Whether it’s a suspenseful atmosphere that keeps you on the edge of your seat or a gory cat-and-mouse chase, now is the perfect time of year for a good horror movie. Here is the DA Arts & Culture’s list of our 5 favorite chills, thrills and jumpscares of 2024.
# 5) Trap-Luis
M. Night Shyamalan, the acclaimed director known for suspense films such as “The Sixth Sense,” released a new movie during this summer, “Trap.” The trailer doesn’t market the film as a scary movie. On the contrary, you would expect this would be a fun and heartfelt movie.
The trailer shows a loving dad and his daughter attending a concert, so you may be asking, what could go wrong? This is one of the movie’s strongest suits. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, and it has unexpected turns.
At times it’s a psychological thriller and a scary movie, you ask yourself why the protagonist, father Cooper Abbott played by Josh Harnett, is constantly leaving his seat.
The film continuously forces you to question what’s going on. As the story unfolds, the audience among them is his daughter, Riley, played by Ariel Donohogue, who awaits in suspense as the chilling details of the concert are revealed. You may not see concerts the same way after this movie, so be warned.
#4) The First Omen-Vivian
Underrated and utterly fascinating, “The First Omen” is a favorite for this year’s horror movies. The film seems to have done the original Omen film justice, revisiting the same eerie and intriguing storyline in a beautifully crafted prequel.
The original Omen, is not to be confused with the 2006 remake with a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film referenced is the 1976 film directed by Richard Donner. Now that we’ve got that straight, we can dive in.
This movie was pretty darn good. Frightening, visually stunning, and well-acted, The First Omen serves as one of few actually good mainstream scary movies from the last decade, with others including those of Jordan Peele and Ari Aster.
Our story, set in 1971, follows an American nun named Margaret to her new job at an orphanage in Rome. As sinister and malevolent things begin to happen, she questions her dedication to God.
The film provides the groundwork for the storyline continued in “The Omen,” and though it follows a formula we have seen before in other movies, it sets itself apart with its aesthetics and visuals, not to mention its attention to detail and nostalgia.
#3) A Quiet Place: Day 1-Vivian
Lupita Nyong’o. Must I go on? She is our new scream queen, our modern-day Janet Leigh. 2024 brought us another prequel to successfully bone-chilling movies, minus one Emily Blunt.
My boyfriend and I went (snuck, if you want to get literal) into this movie directly after seeing the slightly disappointing “Inside Out 2,” not quite satisfied with our expensive theater-going experience.
The ability to make human life feel so small in the midst of a disaster, supernatural or otherwise, is something the crew deserves recognition for. The importance of life, love and having a cat by your side reverberated repeatedly throughout the film.
Nyong’o plays Samira, is a cancer patient visiting New York City when all of a sudden, the monsters from the preceding Quiet Place movies make their first appearance. The chaos commences as the characters must figure out what the audience already knows–an example of dramatic irony–the monsters are blind but highly sensitive to sound.
#2) Long Legs-Naiima
The eerie occult thriller got a lot of buzz for its marketing campaign that avoided showing the film’s villain in any of the ads. This daring choice forced viewers to go in blind and take you along for the ride as FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) investigates a series of seemingly impossible murders.
The film stars Nicholas Cage in perhaps the most eerie and unhinged performance of his career, a murderous ex-glam rocker turned serial killer. The imagery in Long Legs is memorable, with uunforgettable performances from the cast, with a standout performance from Alicia Witt as Agent Harker’s mysterious mother.
Without spoiling, the most memorable part of the film would have to be Cage’s truly horrifying “Long Legs” character, a subversive villain whose appearance and voice might just get under your skin more than you expected.
#1) MaXXXine-Naiima
Mia Goth has officially cemented herself as a certified scream queen, and MaXXXine only further proves that she’s here to stay. Ti West’s slasher X trilogy came to a gory conclusion bringing our protagonist, adult film star Maxine Minx, to Hollywood.
This follows up X and Pearl, both films released in 2022, with the original being an explicit slasher set on an X-rated movie shoot on a secluded farm in 1979. The follow-up, a surprise prequel announced in the end credits of X, set in 1918 detailing the origin of X’s ruthless villain Pearl.
The films are perhaps best known for the standout performances Goth brings to every character she’s given, with the no-nonsense aspiring movie star navigating 1980’s Hollywood giving her another chance to shine. The 1980’s campy horror aesthetic calls back to the era B movies, cheaply shot horror movies usually with e gratuitous violence, gore, or sexuality. The film does a great job of adapting this for modern audiences, with stunning visuals and dramatic twists.
With surprise callbacks to the previous films and references to classic Hollywood horror cliches, the film is the perfect balance of dark, gory suspense and cheesy, borderline cartoonish fun. While the film didn’t receive the same level of critical acclaim as its predecessors, horror fans can argue their favorite based on their personal taste, with each bringing something new to the table. This film cemented itself as a standout for me with its bold, unexpected creative decisions sending the X trilogy out with a bang.
All in all, 2024 remained a memorable year for the horror genre, with notable releases covering everything from slashers to suspense.
