Let’s be real—horror hasn’t been the same since A24 arrived on the scene. In more than a decade, this independent distributor has made its logo a shorthand for fearless, genre-bending films. To horror enthusiasts, A24’s name is now linked with boundary-pushing narratives, aesthetically driven visuals, and a more cerebral level of fright—a feeling that haunts long after the last frame.

Whether it’s through slow burns of psychological frights, chic bloodbaths, or avant-garde narratives that play with the very concept of horror, A24 has built a filmography that remapped what terrifies us. Below are the 10 greatest A24 horror films that demonstrate the genre can be intelligent, jarring, and delightfully bizarre.

10. Tusk (2014)

Only A24 would greenlight a movie about a guy being surgically transformed into a walrus—and succeed. Tusk is disgusting, ridiculous, and inescapably singular. Kevin Smith goes full-on body horror and dark comedy with this strange story of a podcaster who meets a man fixated on marine animals. It’s not for everybody, but its cult appeal attests to A24’s willingness to risk that others wouldn’t take.

9. Lamb (2021)

Half-fable, half-existential parable, Lamb is a methodically paced Icelandic horror movie that’s as lovely as it is deeply disturbing. When a pair finds a half-lamb, half-human baby on their isolated farm, they adopt it as their own, only to have unforeseen consequences. With sparse dialogue and eerie imagery, Lamb explores themes of loss, motherhood, and nature’s silent rage.

8. It Comes at Night (2017)

In It Comes at Night, the most terrifying dangers are the ones we can’t see. In a post-apocalyptic setting, the film examines paranoia and vulnerability of human trust as two families take refuge in a cabin to wait out an unspecified contagion. The film’s subdued, claustrophobic narrative and unsettling ambiguity raise it above usual survival horror. It’s a spine-tingling examination of fear as a psychological contagion.

7. Green Room (2015)

Green Room isn’t spooky, but it’s among the most terrifying films on this list. A punk group gets stuck in an isolated venue after they see someone murdered, surrounded by an aggressive band of neo-Nazis commanded by a menacingly reserved Patrick Stewart. Fast-paced, ruthless, and relentlessly stressful, this siege movie shows that horror can exist in the real world and be as frightening as ghosts or demons.

6. The VVitch (2015)

Robert Eggers directed his first film with The VVitch, a carefully constructed story of religious paranoia and supernatural horror in 17th-century New England. The film’s antiquated dialogue and black-and-white cinematography transport viewers to its world, in which evil is not in monsters but in broken faith and fear. With its indelible atmosphere and slow-horror build, The VVitch set the tone for the “elevated horror” wave A24 would become synonymous with.

5. Saint Maud (2019)

Saint Maud traces the story of a zealous hospice nurse whose intense religious fanaticism spirals into obsession—and perhaps madness. Morfydd Clark gives a powerhouse performance in this unsettling character study, which delves into loneliness, guilt, and the desperate search for purpose. As Martini Shot Blog describes it, Saint Maud is a movie in which “trauma and redemption crash into each other with terrifying closeness.” It’s psychological horror at its most chilling.

4. Talk to Me (2022)

A brash new voice in terror, Talk to Me refigures the concept of possession with a twist. When a gang of teenagers stumbles upon a severed hand that enables them to reach out to the dead, things get out of hand in ways they could not have anticipated. With its frenetic energy, creative terrors, and an unsettling emotional center, the Philippou brothers’ debut shows A24 is continuing to discover the future of horror—and backing the correct filmmakers.

3. Pearl (2022)

A beguiling horror prequel to X, Pearl combines Technicolor visual panache with graphic violence and a profoundly unnerving Mia Goth lead performance. Set in 1918, it is the story of a farm girl whose visions of fame turn sour on her. With its stagey aesthetic and repulsive intimacy, Pearl is a darkly compelling study of a woman disintegrating—stylized, transgressive, and characteristically A24.

2. Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary trades in shadows for sunlight, but provides one of the decade’s most unnerving films. Midsommar tracks a bereaved young woman who gets drawn into a midsummer celebration by a Swedish cult, with rituals becoming more and more disturbing. As Trettleman explains, it “commits unease and terror to memory in the face of broad daylight.” It’s folk horror at its most eerily surreal. 

1. Hereditary (2018)

The foundation of A24’s horror canon, Hereditary is a contemporary masterpiece. Beginning as a family drama, it descends into supernatural bedlam born of bereavement and intergenerational trauma. Toni Collette’s incendiary performance holds it together, and its third-act nightmarishness is not to be forgotten. As Trettleman describes, “Hereditary slowly but surely enfolds its tentacles of horror.” It’s an unflinching vision that solidified Aster—and A24—as horror royalty.

A24’s horror movies aren’t merely frightening—they’re bold, creative, and frequently emotionally shattering. Each of these 10 titles demonstrates that the horror genre can be as artistic and intellectually stimulating as any drama, but still provides the chills horror fans are looking for.

Whether you’re a well-seasoned horror aficionado or a curious outsider, this roster provides an ideal glimpse into why A24 is the new face of horror—and why its impact refuses to fade.