(Photo by A24/courtesy Everett Collection)

Best A24 Horror Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer


The latest: A24 ended the year with a one-two punch of Heretic and Y2K. They’ve got Opus and Death of a Unicorn coming up, both in March.


Like Blumhouse, production house and distributor A24 rose to prominence in the 2010s, especially through getting their names attached to some of the best horror movies of the decade. While the Blum boys are known for their keen budgeting and thrust for the mainstream, A24 carved its identity through scares challenging, unexpected, and experimental. 2016 was A24’s breakthrough year for horror (they also released Best Picture Oscar-winner Moonlight the same year, by the way), with Robert Eggers’ folk period-authentic The Witch, and the backwoods punk pulverizer Green Room. 2018’s Hereditary was A24’s highest-grossing movie until Everything Everywhere All At Once, and launched writer/director’s Ari Aster’s feature career, who quickly followed up with 2019’s sunbaked Midsommar.

Elevated horror was a phrase bandied about to describe the movies of this decade that commingled shock and terror with less emphasis on jump scares and more on atmosphere, dread, and able to withstand critical and societal scrutiny. (It Follows and Blumhouse’s Get Out are two more grand examples.) While the elevated horror term isn’t used much more these days, it did get the job done, in that it raised audiences expectations out of what to expect out of horror and what the genre can achieve, and A24 has continued to rise to the occasion in the 2020s. Just take a look at Rose Glass’ Saint Maud, Ti West’s X/Pearl/MaXXXine, and Talk To Me.

#1

Talk to Me (2023)
Tomatometer icon 94% Popcornmeter icon 83%

#1
Adjusted Score: 110292%
Synopsis: When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new... [More]

#2

X (2022)
Tomatometer icon 94% Popcornmeter icon 76%

#2
Adjusted Score: 106410%
Synopsis: In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their... [More]
Directed By: Ti West

#3

Pearl (2022)
Tomatometer icon 93% Popcornmeter icon 83%

#3
Adjusted Score: 104645%
Synopsis: Filmmaker Ti West returns with another chapter from the twisted world of X, in this astonishing follow-up to the year's... [More]
Directed By: Ti West

#4

Saint Maud (2019)
Tomatometer icon 92% Popcornmeter icon 68%

#4
Adjusted Score: 101790%
Synopsis: The debut film from writer-director Rose Glass, Saint Maud is a chilling and boldly original vision of faith, madness, and... [More]
Directed By: Rose Glass

#5

In Fabric (2018)
Tomatometer icon 92% Popcornmeter icon 53%

#5
Adjusted Score: 100239%
Synopsis: A lonely divorcee visits a bewitching London department store to find a dress to transform her life. She soon finds... [More]
Directed By: Peter Strickland

#6

Heretic (2024)
Tomatometer icon 91% Popcornmeter icon 76%

#6
Adjusted Score: 109020%
Synopsis: Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by... [More]
Directed By: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

#7

The Witch (2015)
Tomatometer icon 91% Popcornmeter icon 60%

#7
Adjusted Score: 107727%
Synopsis: In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly... [More]
Directed By: Robert Eggers

#8

The Lighthouse (2019)
Tomatometer icon 90% Popcornmeter icon 72%

#8
Adjusted Score: 111142%
Synopsis: Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the... [More]
Directed By: Robert Eggers

#9

Hereditary (2018)
Tomatometer icon 90% Popcornmeter icon 71%

#9
Adjusted Score: 111600%
Synopsis: When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying... [More]
Directed By: Ari Aster

#10

Green Room (2015)
Tomatometer icon 90% Popcornmeter icon 75%

#10
Adjusted Score: 101994%
Synopsis: Members (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat) of a punk-rock band and a tough young woman (Imogen Poots) battle murderous white supremacists... [More]
Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier

#11

It Comes at Night (2017)
Tomatometer icon 88% Popcornmeter icon 44%

#11
Adjusted Score: 102083%
Synopsis: After a mysterious apocalypse leaves the world with few survivors, two families are forced to share a home in an... [More]
Directed By: Trey Edward Shults

#12

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Tomatometer icon 86% Popcornmeter icon 69%

#12
Adjusted Score: 98950%
Synopsis: When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game goes awry... [More]
Directed By: Halina Reijn

#13

Lamb (2021)
Tomatometer icon 86% Popcornmeter icon 61%

#13
Adjusted Score: 95145%
Synopsis: A childless couple in rural Iceland make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn. They soon face the... [More]
Directed By: Valdimar Jóhannsson

#14

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Tomatometer icon 84% Popcornmeter icon 72%

#14
Adjusted Score: 98409%
Synopsis: Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a... [More]
Directed By: Jane Schoenbrun

#15

Under the Skin (2013)
Tomatometer icon 83% Popcornmeter icon 55%

#15
Adjusted Score: 95171%
Synopsis: Disguising herself as a human female, an extraterrestrial (Scarlett Johansson) drives around Scotland and tries to lure unsuspecting men into... [More]
Directed By: Jonathan Glazer

#16

Midsommar (2019)
Tomatometer icon 83% Popcornmeter icon 63%

#16
Adjusted Score: 104981%
Synopsis: A young American couple, their relationship foundering, travel to a fabled Swedish midsummer festival where a seemingly pastoral paradise transforms... [More]
Directed By: Ari Aster

#17

The Hole in the Ground (2019)
Tomatometer icon 83% Popcornmeter icon 47%

#17
Adjusted Score: 86976%
Synopsis: One night, Sarah's young son disappears into the woods behind their rural home. When he returns, he looks the same,... [More]
Directed By: Lee Cronin

#18

High Life (2018)
Tomatometer icon 83% Popcornmeter icon 42%

#18
Adjusted Score: 95829%
Synopsis: Monte and his baby daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to the outer reaches of... [More]
Directed By: Claire Denis

#19

The Monster (2016)
Tomatometer icon 81% Popcornmeter icon 40%

#19
Adjusted Score: 82416%
Synopsis: A divorced mother and her headstrong daughter must make an emergency late-night road trip to see the girl's father. As... [More]
Directed By: Bryan Bertino

#20
#20
Adjusted Score: 94556%
Synopsis: Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children.... [More]
Directed By: Yorgos Lanthimos

#21

The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
Tomatometer icon 77% Popcornmeter icon 52%

#21
Adjusted Score: 80051%
Synopsis: During the dead of winter, a troubled young woman (Emma Roberts) embarks on a mysterious journey to an isolated prep... [More]
Directed By: Oz Perkins

#22

MaXXXine (2024)
Tomatometer icon 72% Popcornmeter icon 75%

#22
Adjusted Score: 90227%
Synopsis: In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious... [More]
Directed By: Ti West

#23

Enemy (2013)
Tomatometer icon 72% Popcornmeter icon 64%

#23
Adjusted Score: 77052%
Synopsis: A mild-mannered college professor (Jake Gyllenhaal) discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.... [More]
Directed By: Denis Villeneuve

#24

Men (2022)
Tomatometer icon 69% Popcornmeter icon 39%

#24
Adjusted Score: 83831%
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper (Jessie Buckley) retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to have... [More]
Directed By: Alex Garland

#25

Climax (2018)
Tomatometer icon 69% Popcornmeter icon 66%

#25
Adjusted Score: 78887%
Synopsis: When members of a dance troupe are lured to an empty school, drug-laced sangria causes their jubilant rehearsal to descend... [More]
Directed By: Gaspar Noé

#26

Beau Is Afraid (2023)
Tomatometer icon 68% Popcornmeter icon 71%

#26
Adjusted Score: 83245%
Synopsis: A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved... [More]
Directed By: Ari Aster

#27

Slice (2018)
Tomatometer icon 52% Popcornmeter icon 34%

#27
Adjusted Score: 52471%
Synopsis: In a spooky small town, when a slew of pizza delivery boys are slain on the job, two daring survivors... [More]
Directed By: Austin Vesely

#28

False Positive (2021)
Tomatometer icon 46% Popcornmeter icon 19%

#28
Adjusted Score: 49610%
Synopsis: After months of trying and failing to get pregnant, Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian (Justin Theroux) finally find their dream... [More]
Directed By: John Lee

#29

Tusk (2014)
Tomatometer icon 46% Popcornmeter icon 36%

#29
Adjusted Score: 51898%
Synopsis: A U.S. podcaster (Justin Long) ventures into the Canadian wilderness to interview an old man (Michael Parks) who has an... [More]
Directed By: Kevin Smith

#30

Life After Beth (2014)
Tomatometer icon 46% Popcornmeter icon 31%

#30
Adjusted Score: 49875%
Synopsis: A guy (Dane DeHaan) discovers that his girlfriend (Aubrey Plaza) has returned from the dead, but his joy turns to... [More]
Directed By: Jeff Baena

#31

Y2K (2024)
Tomatometer icon 43% Popcornmeter icon 52%

#31
Adjusted Score: 48614%
Synopsis: On the last night of 1999, two high school juniors crash a New Years Eve party, only to find themselves... [More]
Directed By: Kyle Mooney