Some of the film studio's titles are more &34;elevated&34; than others. The 20 best A24 horror movies ranked, from Talk to Me to Midsommar Some of the film studio's titles are more &34;elevated&34; than others. By Dennis Perkins, Chris Bellamy, and Kevin Jacobsen October 31, 2025 9:00 a.m. ET Leave a Comment :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/horrorA24movies070224e1d347a8d78b46d9a5b1d7cdbeaacd21.jpg) The best A24 horror movies ranked.
Some of the film studio's titles are more "elevated" than others.
The 20 best A24 horror movies ranked, from Talk to Me to Midsommar
Some of the film studio's titles are more "elevated" than others.
By Dennis Perkins, Chris Bellamy, and Kevin Jacobsen
October 31, 2025 9:00 a.m. ET
Leave a Comment
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/horror-A24-movies-070224-e1d347a8d78b46d9a5b1d7cdbeaacd21.jpg)
The best A24 horror movies ranked. Credit:
Matthew Thorne; A24 Pictures; Gabor Kotschy, Courtesy of A24
Since its founding in 2013, A24 has gradually built up a reputation for highly inventive genre films, particularly those of the horror variety. It all started with 2013's *Under the Skin*, Jonathan Glazer's haunting sci-fi spooker in which Scarlett Johansson plays an alien luring men into her secret abyss. Audiences have come to understand what they're in for with an A24 horror movie: original ideas presented through an off-kilter lens; thoughtful explorations of grief and trauma; and, more often than not, a wildly chaotic ending.
A24 horror's branding might be easy to characterize, with some feeling its "elevated horror" trademarks are no longer innovative. Yet, many of their horror titles have been hailed as some of the best films of their respective years, from 2018's *Hereditary* to 2019's *The Lighthouse*. Ahead, read **'s ranking of the 20 best A24 horror movies, and explore why they stand out in today's cinematic landscape.
20. The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-blackcoat-070224-77df0716e878444ab5a4ff31f08943d2.jpg)
Kiernan Shipka as Katherine in 'The Blackcoat's Daughter'.
Moody and intricate (sometimes maddeningly so), this debut from Oz Perkins (son of *Psycho* star Anthony) inflicts supernatural horror and grief upon the students of a Catholic boarding school. Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, and Emma Roberts are the focus of three separate but interwoven stories, with Perkins expertly keeping us off balance while still playing fair with the plot's time-hopping structure.
Left behind at their foreboding campus over winter break, Boynton and Shipka's characters are at the mercy of the school's imperious nuns and old secrets. Split into three slices (whose interconnectedness is revealed with patient, ruthless logic), *The Blackcoat's Daughter* is all slow-burns and suggestion — until it's not. Perkins relies more on atmosphere than jump scares, but when the payoffs come, the pent-up anxiety he's cultivated erupts into thudding dread. —*Dennis Perkins*
Where to watch *The Blackcoat's Daughter*: Tubi**
19. It Comes at Night (2017)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-comes-at-night-070224-f0b6d00ae3f54b7ab342d8fcb00effa6.jpg)
Riley Keough as Kim and Christopher Abbott as Will in 'It Comes at Night'.
This tale of a plausible viral apocalypse makes the case that true horrors can lurk just outside our view — and possibly within us all. A pandemic has sent a family fleeing to isolation in the woods, where they watchfully guard themselves against infection (and other survivors). But soon, an intruder introduces both suspicion and hope for connection, as loneliness battles with the fear that something considerably larger than a virus is hiding in the dark.
The best post-apocalyptic horror movies posit that *we* are the true danger to our continued survival as a species. With a stellar cast (Joel Edgerton and Carmen Ejogo lead one family, while Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough form the other), director Trey Edward Shults allows the tension to build until it all explodes in a climax as devastating as it is dispiritingly, horribly human. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *It Comes at Night*: HBO Max**
18. Saint Maud (2020)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-st-maud-070224-62366c9e3f624b8d90d794866f506572.jpg)
Morfydd Clark as Katie/Maud in 'Saint Maud'.
Rose Glass' debut feature* *is 84 minutes of concentrated, escalating dread and yawning horror. The story of a young hospice nurse who calls herself Maud (Morfydd Clark), sent to care for a wealthy former dancer dying of lymphoma (Jennifer Ehle), is a character study of madness and repression as the pious aide sets out to "save" her latest charge, according to her own deeply unsettling beliefs.
Maud appears easy to figure out at first. Her seemingly naive caregiver prays for guidance in her duties, with Clark evoking Sissy Spacek's Carrie White in her apparent unworldliness. But as Maud's God begins to talk back, and her desperate pleas for divine intervention send her into fits of orgasmic fervor and desperate carnality, Glass hints at the depths of mania powering the nurse's dedication. As with many of A24's horror movies, we're left to ponder whether anything supernatural happens as Maud's quest reaches its apotheosis, proving that fanatical belief is enough to inspire great terrors. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *Saint Maud*: Amazon Prime Video**
17. In Fabric (2019)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/in-fabric-2000-017c1040ee9340e988791b9ce6660530.jpg)
Fatma Mohamed as Miss Luckmoore and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Sheila Woolchapel in 'In Fabric'. A24
Few major film studios would be interested in distributing a movie about cursed clothing. But A24 saw writer-director Peter Strickland's kooky vision of a haunted red wrap dress that ruins the lives of its wearers and gave it a proper home with the others on this list.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste stars as an unappreciated bank teller who buys the flowing red frock at a department store, only to have her life go from bad to worse. Strickland is fully aware of the silliness of his premise, leading with dry, dark humor as he shows how consumerism can control you if you're not careful. —*Kevin Jacobsen*
Where to watch *In Fabric*: Paramount+
16. Heretic (2024)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/heretic-032825-4f653a34519b46de8af6045fedb28804.jpg)
Hugh Grant as Mr. Reed, Sophie Thatcher as Sister Barnes, and Chloe East as Sister Paxton in 'Heretic'.
One of the most horrifying things imaginable is being stuck with a know-it-all who's eager to debate. Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are young Mormon missionaries who learn this the hard way when they knock on the door of the enigmatic Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). After inviting them in, he mocks their faith and lectures them before torturing them with sinister plans.
Grant is wickedly delightful, rightfully becoming one of the rare actors in a horror movie to gain awards traction, receiving nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and BAFTAs. His portrayal of a pompous, yapping intellectual who's rotten to the core rings uncomfortably true, as do the performances of Thatcher and East as their characters nonverbally communicate their discomfort to each other. —*K.J.*
Where to watch *Heretic*: HBO Max**
15. I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/i-saw-the-tv-glow-Justice-Smith-Brigette-Lundy-Paine-Jack-Haven-062025-432cc2f88f0847feaa49a8491e0d1ae5.jpg)
Justice Smith as Owen and Jack Haven as Maddy Wilson in 'I Saw the TV Glow'.
Courtesy of A24
That the fictional show within *I Saw the TV Glow* revolves around a psychic connection is no coincidence. Teenagers Maddy and Owen are hypnotically drawn to *The Pink Opaque* and its psychically entwined heroines. Maddy soon vanishes, then reappears a decade later, insisting the show's world is, in fact, reality. Now, she wants to rescue Owen and take him back to where they both belong.
The film has a way of connecting discordant wavelengths — past and future, memory and experience, reality and fiction — that's as existentially haunting as anything in recent genre history.** In their sophomore feature, burgeoning auteur Jane Schoenbrun channels everything from Méliès to Lynch, from *Buffy* to *Donnie Darko*, to set a mood that's both nostalgic and menacing. —*Chris Bellamy*
Where to watch *I Saw the TV Glow*: HBO Max
14. Lamb (2021)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-lamb-070224-d4da7abb00e64c81a9afd0e26ed6d92e.jpg)
Noomi Rapace as María in 'Lamb'.
It's not quite the *Eraserhead* baby, nor the *It's Alive* baby, nor even the *Trainspotting* baby. Rather, the *Lamb* baby is literally the face of a lamb and the body of a human child, which is unsettling in a wholly novel way. That grieving parents María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) name the mutt after their own dead daughter, Ada, pushes the film into the realm of a psychological fever dream, albeit one that operates on a dry, profoundly deadpan register.
Meanwhile, the ewe who gave birth to her won't go away or stop pestering these human usurpers. We realize...wait, is this an abduction movie? And are we rooting for the wrong side? —*C.B.*
Where to watch *Lamb*: Tubi**
13. Pearl (2022)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Pearl-Mia-Goth-102125-57a208305e8b481e9543609b8a7b62e2.jpg)
Mia Goth as Pearl in 'Pearl'.
Christopher Moss/A24
First teased in 2022's *X*, the homicidal elderly villain Pearl (Mia Goth) got her own origin story with this inspired homage to classic Hollywood. Set in 1918, the film follows Pearl as a young woman desperate to escape her dull existence on the farm. She sets her sights on becoming a movie star, but her disturbed mind and violent temper prevent her from achieving her dreams.
Taking inspiration from *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) and Douglas Sirk melodramas of the '50s, director Ti West delights in playing with contrasts in *Pearl*, adorning grisly murders and a terrifying lead performance with a sumptuous score and rich, saturated colors. This may also be what makes Goth's performance so frightening: Pearl's outward girlish innocence masks a deep well of rage that the actress taps into with chilling ferocity. The final close-up is reason enough for the film's placement on this list. —*K.J.*
Where to watch *Pearl*: HBO Max**
12. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-sacred-deer-070224-707f40690011415fbd5540b230fc32d3.jpg)
Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell as Anna and Steven Murphy in 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer'.
Fans of Yorgos Lanthimos' work (*Poor Things*,* Dogtooth*) admire his signature icy, deadpan style. But this chilling family horror is the director at his most deliberate and ruthless as he unfurls a tale of absurdist vengeance. Doctors Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman are placidly married with two perfect children, their daily interactions nearly a parody of Kubrick-style stilted and inconsequential dialogue. It's only when a mysterious young man (Barry Keoghan) inserts himself into their lives that some energy seeps into their routines (gnawing terror will do that).
With a title and premise inspired by the myth of Iphigenia, Greek scholars might imagine they have a head start on puzzling out the strange things that happen as Keoghan's blankly polite teenager begins to affect the family in inexplicably creepy ways. Farrell and Kidman are outstanding, even as Lanthimos' ritualistic plotting and direction keep them hemmed into their characters' rigid conceptions. *The Killing of a Sacred Deer* is an ingenious and idiosyncratic trap, with an ending as inevitable as it is horrific. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *The Killing of a Sacred Deer*: HBO Max**
11. Climax (2018)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/climax-2000-ae7900cda8034bc089b38b0727a7fa9a.jpg)
Romain Guillermic as David and Sofia Boutella as Selva in 'Climax'. A24
Drug-using expert Hunter S. Thompson once evoked Colonel Kurtz's immortal "the horror, the horror" to describe a bad trip in his novel *Hell's Angels*. With that in mind, Gaspar Noé's *Climax* might as well have been called *Hell's Dancers*. A French dance troupe stages a party, and somebody spikes the punch with psychedelics. You might guess what kind of chaos breaks loose, but the realities of this extreme horror film are much bleaker than whatever you're imagining.
As the party collapses into collective, mob-like madness, despair is unleashed along with paranoia, depravity, violence, and carnage. The horror comes from the violation* *of a group meant to exist in harmony — featuring a cast of real dancers as the luridly fluid characters — being thrown violently out of sync, like a body spasming. Meanwhile, Noé's anxious camera emphasizes their increasing disorientation and anguished confusion. When the party's over, only destruction is in its place. —*C.B.*
Where to watch *Climax*: Tubi**
The 30 best Halloween movies to stream this spooky season
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/FRANKENWEENIE-The-Craft-Robin-Tunney-Fairuza-Balk-Neve-Campbell-Rachel-True-EVIL-DEAD-II-Bruce-Campbell-101725-824cfc44bd974c8aa5f40634c3f9b21e.jpg)
Every A24 movie on Netflix, ranked
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Past-Lives-White-Noise-the-deepest-breath-101625-03b62a4441634a2ea07b3a6d9cf7333e.jpg)
10. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-bodies-070224-48b345484c1b4000be4b716c6f853ef4.jpg)
Amandla Stenberg as Sophie, Maria Bakalova as Bee, Pete Davidson as David, and Rachel Sennott as Alice in 'Bodies Bodies Bodies'.
There are slasher movies, and then there's whatever *Bodies Bodies Bodies* is (this is a compliment). Genre trappings abound in horror, but Halina Reijn's film gives the murder mystery template a gleefully modern spin. Here, it's the machinery for a send-up of Gen Z psychology. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings her new girlfriend (Maria Bakalova) to meet her old friends for a house party during a raging hurricane, which brings out the more frenetic sides of the cabin fever cohorts. The titular parlor game ensues… until one character winds up really, truly dead. And then another. And then another.
It would be cruel to spoil one of the decade's great climactic punchlines; suffice it to say the movie cleverly leverages the rules of the slasher format to turn the tables on its house full of would-be victims. —*C.B.*
Where to watch *Bodies Bodies Bodies*: Amazon Prime Video**
9. X (2022)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-x-070224-ccff08aa0c1040ea86ff825c82dc0117.jpg)
Mia Goth as Maxine Minx in 'X'.
While it may be best appreciated in concert with its prequel, *Pearl* (2022) — Ti West's *X* stands on its own as one of the gnarliest slashers in recent memory. The setting is familiar enough: rural Texas farmland, a creepy old couple, charming dirtbags secretly shooting a dirty movie. *X* pushes those set pieces towards their weirdest, grossest possibilities, fashioning a mournful plunge into the horror of aging and the pain of realizing your body can't do what it used to. Regret and envy, the film posits, can easily inspire vengeance, and these creative kills are proof.
If nothing else, *X* made everyone take notice of Mia Goth as a generational horror talent (apparently, not enough people saw 2016's *A Cure for Wellness*). *X* revolves around her character's obsession with star power, while Goth's dual-role performance leaves no doubt of her own prowess onscreen, single-handedly justifying the conceit of the whole trilogy. —*C.B.*
Where to watch *X*: HBO Max**
8. Bring Her Back (2025)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Bring-Her-Back-102125-3a4025fe63bf458296a47151a5c37fb7.jpg)
Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver and Sally Hawkins as Laura in 'Bring Her Back'.
Grief can make people do the unthinkable, as explored in this viscerally upsetting horror drama from *Talk to Me* directors Danny and Michael Philippou. After the death of their father, stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are orphaned and taken in by Laura (Sally Hawkins), a grieving mother who lost her only biological child. Andy is disturbed by Laura and the menacing mute boy she's also fostering, and soon realizes his new guardian's disturbing plans for Piper.
What makes *Bring Her Back* such a striking film among the many other horror movies tackling grief and trauma is the Philippou brothers' willingness to really *go there*. Laura's inner turmoil is manifested through a series of shocking body horror sequences that are best left unspoiled, with Hawkins delivering a fearless performance as a mother so desperate to bring her daughter back, she'll do just about anything. —*K.J.*
Where to watch *Bring Her Back*: HBO Max
7. Green Room (2015)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-green-room-070224-673d596d79a247f69968a91295271495.jpg)
Anton Yelchin as Pat (front) in 'Green Room'.
Jeremy Saulnier's taut, gory thriller might not delve into otherworldly terrors, but it doesn't have to. Following a struggling but committed punk band (led by the late Anton Yelchin) to a gig in the Oregon backwoods that goes bloodily awry, *Green Room* shows that there are ruthless human monsters among us as the group performs at a (surprise!) neo-Nazi roadhouse. (Though to their detriment, they open their raucous set with a deliciously inflammatory Dead Kennedys cover.)
Stumbling across the sort of nefarious crime you get whenever Nazis are involved, the band barricades themselves in the club's grimy green room and tries to figure out a way to escape with their lives. Patrick Stewart, of all people, is an all-time villain as the skinheads' calculating leader, issuing merciless orders in the same reasonable cadence we've been conditioned to trust implicitly. The violence, when it comes, is brutal and realistic. All the while, Yelchin, Stewart, Alia Shawkat, and Imogen Poots imbue their disparate characters with inner lives that make each successive shock that much more nerve-fraying. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *Green Room*: Paramount+**
6. Midsommar (2019)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-midsommar-070224-bd045baa93384197813a8cca0977c825.jpg)
Florence Pugh as Dani in 'Midsommar'.
Horror thrives in the darkness, which makes the mounting terrors of Ari Aster's immersive nightmare especially impressive. The incessantly bright and colorful palette of the film's Swedish summer locale leaves the characters — and viewers — nowhere to hide. Tagging along with her lunkish boyfriend and his grad school friends for a trip to study a rare rural folk festival, the grieving Dani (Florence Pugh) finds herself drawn further and further into the commune's rituals.
Aster weaves an inescapable nightmare out of sunshine, blindingly white fabrics, and garlands of flowers. In the isolated Swedish countryside of the never-setting sun, *Midsommar* hints at deeper, darker forces beneath the commune's folksy, welcoming exterior. It all leads to a climax where the full weight of tradition and belief roars with terrifying finality. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *Midsommar*: HBO Max**
5. Under the Skin (2013)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-skin-070224-adf949d23e684ae681d09c7e2c6d9ddc.jpg)
Scarlett Johansson as the Female in 'Under the Skin'.
Jonathan Glazer's unclassifiable sort-of horror film quickly weeded out those not willing to follow its uniquely trying and abstract path. In *Under the Skin*, Scarlett Johansson plays a blank, accommodating woman whose nightly ventures into Glasgow see her pick up men and bring them back to — well, that would be saying too much.
Here, high-concept plot elements that might otherwise be lurid emerge as part of the film's own, singular vision. What happens to those men in Johansson's care is the stuff of pulp and exploitation, while Glazer's exquisite visuals and measured, inscrutable plan transform genre convention into thoughtful (if mesmerizingly horrific) meditation. Like Johansson's character, *Under the Skin* comes at its subjects through an unnervingly alien lens. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *Under the Skin*: Tubi**
4. The Lighthouse (2019)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-lighthouse-070224-72683f48f6f34a1fafd3e9c19ac05d78.jpg)
Willem Dafoe as Thomas Wake and Robert Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow in 'The Lighthouse'.
Robert Eggers' second feature is a hallucinatory, maddeningly claustrophobic blend of folk horror and darkly funny character work from Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. A24's commitment to auteurism is evident in the black-and-white cinematography, the solitary 19th-century New England setting, and a nearly square aspect ratio. As the two keepers' accelerating madness batters their already uneasy relationship, the film becomes a phantasmagorical endurance test, with the two antagonistic leads hurling themselves against their tight confinement.
Dafoe, as Thomas Wake — the crustiest "wickie" on the brutal coast — roars and bellows with wild-eyed Shakespearean menace, while Pattinson's newbie Ephraim Winslow catches glimpses of his partner's strange midnight rituals and finds inexplicable things washed up on the rocky shore. Everything is soaked in stashes of harsh liquor and inadequately buried tensions, leading to an utterly go-for-broke, ambiguous denouement. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *The Lighthouse*: HBO Max**
3. Talk to Me (2023)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-talk-to-me-070224-05a9670155674b3599c848f0970936ee.jpg)
Sophie Wilde as Mia in 'Talk to Me'.
Young people doing imprudent things at parties is a time-honored tenet of life and horror movies. Drinking too much, making a fool of yourself, casually puncturing the delicate veil between the living and the dead — you know, the usual. But there's a strange intimacy to *Talk to Me*'s premise, in which teens act tough by holding a mummified hand, declaring the titular phrase, and inviting one lucky spirit from the other side to inhabit their body. In another context, it would be romantic. Call it "90 Seconds in Heaven," since after a minute and a half, as the urban legend goes, the possession gets harder to shake (and might even become permanent).
That metaphysical connection soon snowballs into a mounting existential threat when Mia (Sophie Wilde) allows her best friend's eager little brother to have one round with the hand, after which his body is never the same. Here, spiritual infractions are met with savage physical punishment and some of the more grotesque images in recent horror memory (which, as the genre has become ever more popular and emboldened, is seriously saying something). —*C.B.*
Where to watch *Talk to Me*: HBO Max**
2. Hereditary (2018)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-hereditary-070224-0879e84070b34951bf6fdf79816b8b11.jpg)
Gabriel Byrne as Steve Graham, Toni Collette as Annie Graham, and Alex Wolff as Peter Graham in 'Hereditary'.
Ari Aster's directorial debut cemented him as a defining voice of modern arthouse horror. A searing tale of grief and buried family secrets, the film is a showcase for the great Toni Collette, whose matriarch must cope with an unthinkable tragedy while something even more sinister lurks in her past. As a woman whose dawning realization infests and wrenches apart her family, Collette turns in one of the most towering horror performances in memory.
Aster's craftsmanship matches his lead's, with *Hereditary* being as controlled and meticulous as the miniature tableaux Collette's character creates. As is often the case in so-called elevated horror, we're primed to accept the film's mounting evils as either psychological or supernatural, never quite certain of which side the ax will fall. Even if *Hereditary* eventually provides clear answers, the implications linger with the force of undisputed classics like *The Exorcist* or *Rosemary's Baby*. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *Hereditary*: HBO Max**
1. The Witch (2015)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/a24-witch-070224-01a9e3f07d3c40bcb46efcf7373e6fcd.jpg)
Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin and Harvey Scrimshaw as Caleb in 'The Witch'.
Robert Eggers has become synonymous with A24's particular horror brand, and while *The Witch* and *The Lighthouse* are wildly different films, each encapsulates the studio's aura in its own way. New England circa the 17th century is the setting for this enigmatic tale of an outcast Puritan family haunted by superstition, paranoia, disappearances, and the growing fear that something in the deep, dark woods surrounding their homestead is attacking their rigid faith.
Anya Taylor-Joy, in her film debut as the family's teenage daughter, appears to be the center of the escalating occurrences, as the clan begins to splinter. Eggers' stunning visuals and meticulous pace draw viewers into their increasingly desperate mania, gradually wedging open the door between rational interpretation and supernatural inescapability. Ultimately less ambiguous than it seems, *The Witch* etches its story in sudden, shocking strokes. *—D.P.*
Where to watch *The Witch*: HBO Max**
Original Article on Source
Source: "EW Movies"
Read More
Source: Movies
Published: November 01, 2025 at 08:00AM on Source: ALPHA MAG
#ShowBiz#Sports#Celebrities#Lifestyle
Some of the film studio's titles are more &34;elevated&34; than others. The 20 best A24 horror movies ranked, f...