Here are the 20 best horror films of 2024, ranked by critic score

We’re just days away from Halloween, and no doubt everyone is sitting down to watch a series of classic horror movies to get in the mood. But if you want to stay up to date instead, you can check out the ones released in 2024. There will be a lot of subjective lists out there, but if you want to go for the overall overall professional opinion, well, we can go to Rotten tomatoes.

Here are the 20 best horror movies of the year according to critics, and even I haven’t seen them all yet. We have:

1) Late Night with the Devil (97%) – A talk show host tries to make a supernatural episode go horribly wrong.

2) Weirdness (96%) – A case of murder and a very scary wooden golem as a woman is stalked in her remote home.

3) The attack (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 evil past after the death of their husband and father.

5) Strange Darling (95%) – Favorite horror movie of the year, an out of order story about a serial killer who goes wild places you don’t expect.

6) New Life (94%) – A woman on the run tries to escape from her past and leaves a trailer of corpses in her wake.

7) The substance (91%) – Possibly the most talked about horror film of the year, a woman tries to remedy the glory days of her youth with a bizarre treatment. One of the best body horror movies… ever.

8) Stop motion (91%) – A stop motion animator is obsessed with his own creations, which end up going pretty badly.

9) Devil’s Bath (90%) – Set in 1750 Austria, a woman is trapped in a sad life and turns violent in response. Based on some level of historical records.

10) A Quiet Place: Day 1 (87%) – Would you believe me if I said this was better than the first two films by quite a wide margin? Despite a new cast and director, this was a great movie that was not at all what I expected. One of my favorites of the year.

11) Out of the Darkness (86%) – 45,000 years ago, a group wanders across the tundra only to realize something is stalking them.

12) Smile 2 (85%) – A fantastic sequel to Smile, led by an incredible performance from Naomi Scott, that elevates the sequel to new, terrifying heights.

13) Long legs (85%) – A woman tracks down a serial killer who may have a direct connection to her own life. Another high profile horror feature this year, but I thought it was a bit overrated.

14) I saw the TV glow (84%) – This one went a bit over my head, but as a metaphor for identity-questioning youth, there are many who love it, and it’s certainly unsettling in the best ways.

15) Do not speak evil (84%) – A couple make “holiday friends”, but when they visit them after the trip is over, they find a darkness inside their home that they didn’t realize was there.

16) Abigail (83%) – A unique spin on the vampire genre with an excellent 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 watch the original again 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 franchise, even if it’s a little too wrapped up in paying homage to the original. But it was a huge hit and a sequel is on the way.

2) In a violent nature (78%) – A horror film seen from the killer’s perspective 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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