It's hard to describe 2024 in terms of the horror genre. Needless to say, this year has been extraordinary for horror fans, and 2025 is shaping up to be an excellent year, too.
We saw so many genius horror movies in 2024, most of them original ideas or clever reinventions of familiar tropes and franchises. It's a fantastic time to be a horror lover and a testament to the many great films of the year that it was so challenging to make a list honoring some of the scariest. Check out our other list for top-rated horror movies based on Rotten Tomato scores.
Smile 2
This sequel took everything people liked about the first Smile and made it gorier, better, and way scarier. Parker Finn has proven to be a cunning and gifted director, and Naomi Scott delivered an Oscar-worthy performance as the troubled pop singer who falls prey to the Smile entity. There were many standout scenes in this movie, but the entire third act is what pulls it all together and makes it a memorably frightening film.
The First Omen
A movie that kind of came out of nowhere and was much better than it needed to be, no one was expected a mainstream horror movie from 20th Century Studios to be, well, brilliant. A lot of that is thanks to director Arkasha Stevenson and actress Nell Tiger Free. The First Omen could have been a run-of-the-mill franchise film since it was built as a prequel to The Omen, but instead, this is a disturbing movie with one of the creepiest birth scenes ever put to camera.
Longlegs
The hype and marketing surrounding Longlegs was so intensely brilliant that you couldn't look anywhere online without people raving about how this serial killer film was one of the scariest movies you'd ever seen, how it would leave you profoundly unsettled and rattle your soul like no other movie could. That was always bound to backfire a little bit and some people don't think Longlegs was scary at all. I disagree, though.
Director Oz Perkins succeeded at creating an unnerving movie that really gets under your skin. It might not have in-your-face jump scares, but people who get uneasy around Satanism and religious horror are bound to find themselves creeped out afterward. There's something about this movie, from its sinister opening to its climactic end, that makes it hard to shake off, and a big part of that is due to the performances from stars Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe.
Alien: Romulus
The latest film in the Alien franchise really helped rejuvenate this long-running sci-fi/horror movie. Although Alien: Romulus leans more into the action and sci-fi elements, there are still some genuine scares in this movie, most notably when the Offspring makes its appearance in the end. Beyond that, it's a space horror movie, and Alien has always excelled at that, and the practical effects really cement this film's spot on this list.
Late Night with the Devil
Released early this year, Late Night with the Devil quickly earned acclaim for its premise and gnarly practical effects. The film is scary because it really does feel like you're watching something that you're not supposed to be watching. It is set up like viewers are privy to a taping of a 1970s late-night talk show segment featuring the lone teen survivor of a mass suicide at her Satan-worshipping church. The ending is a little rocky, but overall this is a great movie with solid scares.
Terrifier 3
Terrifier is one of those bonkers slasher franchises that is a little hard to describe in terms of scares. For some people, these movies are just a gloriously bloody good time, but given the fact that many screenings of this movie resulted in people vomiting or walking out of the theater, I think it's fair to rank it among the scariest of the year.
While it's debatable if the kill scenes in this movie were more deranged than the infamous bedroom scene or the hacksaw scene that came before, there is no denying that Damien Leone did his very best to take things to extremes, and that makes for a scarring and terrifying viewing experience.
Oddity
Oddity remains one of my favorite movies of the year and it's not even a particularly bloody or gory film. Director Damian Mc Carthy is just a genius at building suspense. I haven't seen a movie that filled me with so much dread and made me feel so uneasy in a very long time. Oddity has dread dripping from every frame. There's no way to watch this film without your body tensing and feeling like something horrific could be waiting for you around every corner.
Nosferatu
The original 1922 film is still hailed as a classic to this day because of how groundbreaking it was in terms of the horror genre, including iconic images like Count Orlok rising from his coffin, standing in the doorway, and the shadow and light play on the walls as he crept around searching for his prey.
Knowing that the remake was in the hands of The Lighthouse and The Witch director Robert Eggers, I never had much fear that he would deliver and that he does. Nosferatu is a grand horror masterpiece, a film that delights in primal sexuality and the terrifying and grotesque appearance of Bill Skarsgård's take on the character.