The 18 Best A24 Horror Movies: ‘I Saw the TV Glow,’ ‘Climax,’ ‘X,’ Saint Maud,’ ‘Hereditary,’ and More

Wilson Chapman
·2 min read

In the 11 years since it burst onto the scene, A24 has accomplished something virtually unheard of in the film industry: establishing itself as a distributor with a fanbase that rivals those of the biggest directors. 

Through a carefully curated lineup of acquisitions and original projects (and some seriously impressive marketing strategy), the company has become synonymous with crowd-pleasing independent filmmaking executed at the highest possible level. And its effortlessly cool promotional campaigns and brand collaborations have turned its logo into the ultimate stamp of approval for any project seeking film geek street cred. 

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The brand is elastic enough to be applied to a wide variety of projects — this is the company that released both “Moonlight” and “Spring Breakers,” after all — but you can generally recognize an A24 movie when you see one. It’s always going to be an auteur-driven work that unapologetically swerves away from mainstream trends in favor of pushing the indie film zeitgeist in a weird new direction. Sometimes that proves too weird for the masses, as with Ari Aster’s third feature “Beau Is Afraid.” But that doesn’t mean the studio stops taking swings.

While A24 has dipped its toe into almost every genre under the sun at this point, horror remains a key brick in the company’s foundation. The distributor is almost singlehandedly responsible for launching the so-called “elevated horror” craze by working with directors like Aster and Robert Eggers, who injected overtly dramatic themes into their genre films. But it’s found just as much success by releasing ridiculously fun midnight movies like Kevin Smith’s “Tusk” and Ti West’s “X” and “Pearl.”

“Talk to Me” is the studio’s latest project: a largely triumphant remix of the haunted party game subgenre from brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. Horror is often the genre that gives independent filmmakers (and distributors) the most freedom to experiment, as low budgets and built-in audiences make it relatively easy to recoup one’s investment. A24’s many forays into the horror space embody that ethos, as the distributor has gifted cinephiles with a decade’s worth of provocative films that range from the satirical to the utterly haunting. 

In many ways, the story of independent filmmaking in the 2010s and 2020s is the story of A24. It’s the company that every filmmaker wants to work with and every distributor wants to emulate. If you want to watch some of the best horror filmmaking of the century, the A24 library is a great place to start. Keep reading for our 18 favorites, from “Tusk” and “Lamb” to all-time bests “Hereditary” and “Green Room.”

[Editor’s note: This list was published in April 2023 and has been updated since.]

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