Honorable mentions, in no certain order
Longlegs
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The prerelease advertising made the movie look promising. The movie delivered!
The Severed Sun
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Writer/director Dean Puckett’s U.K. feature is an engrossing, dread-filled work that takes folk horror and religious horror elements and sets them in an ambiguous time period. A pastor’s daughter decides to no longer take abuse from her husband toward his sons and her, she kills him, with some of the flock members being suspicious of her claims of the death being an accident.
Dead Mail (read Liz’s review here)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The offbeat Dead Mail combines horror, mystery, and thriller elements in one highly entertaining feature, and should be considered a must-see for genre-film lovers. Go in cold.
Falling Stars
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
On the first night of harvest in the American West, three brothers set out for the desert to see a witch’s corpse. Bad idea for them, excellent idea for lovers of finely crafted independent horror films.
Cuckoo (read Eric’s review here) ★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Cuckoo is batty, wacky, nutty, and wild in all the right ways. It takes the insanity of perverted science from the fine tradition of 1950s science-fiction horror and adorns it with modern trappings.
Scared Shitless ★★★★ out of ★★★★★
If, like me, you were initially a bit leery of watching Scared Shitless because you were expecting wall-to-wall scatalogical humor and visuals, put those concerns to rest. This a fun creature feature loaded with fantastic-looking gore galore, a soundtrack loaded with classic Canadian rock songs, and a huge heart. A plumber and his germophobic son attempt to save the residents of an apartment building when a genetically engineered, blood-thirsty creature escapes into the plumbing system.
Apartment 7A (read Liz’ s review here) ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
I have been following Natalie Erika James’ impressive career as a fright-fare filmmaker from her 2011 debut short “Twitch” to her 2016 short “Creswick” to her riveting 2020 debut feature Relic, so when I heard that she would be at the helm of Apartment 7A , the prequel to Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby, I was confident that the film was in good directorial hands. I’m happy to report that my feelings were correct.
My top 10 of 2024
(10) House of Sayuri ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
J-horror director Kôji Shiraishi has 95 directing credits on IMDB, with his most well-known film to Western audiences being the 2016 phantom face-off Sadako vs. Kayako. With his latest feature House of Sayuri (AKA Sayuri), he pulls off remarkable magic with tonal shifts to deliver a wholly satisfying haunted house spookfest. A father, his wife, their three children, and his parents move from a cramped city apartment into a spacious house all their own. Alas, the angry spirit of Sayuri, a girl who was murdered there, isn’t as happy about the situation as the new residents, and she would just as soon see them dead. The film boasts fine performances, great-looking special effects including plenty of gruesome attacks, eerie atmosphere to spare, and an impressive juggling act at the helm.
(9) Test Screening ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Warning: Do not read the IMDB synopsis of this film because it contains a huge spoiler! Four teens — a pastor’s daughter, her best friend, their friend with trouble at home, and their movie nerd buddy — find out that a test screening is coming to the little cinema in their small Oregon town, and what exactly is being tested is the driving force behind this valentine to classic science fiction horror from the 1950s to the present day. Test Screening presses the nostalgia buttons while being very much its own beast. It’s my favorite “small-town takeover” genre film since 2019’s The Vast of Night.
(8) Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Director Ariane Louis-Seize’s French language Canadian coming-of-age vampire dramedy is a true charmer and an absolute blast. One of the most unique horror films you are likely to see this year, this tale of a reluctant teen vampire and a bullied teenager she meets doesn’t skimp on vampire violence, which is played at times for comical effect and at other times as deadly serious.
(7) In a Violent Nature (read Eric’s review here) ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
I am usually a very hard sell on slasher films involving masked marauders — but not this time. Director Chris Nash’s In a Violent Nature won me over early on and I was glued to the screen throughout. It gives an arthouse horror feel to toying with tropes of the slasher subgenre, and for me, that works beautifully.
(6) The Complex Forms (read Eric’s review here) ★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Writer/director Fabio D’Orta infuses his lusciously shot black-and-white genre blender with dread and paranoia, along with no small amount of existential terror. Horror, science fiction, and thriller elements meld together marvelously as the tension heightens among a group of men who have sold their bodies to a mysterious entity.
(5) A Mother’s Embrace (read my review here) ★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Director Cristian Ponce’s terrific Brazilian chiller weaves an eerie nursing home filled with mysterious residents, something weird winding through water, and trauma from a police officer’s childhood into a suspenseful, mysterious work with an absolutely riveting third act.
(4) The Girl with the Needle (read my review here) ★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Unequivocally one of the finest films of 2024, director Magnus von Horn’s horror-adjacent black-and-white Danish feature The Girl with the Needle is part period drama, part horror story, and completely an emotionally devastating cinematic masterwork. If you are not already familiar with Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye, on whose crimes this film is loosely based, be warned: who her victims were and what she did to them is truly unsettling.
(3) Párvulos ★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Isaac Ezban, one of my favorite current directors, takes viewers on a wild, gothic-flavored ride that combines coming-of-age elements reminiscent of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, shockingly gory images and macabre situations, and horror-based humor, and loads of suspense. I do not exaggerate when I say that this Mexican film, which follows three brothers in a postapocalyptic world after a pandemic, is one of the most unpredictable fear-fare features in recent memory.
(2) The Damned ★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Icelandic director Thordur Palsson’s English-language UK/Iceland/Ireland/ Belgium feature deftly blends psychological, folk, and survival horror elements in a gripping work of dread. Set in a harsh winter during the 19th century, The Damned finds a young widow in charge of an isolated fishing outpost. She and her crew are near starvation when they catch sight of a sinking ship and must decide whether to try and rescue survivors or to put their own survival ahead of saving strangers. After a chilling discovery is made, the inhabitants of the outpost begin to exhibit horrifying behaviors as what some call superstition but others believe to be supernatural reality sets in. The Damned is a masterful horror film that unveils its secrets at a superb pace, combining the fear of The Other with Icelandic mythology and folklore. I have a feeling that it will make many Best of 2025 lists once it receives its wide release in the U.S. and U.K. in early January.
(1) Oddity (read Liz’ review here) ★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Horror films that deserve to be called truly macabre and that evoke a real sense of supernatural eeriness are a rarity, so I’m thrilled to state that writer/director Damian McCarthy’s incredible Oddity more than lives up to those standards. The Irish shocker recalls the mesmerizing ambience of classic 1970s occult horror while maintaining a thoroughly modern flavor.
Article by Joseph Perry
Make sure to listen to The Scariest Things’ “The Best Horror Movies of 2024” episode!