Bram Stoker’s Dracula or not, watching this movie will be an experience in itself. You probably know most of its story but the surprising elements are not hidden in the story but the storytelling. It is a true example of evocative gothic horror with the “immersive journey filled with dread-inducing decrepit castles.” the story also has one of the classic backdrops, a city ridden with plague. Count Orlo played by an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgård will keep you awake at night that is to be sure. Check out this modern take on classic gothic horror and we are sure you will live for it!
- The Substance
Last, but at least, and also the winner of this year’s best horror movies, The Substance is the ultimate example of physical horror. There is something remarkable about the way that writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s newest surpasses even her debut in terms of gory carnage while it racked up the allocates and gained nominations left and right. The story is about Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards for women and it is visibly seen in the character of Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Demi Moore. The insanity in the character will touch your mind and scratch the right spots for the way she gets into a destructive pattern of monstrous body horror. In an attempt to starve off forced retirement and aging, the movie paints a picture of reality in front of our eyes, but not without humor, and that truly gets the crown!
Being a horror fan means checking out the movies from the list and having yourself a night of shock, terror, and fun. At least that was our hope while creating this list for you! Since 2024 is ending in just a few days, make sure to watch these movies and wait for more horror surprises in the next year!
