Note: Haven't seen Nosferatu or Smile 2 yet. Also, I've seen some call You'll Never Find Me as a 2024 movie. If one includes that, it goes very high on our list.
Alien Romulus was pretty damn good, certainly the best entry in the series since Aliens.
Immaculate really surprised me as I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. If you like religious focused horror, especially from the Christian side of things, this might be up your alley.
Strange Darling was a fun movie but I would not consider it horror, more of a thriller. Some people really disliked it and I can understand why. It's not for everyone, but it hit all the check boxes for me. I enjoyed every minute of it.
Oddity was a really good time if you like ghost stories. Probably my favorite horror movie of the year and I'm really excited to see what this director does with The Monkey.
Damn you're right! I confused him with the Longlegs director. Longlegs was another good thriller from 2024 but it didn't quite make it to my top favs of the year. Still a solid flick!
Starting with the best: The Substance, I Saw the TV Glow, Gazer (still playing festivals), Late Night with the Devil, Nosferatu, In A Violent Nature, Strange Darling, Longlegs, A Quiet Place: Day One, The First Omen.
This year was great for showing that less conventional horror films can really make a splash, both in the online conversation and at the box office.
I think we are on a similar page - I Saw the TV Glow didn't quite make my top ten and I freely admit that is my fault as my expectations were far too high for it going in.
Gazer may have to wait a while to trickle down. IMDb doesn't currently list it as horror, but it clearly gets the nod from you so I look forward to.finding out.
My initial experience of I Saw the TV Glow was actually similar to yours: I liked it a good deal on first watch, but as We're All Going to the World's Fair is one of my favorite movies, Schoenbrun's follow up was always going to be at a disadvantage. But I rewatched TV Glow about a month ago, and it ended up my #13 on the year.
As for Gazer, it's admittedly not primarily a horror film, but has enough terror and surreal imagery and atmosphere that I think it qualifies.
Longlegs, Strange Darling, Oddity, Cuckoo, Destroy All Neighbors, A Quiet Place: Day One, Smile 2, Speak No Evil and The Substance are my top 10 for the year.
It was another great year to be a horror fan. Each of those movies brings something different to the genre and I really appreciated the feast of films we got. Horror has been doing really well as a genre recently and 2025 is looking good so far as well.
I feel Cuckoo definitely passed under a lot of people's radars which is disappointing as it was weird and unsettling.
Smile 2 is the one that caught me out this year, as I didn't think much of the first film, so I went in with low expectations and it massively exceeded them. That ending...
That's a pity as my top ten horror movies of 2024 include one sequel (better than the first by a long way) and one prequel (that was better than most in its franchise), with no remakes and very fee jump scares.