Chloe's Not Scared

Every year, I look back on the slate of films trying to find a throughline that always surprises me. Horror is a great way to work through our collective anxieties. While AI is central to many of these plots, so are serial killers and body horrors, showing that privacy and bodily autonomy are both under attack IRL. There were so many good films this year, it was really hard to make a top ten list without adding approximately another 10 honorable mentions. As of writing, I have not yet seen Nosferatu, which I’m sure would end up on this list nearer to the top. But alas, we don’t get it until Christmas, and I can’t wait that long to share my favorite films of 2024 with you all. Without further ado, here’s my top ten horror movies of the year.

10. Exhuma dir. Jang Jae-hyun

A shaman and her protegee are asked by a Korean American family to investigate the mysterious illness of their newborn son. It’s like a mystery story that leads them to a Feng-shui master (Choi Min-sik of Oldboy fame) and an ancestral curse that goes back to a dark history of Korea under Japanese rule. I’m less familiar with this dark history, but I still got the message. An excellently plotted possession story.

9. Love Lies Bleeding dir. Rose Glass

Is Love Lies Bleeding really horror? I think so, but it’s a little bit of mystery, noir, and Coen Bros too (yes, they are a genre). This movie follows a gym manager (Kristen Stewart) and a bodybuilder (Katy O’Brien) who fall in love and end up in trouble with the wrong sort of people in this small New Mexico town. Strange and wonderful with a messy lesbian love story at the center, yes please.

8. Sleep dir. Jason Yu

I was fortunate enough to see Sleep at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, which I wrote about for my blog. I was surrounded by mostly dudes, all worried that this movie was going to make us too paranoid to go to sleep that evening (luckily, I was able to sleep just fine). If you’re expecting a serious elevated horror film about sleep paralysis, look elsewhere. This goes off the rails pretty quickly in the best way possible, especially with the introduction of the exorcist character. 

7. Oddity dir. Damian McCarthy

I think this might actually be the scariest movie of the year, which surprised me! It’s a Gothic horror married to a folk horror with a few jump scares that really get you. But director Damian McCarthy is best at conjuring up a brooding sense of dread in the old dark house, harkening back to Amicus and Hammer Horror films. A great movie for getting together with your friends and scaring the shit out of each other. Read my full review for paid and free subscribers on my Substack.

6. Maxxxine dir. Ti West

I’ve seen a lot of Maxxxine hate on the internet, but she’s still a star to me! While it doesn’t have a great ending and Mia Goth doesn’t really “go for it” like she does in Pearl, it’s still an effective psycho-thriller akin to the films of Brian DePalma. While Longlegs director Osgood Perkins admits that creating a film similar to The Silence of the Lambs was a technique to “bait” audiences into buying a ticket, I don’t feel like director Ti West is doing this with Maxxxine which feels like a more genuine police procedural to me.

5. Alien: Romulus dir. Fede Alvarez

One of the only horror movies I’ve seen twice in the theaters this year. While some may call this straight scifi, the horror setpieces and practical effects are spectacularly done, better than most other horror movies this year. While Cailee Spaeny rocks out in her Sigourney Weaver cosplay, David Jonsson really steals the show as the unaffected android. According to an interview on The Big Picture podcast, director Fede Alvarez included Ian Holm in the film with familial consent, saying that Holm’s family believed he was not offered or included in films near the end of his life and always wanted to make one more movie. Knowing this makes me slightly less annoyed about the fanservice. I miss hard science fiction movies like this, and I could use about 10 more of them soon, please and thank you.

4. Les chambres rouges [Red Rooms] dir. Pascal Plantes

This is the freaky sleeper hit of 2024, mark my words. A Québécoise model gets caught up in the details of a serial murder case, attending the trial with other true crime “murderinos.” When I say that I am more scared of the true crime ‘industry’ than I am of horror movies, this is what I mean. All the tension and off-the-rails plot devices of a French extremity film, yet we barely see a drop of blood. Juliette Gariépy stars in a remarkable performance of Kelly-Anne, but it’s really Laurie Babin as Clémentine, an enthusiastic groupie of serial murderer Chevalier, steals the show whenever she’s on screen.

3. The Substance dir. Coralie Fargeat

A friend of mine was recently in a car accident. They’re ok and recovering, but they’ve likened their pre/post crash relationship to their body to the body horror in The Substance, and I think that’s spot on. As we grow older, our bodies change and become foreign to us. Director Coralie Fargeat presents a stylish body horror with sparse-dialogue and world building starring Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, an older actress who does not want to stop working in Hollywood despite turning 50. This is a movie that I genuinely think about everytime I think poorly about my body. The alternative is always going to look better, but remember: you are the matrix! 

2. The First Omen dir. Arkasha Stevenson

The First Omen was a pleasant surprise. I liked The Omen as a teen, sure, but I’m not an Omen stan like some folks and I don’t think that people were like begging for a prequel. With this one coming out at the same time as Immaculate (notably absent from this list, but not entirely without merits), I was skeptical. However, first-time filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson really blew me away here. Instead of a tired religious horror where femininity, purity, and motherhood are intertwined, this feels fresh. Our protagonist, a sheltered religious woman, isn’t naive and has autonomy. She wants to protect children but not because woman = mother, just because it’s the right thing to do. This really reminded me of The Exorcist in this way, that evil does not have to be the opposite of religion or even religious at all. With callbacks to classic horror cinema like Possession, I can’t wait to see what Stevenson and star Nell Tiger Free do next– fingers crossed that they stay in the genre.

1. I Saw the TV Glow dir. Jane Schoenbrun

I really debated putting I Saw the TV Glow on this list at all. It was marketed as horror, perhaps, because We Are All Going to the World’s Fair is more of a horror movie. TV Glow is horror in the way that David Lynch is horror- unsettling, unique, cerebral. And if I include Lynch as horror and don’t include Jane Schoenbrun, that’s transphobic (sorry, I don’t make the rules!). But in all sincerity, it’s not everyday that we have such a talented filmmaker working in Hollywood, so any excuse to give this movie love is good by me. I was fortunate enough to see this movie at the Chicago Critics Film Festival to a sold-out crowd.

I Saw the TV Glow follows two young teens growing up in the 90’s, Owen and Maddy, who bond over a Buffy-like tv show called The Pink Opaque. When the two reconnect years later, Maddy reveals that she thinks that the characters in the show are real. The whole film is an allegory for gender transitioning, though it doesn’t explicitly make it part of the plot. Instead, themes like not feeling at home in your own body, feeling unfulfilled as an adult, or obsession into a fandom as a coping mechanism (often all experiences of queer people coming to terms with their identity) are integral to the story. Plus, The Pink Opaque totally looks like a tv show I would’ve also obsessed over as a kid growing up in the 90s.

Honorable mentions: Your Monster, It’s What’s Inside, A Quiet Place: Day One

What is your favorite 2024 horror?