We are just days away from Halloween, and no doubt everyone is sitting down to watch a number of classic horror films to get in the mood. But if you want to stay current instead, you can check out the ones that have been released in 2024. There will be many subjective lists out there, but if you want to go by overall aggregate professional opinion, well, we can head to Rotten Tomatoes.
Here are the 20 best horror films of the year according to critics, and even I haven’t seen all of them yet. We have:
1) Late Night with the Devil (97%) – A talk show host attempts a supernatural episode goes terribly wrong.
2) Oddity (96%) – A case of murder and one very scary wooden golem as a woman is stalked in her remote home.
3) Infested (96%) – Probably one of the best “creature” movies I’ve ever seen about mutant spiders rampaging through an inescapable apartment building.
4) In Flames (95%) – A mother and daughter deal with their malevolent past after the death of their husband and father.
5) Strange Darling (95%) – My favorite horror film of the year, an out-of-order story about a serial killer that goes wild places you are not expecting.
6) New Life (94%) – A woman on the run attempts to escape her past, leaving a trailer of bodies in her wake.
7) The Substance (91%) – Possibly the most buzzed-about horror film of the year, a woman attempts to relieve the glory days of her youth with a bizarre treatment. One of the best body horror films…ever.
8) Stopmotion (91%) – A stop motion animator is obsessed with her own creations which ends up going quite poorly.
9) The Devil’s Bath (90%) – Set in 1750 Austria, a woman is trapped in a dreary life and grows violent in response. Based on some level of historical records.
10) A Quiet Place: Day One (87%) – Would you believe me if I said this was better than the first two movies, by quite a wide margin? Despite a new cast and director, this was a stunning film that was not what I expected at all. One of my favorites of the year.
11) Out of Darkness (86%) – Set 45,000 years ago, a group treks across tundra only to realize something is stalking them.
12) Smile 2 (85%) – A stunning sequel for Smile, led by an incredible performance from Naomi Scott that elevates the sequel to new, horrible heights.
13) Longlegs (85%) – A woman tracks a serial killer that may have some direct connection to her own life. Another high profile horror feature this year, but I thought it was a touch overrated.
14) I Saw the TV Glow (84%) – This one went over my head a bit, but as a metaphor about identity-questioning youth, a lot of people love it and it is certainly unsettling in the best ways.
15) Speak No Evil (84%) – A couple makes “vacation friends” but when they go to visit them after the trip is over, they find a darkness inside their home they didn’t realize was there.
16) Abigail (83%) – A unique spin on the vampire genre with a stellar cast including Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens and Kathryn Newton.
17) The First Omen (82%) – It’s rare you’ll see a sequel to a classic that works this well, but The First Omen was so good it made me go and rewatch the original just to compare.
18) You’ll Never Find Me (81%) – A man living in a trailer park takes in a young woman during a storm. One of them is evil.
19) Alien: Romulus (80%) – Somehow, the third best movie in the entire Alien series, even if it’s a bit too wrapped-up in paying homage to the original. But it was a big hit and a sequel is coming.
2)In A Violent Nature (78%) – A horror film from the perspective of the killer makes it a unique twist on the genre.
Others to consider: Terrifier 3 (76%), Maxxxine (72%) , Caddo Lake (76%, I especially recommend this one) and Immaculate (71%). Enjoy!
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