This Is Your A24 Horror Starter Pack (2024)

It Comes at Night is a thriller about two families who cohabitate during an apocalypse. They initially plan to help each other survive, but that becomes increasingly difficult as, you know, the world ends. Soon the family members are forced to decide whether they should worry more about the dangers lurking outside or the people sitting right next to them. —B.M.

Max

Set in 1630, The Witch follows an English farmer who relocates his family near a remote forest. Soon after, strange phenomena occur, including the disappearance of one of the children, Samuel. As the oddities build, the farmer accuses his daughter Thomasin of witchcraft. Thomasin swears she’s done nothing wrong…but she was the last person to see Samuel alive. By the way, if goats freak you out? Maybe skip this one. —B.M.

Max

I’m calling it: X is the best slasher of its generation. The first entry in the Pearl trilogy stars Mia Goth as Maxine, an adult-film star who books a job in rural Texas. She and her castmates rent a home from an elderly couple to use as their set—but as it turns out, their hosts are less friendly than they seem. —B.M.

Amazon Prime Video

Saint Maud marks Rose Glass’s directorial debut—and we can safely say that it kicks her career off with a bang. The story centers on Maud (Morfydd Clark), a hospice nurse who recently set out to live as a devout Christian. Her work and personal lives merge into a bloody mess when she decides to save her patient’s soul. —B.M.

Amazon Prime Video

In Green Room, a young punk band is trapped in a game of cat and mouse with a deranged club owner. After witnessing a crime, the group is locked in—you guessed it!—a green room and forced to fight their way out. Come for the twists and turns and stay for the stellar cast, which features a truly terrifying performance from Patrick Stewart. —B.M.

Amazon Prime Video

Director Jane Schoenbraum’s latest and greatest creepy masterpiece is I Saw the TV Glow, which stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine. They play teenagers Owen and Maddy, who bond over their love of a television show called The Pink Opaque. Years later, they discover that the show has been canceled. And yet! Maddy claims she’s been living within the series. Is she serious? Or has the show warped her sense of reality? —B.M.

Amazon Prime Video

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is one of the great Yorgos Lanthimos’s earlier works—and it deserves your full attention. Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) appears to have the perfect life—he has a beautiful wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), and two children, Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic)—but everything changes when they meet Martin (Barry Keoghan). As Martin entrenches himself in the Murphys’ lives, it becomes clear that he wants more than companionship. —B.M.

Max

In one of the scariest films in recent memory, Toni Collette stars as a miniature-diorama artist who is mourning the loss of her mother. Coupled with a grief demon and a horrifying accident that changes the family (and the tone of the film) forever, Hereditary created images that audiences will never forget. —Josh Rosenberg

Max

Mia Goth is the titular Pearl in Ti West’s X prequel, honing her craft and turning in one of the best performances of the year. Goth capping off the slasher with a three-minute-long stare in the credits? Icing on the cake. —J.R.

Showtime

The idea of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson fighting half naked in a lighthouse would have sold me on the film—no matter who distributed it. Regardless, A24 and director Robert Eggers certainly deliver a tale both disturbing and surprisingly lively, given that it’s a story about two men living in seclusion. —J.R.

Showtime

Ada the lamb—the cutest little animal since Bambi—is more than just a gimmick in 2021's popular folk-horror film. Starring Noomi Rapace and directed by Iceland’s Valdimar Jóhannsson, the inventive debut film gained a cult audience for its themes on humanity’s treatment of nature. —J.R

Showtime

Bodies Bodies Bodies might not be that scary, but it’s a fun twist on the whodunit genre. This star-studded film features a group of friends who travel to a remote house for the weekend. Tensions rise when an unexpected guest arrives—and someone winds up dead.
—B.M.

Showtime

This is absolutely the sleeper on the list. Here, a mother and daughter take an unexpected road trip. During the drive, they crash their car and discover a sinister presence lurking in the woods. With no means of transportation, they’re forced to rely on each other to stay alive. —B.M.

Max

A24’s Talk to Me is shaping up to be a modern classic. All hell breaks loose when a bunch of teens learn they can connect to the dead by holding an embalmed hand. After they contact an unfriendly spirit, what starts as a party game quickly becomes a fight for survival. —B.M.

Amazon Prime Video