Continuing my look at notable 2024 films, today I’m covering the Horror movies.

Every year I seem to have 11 titles vying for my list of top ten movies — 11 films I can’t imagine not making the cut. But one always has to drop to the ranks of the runners-up.

This year that movie is Strange Darling, writer-director JT Mollner’s devilishly clever cat-and-mouse thriller about an encounter with a serial killer.

Told through six chapters presented out of order, the film is a brilliant narrative exercise that upends expectations at every turn. The structure owes a lot to Quentin Tarantino, as does the grindhouse aesthetic, but the movie feels very much its own thing.

Strange Darling opens with a title card informing the audience that the film was “shot entirely on 35mm,” and the cinematography (by actor Giovanni Ribisi, of all people) is sublime. In fact, allow me to retroactively include it in my post earlier this week as a nominee in that category.

Clever script, gorgeous visuals, excellent acting (by Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner, with Ed Begley, Jr., and Barbara Hershey in supporting roles)… everything you want in a movie. Seek this one out if you haven’t already.

I’d classify Strange Darling as more of a thriller than a horror, but two other films with a fighting chance at my top ten were definitely horror films. Nosferatu, Robert Eggers’ remake of the 1922 classic, is a visual feast featuring an acrobatic lead performance by Lily Rose Depp. And Smile 2 ramps up the scares and the creativity to become the rare sequel that betters its predecessor in every way.

Some other notable 2024 horror releases:

Alien Romulus – An entertaining homage to the first Alien film featuring a truly gonzo ending and an adorably barefoot Cailey Spaeny.

Blink Twice – Zoe Kravitz shows some impressive chops in her directorial debut, a film that predicted the Diddy ugliness.

Cuckoo – Hunter Schafer impresses in her first lead role in one of several post-Dobbs films that is ultimately about the subjugation of women’s bodies.

The First Omen – Here’s another one. This prequel to The Omen stars Nell Tiger Free as a nun coerced into giving birth to the Devil himself.

Heretic – Hugh Grant is deliciously sinister as a charming homeowner mansplaining religion to a pair of Mormon missionaries.

Immaculate – Another film about a nun impregnated by sinister forces. This had one of the year’s best endings, a scene Sydney Sweeney absoluteley crushes.

Late Night with the Devil – A found footage film depicting the night a real exorcism took place during a late night variety show.

Speak No Evil – This remake fixes some of the things I disliked about the 2022 Danish-Dutch original. It’s more pedestrian, but much more enjoyable.

The Substance – I loved so much about this movie, but I couldn’t get past the nature of the substance itself. There is no upside to taking it, which leaves a giant hole in the movie’s plot that I couldn’t get past.