The 8 Best Horror Movies Of 2024 So Far

Larry Fessenden, indie horror auteur, is back — with a werewolf movie. But "Blackout" isn't your typical lycanthrope flick. This is more like a quirky indie character drama that also happens to be about a werewolf. The wolfman in question is Charley Barrett (Alex Hurt), a working-class artist who lives in the small autumnal town of Talbot Falls. When we meet Charley, he appears to be getting his affairs in order. There's a reason for that: he knows he's a werewolf and he'd like to end his life before he turns back into a monster and kills more people. 

While there's werewolf action to be had here, complete with throats ripped out and limbs torn off, Fessenden is more interested in the characters who populate the town. Seemingly every person who shows up on screen is a quirky, memorable individual, and while some of the performances are shaky, Fessenden's script has a way of making his players, no matter how minor, stand out. Occasionally funny (in a dark sort of way), "Blackout" has a melancholy vibe to match its autumn atmosphere, and best of all, the werewolf is just a guy wearing make-up. Sure, it's not the most sophisticated make-up — but give me a practical werewolf over a CGI monstrosity any day. (Chris Evangelista)

Director: Larry Fessenden

Cast: Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Marshall Bell, Joseph Castillo-Midyett, Barbara Crampton

Rating: Unrated

Rotten Tomoates Score: 79%

Not all horror is overtly terrifying, nor is it about how many jump scares can be packed into a 90-minute package. Sometimes, horror is more of a psychological thing where one has to place oneself in the shoes of someone on screen and realize the situation at hand would be downright horrifying, even if it's not presented as "scary," per se. Such is the case with the buzzy "It's What's Inside," a movie that Netflix paid a small fortune for following its premiere at Sundance earlier this year. You can read /Film's 9 out of 10 review of the film right here.

There's a reason Netflix paid so much money for the film. Put plainly, it's one of the most original concepts put to screen in some time, relying totally on the brilliant execution of director Greg Jardin. This serves as his feature directorial debut, which makes what he pulls off all the more impressive. This is one of those "the less said the better" situations but, very basically, the film takes place at a pre-wedding party where a bunch of old friends reunite. It all descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged member of the group shows up with a mysterious suitcase. What's in the case? That's best left unsaid but what we get out of it is funny, wildly inventive, and unexpected. It's one of the best examples of a filmmaker being able to do an awful lot with relatively little in a long time. (Ryan Scott)

Director: Greg Jardin

Cast: Brittany O'Grady, James Morosini, Alycia Debnam-Carey, and Devon Terrell

Rating: N/A

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

In the 15 years since Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody's unfairly maligned "Jennifer's Body" hit theaters, that teen girl horror comedy has since been reclaimed, reassessed, and embraced as a true cult classic. Those who weren't in the thick of the 2009 horror movie discourse often look back at the film's journey with confusion, trying to make sense of how the general public could have ever failed this movie. Well, history seems to be repeating itself with Cody's return to teen girl horror comedies, the twisted and delightful "Lisa Frankenstein." The feature directorial debut of Zelda Williams, "Lisa Frankenstein" centers on an oddball teenage girl who would rather skip keggers with her peers to sit alone in a cemetery of unmarried men and yearn over the guy with the hunkiest headstone. After a mysterious lightning storm reanimates the object of her affection, our titular hero is thrown into a coming-of-rage experience to find replacement body parts for her new man ... without getting caught.

Boasting the trademark teenspeak that made "Juno" an Oscar-winning screenplay, "Lisa Frankenstein" is an absolute blast and will most certainly be rediscovered years from now as the cult classic it deserves to be. Fortunately, as was the case with "Jennifer's Body," I'm here on the ground floor with "Lisa Frankenstein," and history will remember me fondly. As mentioned in my review, "Everyone wants a goth girlfriend until she starts murdering those who've wronged her to harvest their bodies for parts for her undead boyfriend, but in the case of 'Lisa Frankenstein,' it'll only make you love her more." (BJ Colangelo)

Director: Zelda Williams

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Carla Gugino

Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 51%

Horror movies come in all shapes and sizes, but it's always tricky to measure how "scary" a given movie is because different things scare different people. That being said, I can pretty confidently say that director Damien McCarthy's "Oddity" will be one of the flat-out scariest movies released in 2024. Littered with nightmare fuel and a certain character that is going to go down in genre movie history, this is an inventive, terrifying, and bleakly funny film worthy of generating much discussion amongst its viewers.

The movie operates from a relatively simple premise: A blind woman, who also happens to be a medium, discovers a terrible truth behind her twin sister's death. So, she pays a visit to her sister's former husband at the house in the middle of nowhere where her mysterious death took place. Things get creepy as f*** from there. McCarthy is working with some familiar tropes here, but he weaves them together in a very fresh way. The tension is ever-present, there are some serious twists, and the only thing that ever relieves the tension is either a scare that will stick with you or one of the darkest laughs you're likely to encounter this year. This is an impressively frightening little motion picture. (Ryan Scott)

Director: Damien McCarthy

Cast: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Caroline Menton, and Steve Wall

Rating: N/A

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%