Here are Cinephile Corner’s picks 29 best A24 horror movies of all time, ranked:
29. Slice (2018)
28. Tusk (2014)
27. The Front Room (2024)
26. Life After Beth (2014)
25. The Hole in the Ground (2019)
24. Heretic (2024)
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have steadily built themselves a career since their breakthrough writing credit for A Quiet Place nearly a decade ago. The duo has parlayed their success into multiple directorial efforts, including the pulse-pounding Haunt and the sci-fi thriller 65. Now, they return to their horror roots with Heretic, a chilling and twist-laden movie about two young religious missionaries who knock on the wrong door on a cold, snowy night.
23. It Comes at Night (2017)
22. Lamb (2021)
21. Pearl (2022)
20. Climax (2018)
19. Beau is Afraid (2023)
Ari Aster puts his career and positive public perception on the line to create his most singular and divisive piece of filmmaking yet. Although easily his least accessible and structured movie, Beau is Afraid still manages to work due to Aster‘s distinct eye for jaw-dropping images and scenes and Joaquin Phoenix‘s committed performance.
Read our review of Beau is Afraid
18. MaXXXine (2024)
MaXXXine closes out Ti West’s ongoing A24 horror trilogy, bringing Mia Goth back to reprise her role as the titular actress attempting to transition from a life in the adult film industry to Hollywood movie star. But as we’ve seen with West’s pastiche-heavy work these prior two films, Maxine’s ties to her past keep catching up with her in ways she can’t help. This go around, the movie takes the form of a mid-1980s slasher crossed with a technicolor giallo picture. A perfect combination of time, space, and design that seems right up my alley.
17. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
16. Y2K (2024)
The best way to approach Y2K is to go in completely blind. Seriously, avoid trailers and marketing if you can. The film’s absurd twists and genuinely hilarious moments are what make it so enjoyable, and knowing too much beforehand could spoil the fun. Kyle Mooney makes his directorial debut here, and he nails it. Throughout the brisk 91-minute runtime, he keeps the pace sharp and entertaining. The movie is often exhilarating, always self-deprecating, and has just enough 1999 nostalgia to hit the right notes without feeling overdone or cheesy.
15. Under the Skin (2014)
14. Talk to Me (2023)
Talk to Me juxtaposes the ineffable highs of knowing you’re doing something dangerous that you shouldn’t be, with the realization that at some point the house – or in this case, the embalmed hand – is bound to win. There’s a brilliantly flashy montage incorporated in which each of the members of the friend group take center stage of the séance, each being able to understand the feeling of touching death while still being able to pull away.
13. High Life (2018)
12. Men (2022)
Now nearly two years removed from its initial release date, Alex Garland’s Men for A24 feels underrated. A body horror home invasion movie featuring one of Hollywood’s best actresses in Jessie Buckley, the film is a shift in tone and themes from Garland’s previous works, transitioning from stories involving anxiety we have about the advancement of technology, to the societal and gender issues that plague our society.
11. X (2022)
10. Green Room (2015)
9. Midsommar (2019)
Midsommar is one of the more daring movies of the last 20 years. Ari Aster’s sophomore film is a follow up to his audacious breakout horror hit Hereditary, which features similar, gory visual motifs to Midsommar. Florence Pugh stars in a movie that’s equal parts sadistic and hectic, upsetting and unnerving. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it grows in my estimation upon each rewatch (for which there have been many).
8. The Lighthouse (2019)
7. In Fabric (2018)
In Fabric shows exactly the kind of filmmaker that Peter Strickland can be. He’s not ashamed to wear his influences on his sleeves, but that’s not always a terrible thing. He molds his own style to the style of Giallo movies effortlessly, as if he’s always had this vision in his head. A delightful A24 surprise.
6. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Stylistically and visually, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a real treat. The scenes are lush and vibrant, and the color design for this film is excellent. As all A24 projects go, this film finds its pocket early on and sticks to it. Even with a narrative that can feel generic at this point, Bodies Bodies Bodies excels at amplifying and hyper-intensifying the world around its main plotline.
Read our review of Bodies Bodies Bodies
5. The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)
A sinister, slow-burning delight, The Blackcoat’s Daughter solidifies Oz Perkins as a director capable of true psychological horror—one who, despite some missteps in recent efforts, continues to intrigue me.
Read our review of The Blackcoat’s Daughter
4. The Witch (2015)
3. Saint Maud (2021)
Saint Maud certainly has a few of the motifs and themes you’d expect from an A24 horror movie – a real sense of dread and Christian guilt lingers throughout much of its brisk runtime – but the debut from Rose Glass feels like an expansive, reinvigorating mold of those ideals. A few years since its release, Saint Maud remains one of the best horror films from the studio in the 2020s.
2. I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Jane Schoenbrun delivers a similarly sinister and bewildering story with I Saw the TV Glow as they did in 2021 with We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. And while their debut film used its DIY aesthetic to great effect with long uninterrupted found-footage shots, I Saw the TV Glow uses every effect and camera flourish you could think of.
Read our review of I Saw the TV Glow
1. Hereditary (2018)
More ‘Best of A24’ Lists from Cinephile Corner
Cinephile Corner has recapped the best movies from A24 through the years with the following rankings in their ‘Best of A24‘ section, which includes: