Start with The Substance if you want the year’s boldest, most confrontational horror. It combines grotesque body horror with a satire of ageism, and it is deliberately extreme. If that sounds like the wrong entry point, choose Longlegs for slow occult dread, Alien: Romulus for tense creature horror, or I Saw the TV Glow for surreal, identity-centered unease.
There is no single official best-horror list for 2024. This guide brings together Time Out’s ranked year-end picks, RogerEbert.com’s unranked critic selections, and the different methodology used by Rotten Tomatoes’ annual awards. The result is a taste-based watchlist rather than a false consensus ranking.
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How to choose among 2024’s best horror films
Use five questions: What kind of fear do you want, how much gore can you tolerate, do you prefer a slow build or immediate pursuit, do you want something familiar or formally unusual, and should the film carry a strong social or emotional theme?
| Film | Best for | Fear and style | Intensity notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Substance | Body-horror and social satire | Grotesque transformation, show-business anxiety, ageism | Extremely graphic; not for squeamish viewers |
| Longlegs | Occult investigation | Slow-burn FBI crime story, Satanic-panic atmosphere | Dread-heavy rather than nonstop gore |
| Alien: Romulus | Franchise creature horror | Science-fiction survival, chases, practical creature menace | Gory and propulsive |
| Stopmotion | Handmade visual experimentation | Animation and psychological collapse merge on screen | Unsettling, with disturbing imagery |
| Strange Darling | Nonlinear horror-thrillers | Violent pursuit told out of sequence, with reversals | Best approached with minimal plot knowledge |
| In a Violent Nature | Unconventional slashers | Naturalistic backwoods setting from an unusual killer’s perspective | Atmospheric and violent |
| I Saw the TV Glow | Surreal, identity-centered horror | Adolescent trauma, a fictional television series, nightmarish imagery | More emotionally unsettling than conventionally gory |
The essential starting picks
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat’s film follows an aging starlet who uses a cloning serum and confronts an increasingly grotesque version of herself. Time Out placed it first on its December 2024 list, and RogerEbert.com also selected it. Its satire of beauty standards and ageism gives the physical horror a clear subject, but the imagery is intentionally punishing. Choose it when you want horror that is visceral, angry and visually excessive.
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Time Out ranked Longlegs second, and RogerEbert.com included it among its selections. Maika Monroe plays an FBI investigator drawn into a 1990s-style case involving Nicolas Cage’s unsettling killer and a Satanic-panic atmosphere. The film’s power comes from accumulation: clues, spaces and performances steadily deepen the dread. Go in knowing as little of the plot as possible if mystery is part of your enjoyment.
Alien: Romulus
For viewers who want recognizable science-fiction horror, Alien: Romulus is the clearest choice. Time Out ranked it third, highlighting its franchise setting, gore and tense airlock and elevator sequences; RogerEbert.com also selected it. It favors sustained survival pressure and creature effects over the social satire of The Substance or the procedural unease of Longlegs.
Rank #2
- Media Format: Blu-ray
- Studio: Universal Studios
- Country of Origin: USA
- Number of discs: 1
More distinctive 2024 horror choices
Stopmotion
This is the pick for anyone fascinated by craft. Time Out emphasizes how the stop-motion process becomes part of the horror as an animator-director begins to unravel. The handmade figures and tactile construction are not decoration; they shape the film’s sense of reality and psychological disintegration.
Strange Darling
Time Out describes a violent pursuit whose chapters are rearranged to challenge your first assumptions. Its structure is central to the experience, so detailed plot explanations work against it. Select it when you enjoy reversals, unreliable impressions and a thriller that keeps revising what you think happened.
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Rank #3
In a Violent Nature
This naturalistic slasher follows an undead killer through the backwoods while playing with familiar genre conventions. The unusual point of view and patient attention to landscape make it a strong option for slasher fans who want atmosphere and formal experimentation rather than a conventional chase from the victims’ side.
I Saw the TV Glow
RogerEbert.com selected the film, while Time Out highlights its adolescent trauma, identity questions, nightmarish imagery and fictional horror television show. It is surreal and emotionally driven, not a straightforward monster movie. Watch it when you want horror that lingers as a feeling or memory instead of delivering only shocks.
Rank #4
Additional critic-selected films to explore
RogerEbert.com’s collection also includes Oddity, Heretic, Nosferatu, Smile 2, The First Omen and Speak No Evil. The collection does not rank these titles against one another, so treat them as avenues into different modes: supernatural unease, religious horror, gothic imagery, sequel-driven scares and psychological pressure.
What “best” means here
Time Out’s list is an editorial ranking, while RogerEbert.com presents critic choices without a numbered order. Rotten Tomatoes’ 2024 awards use an adjusted weighted formula that considers a film’s Tomatometer rating and the number of critics’ reviews, with rankings based on scores current on December 31, 2024. Those methods answer different questions, so combining them into one invented score would be misleading.
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The strongest overlap is The Substance and Longlegs, which appear in both Time Out’s ranking and RogerEbert.com’s selections. They are not similar experiences: one is maximalist body horror and social satire; the other is restrained occult investigation. That contrast is why both are useful starting points.
A quick decision guide
- Want the most graphic, socially pointed choice? Start with The Substance.
- Want quiet dread and a crime-investigation frame? Pick Longlegs.
- Want a familiar universe and sustained creature action? Watch Alien: Romulus.
- Want unusual form or handmade imagery? Try Stopmotion.
- Want a puzzle-box pursuit? Choose Strange Darling.
- Want a slasher seen from an unconventional angle? Choose In a Violent Nature.
- Want surreal themes of identity and adolescence? Watch I Saw the TV Glow.
Bottom line
If you need one first film, The Substance is the most defensible recommendation from the combined selections, provided you can handle extreme body imagery. For a less graphic but deeply ominous alternative, choose Longlegs. The rest of the list is not a ranking so much as a map to the kind of fear you want tonight.
Quick Recap
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