Nigel Floyd

Horror is huge these days, both at the box office and in critics circles. That’s a relatively new occurrence, though. For a long time, horror was greatly misunderstood. In the 1970s and ’80s, it was a vehicle for quick cash-ins to stock the emerging home video market, creating a deluge of cheap schlock that managed to taint even the genre’s acknowledged classics.  In the last few years, however, horror has become prestige, thanks to the likes of unexpected blockbusters like A Quiet Place and Get Out, as well as the work of new masters such as Ari Aster and Robert Eggers. In the first half of 2024, some of the year’s buzziest films – I Saw the TV Glow, Late Night with the Devil, In a Violent Nature – are stretching the genre in bold new directions. So if you’re just now coming around to horror’s visceral pleasures, consider this list your guide to everything you’ve missed, or perhaps dismissed.  Written by Tom Huddleston, Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Nigel Floyd, Phil de Semlyen, David Ehrlich, Joshua Rothkopf, Nigel Floyd, Andy Kryza, Alim Kheraj and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🔪 The best new horror movies of 2024 (so far)🔥 The 100 best movies of all time👹 Cinema’s creepiest anthology horror movies🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories

Horror cinema is a monster. Mistreated, misunderstood and subjected to vicious critical attacks, somehow it keeps lumbering forward, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. For some, horror films are little better than pornography, focused purely on evoking a reaction – be it terror, disquiet or disgust – with little thought for 'higher' aspirations. For others, they're just a bit of fun: a chance to shriek and snigger at someone's second-hand nightmare. But look again, and the story of horror is also the story of innovation and non-conformity in cinema, a place where dangerous ideas can be expressed, radical techniques can be explored, and filmmakers outside the mainstream can still make a big cultural splash. If cinema itself has an unconscious, a dark little corner from which new ideas emerge, blinking and malformed, it must be horror. The question is – which are the best horror films? Time Out proudly presents the 100 best horror films, as chosen by those who write in, direct, star in and celebrate the genre. For more, check out our guides to the best comedy, rom coms, family and animated movies.

Horror cinema is a monster. Mistreated, misunderstood and subjected to vicious critical attacks, somehow it keeps lumbering forward, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. For some, horror films are little better than pornography, focused purely on evoking a reaction – be it terror, disquiet or disgust – with little thought for 'higher' aspirations. For others, they're just a bit of fun: a chance to shriek and snigger at someone's second-hand nightmare. But look again, and the story of horror is also the story of innovation and non-conformity in cinema, a place where dangerous ideas can be expressed, radical techniques can be explored, and filmmakers outside the mainstream can still make a big cultural splash. If cinema itself has an unconscious, a dark little corner from which new ideas emerge, blinking and malformed, it must be horror. The question is – which are the best horror films? Time Out proudly presents the 100 best horror films, as chosen by those who write in, direct, star in and celebrate the genre. For more, check out our guides to the best comedy, rom coms, family and animated movies.