The Best Horror Movies to Watch Now

The Best Horror Movies to Watch Now

November 28, 2024

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The horror genre can be notoriously divisive, with cult favorites derided by critics and critical darlings called out as pretentious by the genre’s fans. At agoodmovietowatch, our job is to bridge that gap—recommending you a healthy dose of scary movies that offer more than your standard blood and gore and jump scares, but that still scratch your itch to see something creepy and messed up. Here we’ve prepared a list of horror films we still think are underseen by most people, but whose quality we’d cross our hearts and hope to die for.

31. Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024)

7.8

Country

Japan

Director

Kenji Nakamura

Actors

Aoi Yuki, Haruka Tomatsu, Hiroshi Kamiya, Jun Fukuyama

Moods

Action-packed, Discussion-sparking, Intense

While based on the Mononoke series, which is in turn, a spin-off of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, it might seem that Mononoke The Movie: The Phantom in the Rain would require some background reading for people new to the story. Thankfully, there’s no need to do homework for this beautifully designed masterpiece, as the Medicine Seller takes on a new case with every installment. 2024’s Phantom in the Rain (also known as Paper Umbrella) unfolds its world with ease, with doors opening and closing to a select few for a high-pressure, hierarchical imperial household. Immediately, the visuals are stunning, with traditional ukiyo ink and paper mixed with modern kaleidoscopic fill and movement, but even without the gorgeous art, the first Mononoke movie works with its eerie horror, intense sound design, and a compelling mystery driven by court intrigue and vengeful spirits.

32. The Innocents (2021)

7.7

Country

Denmark, Finland, France

Director

Eskil Vogt

Actors

Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Irina Eidsvold Tøien, Lisa Tønne

Moods

Challenging, Dramatic, Raw

The Innocents is a Norweigan thriller that follows four kids who discover they have supernatural powers over the summer. They play around and experiment in the woods nearby, but what begins as harmless fun quickly develops into something much more disturbing and sinister.

This unnerving film, a blend of fantasy and horror, doesn’t waste time explaining the origins of its mysticism. Instead, it goes straight into action—bending, twisting, and splitting open anything and anyone that gets in its way. This kind of rawness is shocking given the age range of the characters, but it also works to subvert what we’ve come to expect from kids, youth, and goodness. The Innocents isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you can manage some bloody and unhindged scenes, then it’s sure worth checking out. Directed by Eskil Vogt, co-writer of critically-acclaimed films like Thelma and The Worst Person in the World.

33. Barbarian (2022)

7.7

Country

United States of America

Director

Zach Cregger

Actors

Bill Skarsgård, Brooke Dillman, Derek Morse, Devina Vassileva

Moods

Dark, Grown-up Comedy, Intense

Rarely do we get horror movies that are as dedicated to toying with audience expectations as Barbarian. Even rarer is a horror movie that pays so much attention to setting, and how men and women approach and interact with physical spaces in different ways. It’s a film that’s ultimately about entitlement—except it’s delivered to us with jet-black humor and manic energy, shifting from romantic to ridiculous to raving mad. But with instantly charming performances from Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård—and Justin Long doing a brilliant job playing an absolute jerk—Barbarian never leaves you grasping in the dark, even if it leads you deeper into hell.

34. El Conde (2023)

7.7

Country

Chile

Director

Pablo Larraín

Actors

Aldo Parodi, Alessandra Guerzoni, Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera

Moods

Dark, Discussion-sparking, Grown-up Comedy

After Jackie and Spencer, the dark satire El Conde is a surprise new entry in Pablo Larraín’s stacked filmography. Already, the film has prominent differences– it’s shot in black and white, starting with narration from an unseen and posh Englishwoman that makes the film’s events feel like entries in Bridgerton’s scandalous newsletter. The subject is far from the beloved wives of presidents and princes– it’s centered around a notorious Chilean dictator who remains unpunished for his crimes. However, as his fictional vampire version deals with his rightfully ruined legacy, El Conde proves to be a witty satiric twist to Larraín’s usual themes. Through familial squabbles over ill-gotten wealth, confessions and exorcism conducted by a nun, and certain foreign interventions, El Conde paints an everlasting greed that continues to haunt Larraín’s homeland.

35. X (2022)

7.7

Country

United States of America

Director

Ti West

Actors

Brittany Snow, Bryony Skillington, Geoff Dolan, James Gaylyn

Moods

Dark, Intense, Raw

Though it isn’t the groundbreaking slasher movie that it initially seemed to be marketed as, X simply knows how to do its job very well: the gore is plentiful and the build-up to the inevitable kills is just loaded with anticipation. But where the film becomes much more interesting is in the palpable sadness that seems to follow all of its characters. Innocent or murderous, each of these people is just trying to cling to an idea of personal freedom and beauty that never seems to last. It’s a horror movie that takes its portrayals of sex and sexuality very seriously, exploring the limits of sexual liberation in a country that actively tries to punish it.

36. The Host (2006)

7.7

Country

Japan, South Korea

Director

Bong Joon-ho, Joon-ho Bong

Actors

Ah-sung Ko, Bae Doona, Baek Do-bin, Bong Joon-ho

Moods

Action-packed, Character-driven, Discussion-sparking

So far, chemical waste hasn’t mutated amphibious creatures enough to create giant monsters large enough to swallow people whole… yet. This sort of monster film premise is familiar, especially for fans of 1950s sci-fi movies, but in the hands of director Bong Joon-ho, The Host transforms what could have been B-movie schlock into a drama examining the ways generations within a family, as well as generations within a country and within the world, have failed each other. As the Park family try to save their own, the actions they take feel all the more important, knowing what’s at stake on multiple levels. While at the time, there were doubts that Bong Joon-ho and the Korean film industry could pull off the monster, The Host proved that there was more to come from the then emerging film giant.

37. Speak No Evil (2024)

7.6

Country

United States of America

Director

James Watkins

Actors

Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, Jakob Højlev Jørgensen

In case you didn’t know, Speak No Evil is based on a Danish film of the same name, released only two years ago. Given that the latter was already a hit among horror fans thanks to its unrelentingly bleak approach, it’s tempting to chalk this remake up to narcissism. As was the case with the movies Otto and Let Me In, maybe Americans just wanted something of their own. While that may be true, it has to be said that this remake, in a word, is good. It’s thrilling and terrifying in its own right, and it adds enough new elements to keep you on your toes. Apart from the new twists, the characters are also more utilized and the social commentary on class and masculinity feels more pointed. Through these additions, among others, it’s able to imagine an alternative storyline that will speak to a lot of audiences.

38. Strange Darling (2024)

7.6

Country

United States of America

Director

JT Mollner

Actors

Barbara Hershey, Bianca A. Santos, Ed Begley Jr., Eugenia Kuzmina

A big part of Strange Darling’s charm is its ability to surprise you with one twist after another, so it’s best not to get into too many details here. What we will say is that director J.T. Mollner and his cast execute those twists with great finesse, making sure not to waste even a second of your time. The non-linear approach might seem gimmicky at first, but once Mollner presents all the pieces of the puzzle, it ends up feeling like a satisfying payoff. Even if you manage to guess where the film is headed, it still makes for an entertaining watch. Willa Fitzgerald is especially captivating.

39. Exhuma (2024)

7.6

Country

South Korea

Director

Jang Jae-hyun

Actors

Baek Seung-chul, Choi Min-sik, Choi Moon-kyoung, Hong Seo-jun

Moods

Action-packed, Challenging, Dark

For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was buried in, but it was also how empires grew in power, often at the expense of the people that came before. Exhuma is centered in a haunted burial site of a Korean family that migrated due to the war, but as the shamans try to unearth the casket, they also uncover the psychospiritual ways in which Japan colonized Korea– haunting the land with their own ghosts, dividing its people through belief, and leaving deep scars that hasn’t yet been fully recovered from. While the double exorcism situation can be a tad confusing, Exhuma nonetheless elevates this folk horror drama with their respect and attention to detail for Korean shamanism.

40. Bedevilled (2010)

7.6

Country

South Korea

Director

Jang Cheol-soo

Actors

Bae Sung-woo, Baek Su-ryeon, Chun Young-min, Hwang Geum-hee

Moods

Challenging, Dark, Depressing

Despite how the title sounds like, the horror of Bedevilled isn’t a devil, a demon, or a spirit. It isn’t even the way childhood friend Bok-nam snaps, taking up a scythe and going on a murderous rampage to kill all the people that wronged her. No, the actual horror of Bedevilled is that everyday people like bank employee Hae-won would hesitate to do what’s right. Reading that sentence can sound cheesy, but writer-director Jang Cheol-soo structures the film, and her visit to Modo, in a gradually escalating manner. When Hae-won first lands, the mean gossip seems ordinary, but the film takes these ordinary, if overcritical, words, and delves into the subtext, especially the darker implications that makes the film difficult to watch. The film does understand Hae-won’s hesitancy– the scenes do acknowledge that reporting could mean retaliation, and the score consistently meets that very fear. But Bedevilled also understands that, if hesitancy allows abuse to be left unchecked, the very same violence that Hae-won was (and many people are) avoiding will inevitably escalate.

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