Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch
Welcome to the best horror movies of 2024, ranking every dark and dreary delight coming out this year by Tomatometer! We start the list with Certified Fresh films (these movies have maintained a high Tomatometer score after enough critics reviews), followed by the pulp-pounding Fresh movies (these are rated at least 60%), and then concluding with the morbidly Rotten.
May additions: Tarot. I Saw the TV Glow. The Strangers: Chapter 1.
In April, spiders got spun out with Infested and Sting. Nic Cage, never too far away from the genre, returned with action-hybrid Arcadian. Universal took another bite out of the vampire genre (following last year’s Last Voyage of the Demeter) with Abigail, while another long-in-the-tooth franchise got an update with The First Omen.
March additions: Larry Fessenden’s back with his werewolf-take Blackout. Night Shift. Imaginary (see Blumhouse horror productions ranked). Indian Hindi-language Shaitaan. Late Night with the Devil. Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate. You’ll Never Find Me. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.
In February, terror reared its head in the stop-motion animation medium (don’t forget about Phil Tippett’s Mad God in 2021) with the literal titled Stopmotion.
In 2023, horror kicked off in a big way with M3GAN. There wasn’t a breakout hit in January 2024, with the major genre releases being the COVID-shot Paleolithic thriller Out of Darkness, and the Diablo Cody-penned Lisa Frankenstein, set in the same world as her cult comedy Jennifer’s Body.
New horror movies for 2024 on the horizon include They Follow (sequel to It Follows, with Maika Monroe and writer/director David Robert Mitchell returning), MaXXXine (Ti West’s closing his trilogy after X and Pearl), Terrifier 3 (Art the Clown expands his spree into Christmas), Nosferatu (from director Robert Eggers), Alien: Romulus (due in August), A Quiet Place: Day One (June), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (September), Return to Silent Hill (original director Christophe Gans returns as well), The Conjuring: Last Rites (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their Warren roles).
#1
Adjusted Score: 107836%
Critics Consensus: Delightfully dark, Late Night with the Devil proves possession horror isn’t played out — and serves as an outstanding showcase for David Dastmalchian.
#2
Adjusted Score: 97440%
Critics Consensus: A chillingly effective creature feature with more on its mind than simple creepy-crawlies, Infested draws viewers into its web with stylish efficiency.
#3
Adjusted Score: 92557%
Critics Consensus: Stopmotion takes the conflict between art and artist to chilling, visually thrilling extremes, distinguished by director Robert Morgan’s excellent effects work.
#4
Adjusted Score: 95319%
Critics Consensus: With a distinctive visual aesthetic that enhances its emotionally resonant narrative, I Saw the TV Glow further establishes writer-director Jane Schoenbrun as a rising talent.
#5
Adjusted Score: 91164%
Critics Consensus: A survival thriller reduced to the bare essentials, Out of Darkness offers a chilling reminder that the horror of looming death might be humanity’s most universal experience.
#6
Adjusted Score: 90254%
Critics Consensus: Led by a trio of strong performances, Arcadian blends family drama and post-apocalyptic horror to visceral, emotionally stirring effect.
#7
Adjusted Score: 97863%
Critics Consensus: Carrying off well-worn vampire tropes with a balletic flourish, Abigail dances around the familiarity of its premise with a game cast and slick style.
#8
Adjusted Score: 93631%
Critics Consensus: Frequently frightening even as it plays within the confines of a nearly 50-year-old film series, this prequel is The First Omen of a bright future for the franchise in quite some time.
#9
Adjusted Score: 80799%
Critics Consensus: Visually and sonically distinctive, You’ll Never Find Me heightens its spooky atmosphere and claustrophobic setting with a story that’ll keep viewers guessing.
#10
Adjusted Score: 77852%
Critics Consensus: Werewolf horror with some extra socially conscious bite, Blackout reaffirms Larry Fessenden as a smart genre filmmaker who prioritizes character-building over kills.
#11
Adjusted Score: 64119%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#12
Adjusted Score: 46569%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#13
Adjusted Score: 40328%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#14
Adjusted Score: 40341%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#15
Adjusted Score: 64265%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#16
Adjusted Score: 90212%
Critics Consensus: Effectively playing on fundamental fears, Lovely, Dark, and Deep is a creepy calling card for debuting director Georgina Campbell that’s further distinguished by Georgina Campbell’s haunting performance.
#17
Adjusted Score: 40559%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#18
Adjusted Score: 90232%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#19
Adjusted Score: 83634%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#20
Adjusted Score: 85029%
Critics Consensus: Immaculate in conception if not always in execution, this religiously themed horror outing is saved by a divine performance from Sydney Sweeney.
#21
Adjusted Score: 74377%
Critics Consensus: Sting should satisfy horror fans in the mood for a creature feature, even if the end results likely won’t linger in the memory.
#22
Adjusted Score: 64324%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#23
Adjusted Score: 61048%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#24
Adjusted Score: 57095%
Critics Consensus: Rich atmosphere and a handful of genuinely disturbing moments are only sporadically enough to outweigh The Seeding‘s monotonous pace and lack of narrative depth.
#25
Adjusted Score: 54433%
Critics Consensus: Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 represents an improvement over the original in most respects, although the Poohniverse remains a place made for hardcore slasher fans.
#26
Adjusted Score: 65384%
Critics Consensus: An affectionate callback to classic horror comedies of the ’80s, Lisa Frankenstein can be fun in its own right despite not quite measuring up to the movies it imitates.
#27
Adjusted Score: 49328%
Critics Consensus: Founders Day brings a few clever bits to bear on its ’80s-inspired slasher story, but its scattershot tone and an overreliance on horror clichés prevent it from leaving much of an impression.
#28
Adjusted Score: 35049%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#30
Adjusted Score: 38498%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#31
Adjusted Score: 31051%
Critics Consensus: Imaginary‘s core concept is solid enough to produce a handful of scares, but too much of its potential is lost in a clichéd story that gets bogged down in world-building.
#32
Adjusted Score: 33551%
Critics Consensus: Despite a promising start and a handful of solid scares, Night Swim is undone by a premise that just isn’t strong enough to support a feature-length film.
#33
Adjusted Score: 21826%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#34
Adjusted Score: 21739%
Critics Consensus: Lacking the chilling suspense of the original The Strangers and proving to be just unpleasant, this Chapter 1 closes the book on itself.
#35
Adjusted Score: 7878%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.