Not Only The Substance: 5 Less Obvious Horror Films With High RT Scores Released in 2024
A love story about a guy who rose from the dead, a dive into female depression in the 19th century, and a horror from the perspective of a madman.
2024 will be remembered for the horror films that were discussed on every corner. Audiences sympathized with Demi Moore's character in The Substance and were scared to death by Nicolas Cage's maniac in Longlegs.
We have chosen some less obvious new horror movies that are also worth your attention.
1. Lisa Frankenstein, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
High school student Lisa is grieving the loss of her mother, who was killed by a killer. Her father has remarried, and Lisa and her stepmother can't stand each other. To make matters worse, the guy the girl is in love with is looking at someone else.
Lisa finds refuge in an old cemetery and one grave in particular attracts her. One day, lightning strikes the gravestone, and its occupant crawls out. The zombie is young, handsome, and completely mute. Lisa decides to make him the perfect boyfriend and teach those who wronged her a lesson.
Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton are the duo we really needed, even if we didn't know it. Dark humor, trauma, love and revenge – what more do you need for teen horror?
2. I Saw the TV Glow, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
Teenager Owen spends his life alone, but one day he meets Maddy. She shows him an amateur series called The Pink Opaque, to which he quickly becomes addicted. The show's main characters fight a supervillain who can distort space and time.
When Maddy disappears without a trace, the show is canceled and Owen's life falls apart. Years later, he still lives in his parents' house, works at a local movie theater, and suffers from depression. Maddy returns and says that she spent all that time in The Pink Opaque.
Eerie in its neon-purple aesthetics, it flirts with topics of parallel realities and the fragility of any boundaries. The movie clearly did not get enough attention, which is a shame: it could well claim the title of the main indie release of the year.
3. Blackout, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
Larry Fessenden decided to compete with Universal by making a series of his own movies about their classic monsters: now it's the Wolfman's turn.
A reclusive artist, between transformations into a monster, struggles with a vile developer and his ex's new boyfriend. Viewers accustomed to indie horror from the A24 studio will have to get used to rubber masks and drawn scenes of transformation, but it's hard to find a more original and touching horror film.
4. The Devil's Bath, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
A gripping horror film about female depression in an Austrian village in the mid-1800s: the movie is based on records from court archives dedicated to executed child murderers. The directors of the film are relatives and followers of the style of post-documentary filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, who serves as producer here.
The genius of their approach is that a simple listing of everyday details that seem wild to us and a careful observation of female behavior are enough to open the film completely to the most direct satanic interpretations – exactly the same as those believed by the main character's contemporaries.
5. In a Violent Nature, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%
It is a spectacular genre experiment: a half-decomposed maniac crawls out of his grave to slowly, picturesquely, poetically kill tourists in a forest setting in the spirit of Terrence Malick.
Long shots of the maniac walking through the forest are interspersed with truly inventive and naturalistic murder scenes – it is impossible to tear yourself away from this simple but effective slasher.