Movies & TV / Columns
The 411 Horror Movie Awards 2024, Part 1: Best Scare, Best Effects, Best Kill, More
Image Credit: Cinedigm
How are y’all doing? It’s been a while since we’ve talked. A year, in fact. As you can see, we’re doing another 411 Horror Movie Awards this year. I’ve assembled a panel of my fellow 411 writers and we all voted on what we loved (and hated, in one case) in the year that was 2024. Then, I tabulated the votes and came up with the nominees. In the case of ties, we have more than five nominees in some categories. No big deal, because the winners were landslides in some cases. The writers contributing this year include:
* Jake Chambers
* Joseph Lee
* Theo Sambus
* Rob Stewart
* Jeremy Thomas
This year’s group of standout movies is a lot more varied than last year. We’ve got body horror, we’ve got sequels, we’ve got serial killers, we’ve got insane gore and spooky talk shows. But unlike the Oscars tonight, I’m not about to keep things going with a longwinded monologue. Let’s get right to it!
WORST HORROR MOVIE OF 2024
2024 was a pretty strong year for horror, overall. It’s nominated at the Oscars, after all! But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some bad movies, from Hollywood to the independents and beyond. And when they’re bad, they’re bad. But which were the worst? And what was the worst of the worst, making the whole genre look bad? Well…
And the nominees are…
AfrAId
“‘What if Smart House, but serious’ could work as a horror movie. And John Cho is a very good actor, so he’d be perfect for something like this. The problem is that this is a very, VERY lazy movie that is the most boring Hollywood dreck you could have seen in the genre last year. Every beat is predictable and not in the good way. It’s not fun, it’s dull and lifeless. And the worst part? It casts David Dastmalchian in an incredibly minor role that adds nothing to the story whatsoever. Why cast someone with talent for a role that could be deleted from the script and have no bearing on anything?” – Joseph Lee
“I feel kind of bad for busting on The Exorcism, which is very obviously a personal film to Joshua John Miller. And to be fair there are small moments that work, mostly when it explores the fractured relationship between Russell Crowe’s Anthony and his daughter/PA. But this movie – clearly inspired by Jason Miller’s experience starring in The Exorcist — loses itself every time it remembers that it’s a horror film and not a family drama.
And the horror is where it falls apart. Miller hits all the exorcism movie plot beats in short order and the cast struggles to bring much to characters that don’t work at all. The final act is truly where this lost me; there isn’t any surprise or tension because it’s pretty clear where things are heading. This film isn’t scary, nor is it entertaining; it’s just sad. If you want a Russell Crowe exorcism movie, watch The Pope’s Exorcist; at least it has a scooter.” – Jeremy Thomas
“History of Evil is basically ‘What if The Shining was anti-fascist but also awful?’ Set in a world where right-wing fascism has taken over America, first-time feature writer-director Bo Mirhosseni focuses his story on a thinly-sketched resistance leader who finds herself in a racist and misogynist haunted house after her escape from imprisonment. It feels like Mirhosseni had a great idea but didn’t know where to go after that so he just lifts ideas from the Stephen King story. In fact, one major plot element is so shamelessly stolen that if doesn’t feel like homage; it just plays as ‘This worked for King so I’m gonna use it.’
I can’t emphasize enough how much of a drag this movie is. Glacially paced, it isn’t helped by the fact that Paul Wesley – normally a solid performer – is painfully miscast as the resistance leader’s husband. Any atmosphere or tension is completely stifled and Mirhosseni is unable to find ways around his limited budget, right up to the anti-climactic finish. Shudder gets too much crap for its original and exclusive films output, but this rightfully belongs in the bottom of the bin.” – Jeremy Thomas
“I don’t know much about actual tarot, but I feel this movie is to that what The Big Bang Theory is to geek culture. Gotta love the opening scene that uses a Tarot reading to describe each character so it doesn’t actually have to do any work developing any of them. You got their basic personalities, that’s all you need! But even better is when the main girl just decides everyone’s dying via cursed Zodiac predictions and everybody just GOES ALONG WITH IT. They all then hop in a car to go visit an expert and I think them ignoring the only sane man in the room is supposed to be funny but they play it seriously. I don’t know, this movie was just absurdly stupid but at least it wasn’t boring?” – Joseph Lee
“Look, a horror film about tarot is a perfectly fine idea. I personally can think of a number of ways this can work. Tarot…is not one of them. This is one of the most aggravating horror films in recent memory, with one of the worst screenplays that I’ve seen in a long time featuring cringeworthy dialogue and incredibly shallow characterizations. I could spend a whole column just talking about how the film blatantly misunderstands its own hook with tarot and astrology, but that’s fine if it makes for a better film. It doesn’t because we have every horror trope under the sun, right down to one of the most stridently annoying horror characters in a long time and silly narrative leaps (the Google Fu in this film is nilarious). There have been worse horror films in the past few years, but this is perhaps the laziest, most eye-rolling example of studio horror I remember seeing in quite some time.” – Jeremy Thomas
“This one’s predecessor “won” Worst Horror Movie for 2023, so I’m wondering if the voters will be lenient on its follow-up. But unless I count some independent screeners I saw–and I don’t want to bully low budget movies like that–this was definitely the worst horror movie I saw last year. Tedious and with a nonsense story tacked on, there was just no value to this.” – Rob Stewart
Tarot
MOST ANTICIPATED OF 2025
Horror can be a very forward-looking genre. Horror fans can also be that way. We’re always ready for the next kill, the next scare, the next sequel. So of course we’re giving an award to a movie that’s not even out yet.
And the nominees are…
“Just that fact that they are really following up on the promise of the first and second Days and Months movie titles with an actual Years movie is pretty fun. Danny Boyle being back in the director’s chair for this one has also got me pretty excited. ” – Jake Chambers
“I love it when A24 throws some comedy into their horror. And if the trailer for Death of a Unicorn is anything to go off of, we’re going to get plenty of both. This is the right kind of silly concept – a unicorn seeks revenge against pharma execs who killed its mate – and is stacked with a ridiculous cast from Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd to Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant, and Will Poulter who gets some uproarious lines in the trailer. It’s a big swing to be sure, but I love when studios take risks like this and it has the potential to be an absolute crowd-pleaser.” – Jeremy Thomas
Fear Street: Prom Queen
“I am an ardent fan of the original Fear Street trilogy of films that hit Netflix in 2021 and have been hoping to see more entries from basically the moment that 1666 ended. So it’s probably not a surprise that this ranked among my most anticipated horror films of the year. I will say that those hopes are just slightly dampened by the fact that Leigh Janiak is not back behind the camera, but otherwise I’m hyped as hell for this. The cast is very solid and while I haven’t read the original book (or any of the Fear Street novels for that matter), I have heard good things about the story for this one. If Netflix can deliver even a good portion of the fun that the trilogy did with Prom Queen, I will have a blast with it.” – Jeremy Thomas
“Final Destination almost became a series that wore out its welcome after 3 and 4, but I felt like 5 was a strong return to form. Then the series went on hiatus until fourteen years later? What’s up with that? Anyway, I’m more than excited to see how fresh new talent puts their own spin on the franchise. I’m also excited to see Tony Todd’s final role, one of the ones that horror fans love him for. The teaser trailer was just a death sequence, which means the people in charge at least know what you’re paying for.” — Joseph Lee
“Hell House LLC: Origins – The Carmichael Manor was one of my favorite horror flicks of 2023. I did not expect Stephen Cognetti to be able to deliver a film that lifted the franchise after the misstep of Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Carmichael Manor set the stage rather brilliantly for a new direction for this series and left me extremely excited to see what was coming next. If Hell House LLC: Lineage goes down the direction teased in its predecessor, I’m all in. The creepy-ass teaser certainly suggests this is the case, so count me as sat when this arrives in October.” — Jeremy Thomas
“What the heck is going to happen next? What is the next movie going to be about? Will we get something that will fit in with the already established franchiser timeline, or are we going to get another movie like Saw X, something that doesn’t adhere to much of anything that’s already been established? What is John Kramer’s next project?” – Bryan Kristopowitz
“I left Bryan’s write-up from last year. They’re the ones that moved the release date. Blame them.” – Joseph Lee
“I was a big fan of the video game Until Dawn, and while it’s a shame they aren’t getting the actual actors from the motion capture for the game to play the roles in the movie, I’m still excited to see what they do with it. Will the director make the same choices I did?! I was never able to keep every single person alive, if I recall correctly. ” – Rob Stewart
28 Years Later
BEST MOVIE MONSTER
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes and in horror, they’re not always creatures. It can be a kaiju, an alien, a serial killer, ghosts, demons and everything in between. This year, the monsters ruled in many ways, both on the screen and at the box office.
And the nominees are…
Longlegs (Longlegs)
“I will be 100% honest and say that while I very much enjoyed Longlegs, it was initially in spite of Nicolas Cage’s villain and not because of it. It was only on a rewatch that I grew to love what Cage was bringing her. Osgood Perkins’ Satanic serial killer thriller may be divisive, but I was a huge fan and the actor’s manic performance is trademark Cage but also fits seamlessly into what Perkins is doing in this film. It’s a weird, off-putting performance of a weird, off-putting character who brings moments of absolute terror to the screen. It ranks as one of Cage’s most outlandishly inspired performances (a high bar) and easily his most terrifying to date.” – Jeremy Thomas
“The first time I saw Nic Cage as Longlegs, I audibly yelled ‘What the fuck’ in the theater. They did a great job hiding him in the promotion of the film. I cannot recall the last time I had that visceral of a reaction to a horror villain. And then Cage proceeded to make the role his own, equal parts creepy, weird and darkly comedic. Longlegs was my absolute favorite horror film of last year and the one I’ve seen the most. It wouldn’t be that way without Cage’s work in the role.” – Joseph Lee
“While I’m not on the Daddy Orlock train that swept horror social media, I do love what Robert Eggers and Bill Skarsgard did with the titular character from Nosferatu. Skarsgard seems unafraid to be known as “the horror monster guy” and I appreciate that. I appreciate even more that he delivers pretty much every time he puts on the makeup and prosthetics. His Orlock is very different from the previous two iterations of the character, throwing just a touch of Gary Oldman’s Dracula into the mix with Max Shrek’s Orlock and bringing his own physicality and tones that gave Orlock the feel of an ancient demigod. It brought something fresh to a story that I didn’t think could find anything new and elevated the film to a different level.” — Jeremy Thomas
“I’ve seen Smile and yet I’m still never ready when the Smile Demon makes itself known. And the fact that it’s pulled off mostly practically always shocks me. The Smile movies have been a refreshing twist on this type of horror movie and Smile 2 continued to up the ante. I think the reason the Smile Demon works, outside of how horrifying it looks, is because no one’s figured out how, exactly, to beat it yet. How can you possibly defeat something that’s infected your mind and can’t make you sure of what reality is? It’s like the Grudge, only worse. At least Kayako, even though she’s seemingly unstoppable, just kills you. This thing drives you crazy first.” – Joseph Lee
“On the one hand, I hate nominating this because it’s basically a spoiler. One the other hand, it’s EASILY my favorite monster of the year (as much as you could call the poor thing a “monster”, but hey… it’s right in the name). Monstro ElisaSue is where The Substance went from “Wow, this is pretty darn good” to ‘Holy hell, this movie is amazing’.” – Rob Stewart
“Our most recent entry into the lexicon of slasher icons got a chance to shine brighter than ever before in Terrifier 3. David Howard Thornton managed to push his murderous clown to new heights despite sharing villain status with the demonically infused Victoria this time around. You just have to love how much glee Thornton is clearly having as Art. While I am in this story for our heroine Sienna at this point, the film wouldn’t be what it is if Art wasn’t chainsawing people in half and murdering mall Santas. He’s the death-dealing life of the party and whatever you may think of this franchise, you can’t deny that Art has reached the S-tier of slashers at this point.” – Jeremy Thomas
Monstro Elisasue (The Substance)
BEST EFFECTS
Since the days of the silent era, make-up effects have been very important to the horror genre. From bringing all of your favorite monsters to life to creating even the most basic kills, effects are integral to a good horror story. That’s why it’s important to cast a light on the films that use them…effectively.
And the nominees are…
Late Night with the Devil
“Just judging from the trailer or the film’s first half, you might not even know Late Night with the Devil had effects at all. However, when the shit starts to hit the fan, that’s when you see one of the many ways this film shines. The violence, the mind-trip that finishes out the movie and more importantly, the head cracking open and spraying out unholy energy. It’s the punchline of a joke that had been set up all film long, just like a good scare should be.” – Joseph Lee
“The Smile Demon, which I praised above, is just one of the amazing things created in this movie practically. Parker Finn does a great job with his script, sure, but taking the extra care to make this a visual feast with things you can actually see, that’s dedication. And really, even if none of the kills were graphic or none of the scares were elaborate, that damn demon alone should get this acknowledgement for its effects. Did it have CGI? Sure, but it also had a ton of suits, puppetry and more to bring it to life. Hollywood should take note that we want care like this when it comes to our creature effects.” – Joseph Lee
“Stop motion animation is some really care-intensive stuff, and while this entire movie was not filmed in stop motion–there are real actors and actresses doing the heavy lifting–there is enough that it still impresses me. This was made with a lot of attention to detail, and to me, it was the stand-out in the effects field this year.” – Rob Stewart
“When you’re making a body horror film, you had better have good effects work. To say that Coralie Fargeat’s team was up for the challenge in The Substance is an understatement. Pierre-Olivier Persin and company deliver squishy, goopy, fleshy practical transformations in the best way for some incredibly uncomfortable visual effects. But it’s not just flashy; it’s also carefully laid out and nuanced in terms of Elizabeth’s gradual transformation. Every moment is there not just to shock, but to deepen the themes and story. We love a splatterfest, but The Substance’s effects work truly go to the next level by inspiring both horror and empathy for its “monsters.”” – Jeremy Thomas
“I don’t know that anyone working in film today has as much fun graphically murdering people as Damien Leone and his effects team. There’s so much gore in Terrifier 3 that to call it over the top would be underselling it, and Leone, Jason Miller and the rest of the effects and makeup team really make sure to deliver in the best possible way. From the opening scene and the entirety of the Santa scene to the chainsaw and (I cringe even thinking about this) the rat sequence, the Terrifier crew does everything to make us gasp, cringe, scream and want to look away. I didn’t think they could outdo themselves after Terrifer 2, but here we are.” – Jeremy Thomas
The Substance
BEST KILL
As Stephen King once said, “if I find I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud.” Some of the best horror movies don’t contain a single kill. But many of the great ones do. And many of the more fun movies have plenty of nasty kills within. You don’t have to even be a good horror movie to have a great kill. Just go for the gross-out and you’ll become instantly memorable.
And the nominees are…
The Coffee Table Moment (The Coffee Table)
“The Coffee Table is one of the hardest films to talk about without spoiling things, because the big spoiler is essential to the very premise of the film. Fortunately if you’re looking at Best Kill in a Horror Awards, I’m just going to assume you know or are okay with getting spoiled so here we go. I absolutely get why this film is divisive, but I adore a movie that has the utter audacity to kill a baby and build the entire plot around that. And the way that Caye Casas (forgive the pun) executes the scene in question is perfection. You know something bad is coming soon, and you know that it’s going to involve the coffee table (and probably the baby). But no one is prepared for just what’s going to happen. It’s jaw-dropping without being exploitative and puts you firmly in the realization that Casas isn’t fucking around. It’s probably the most shocking horror death of 2024 and I couldn’t not put it on my list.” – Jeremy Thomas
“If you are going to make a modern slasher, you have to involve some creative kills to appeal to a crowd that has seen it all before. It might have been tempting for the creators behind In A Violent Nature to just kind of rest on their gimmick and let that be what everyone talked about. But nope, they instead decided to go out and have the best kill in a Horror movie in 2024 when Johnny finds a girl doing yoga on a cliff and helps her stretch out by turning her into a pretzel.” – Rob Stewart
“Nicolas Cage has been the source of fear and tragedy through the entire runtime of Longlegs. So when he is finally caught (Best Kill is all about spoilers, you know what you’re doing), you expect him to get some sort of justice. But that’s not the world that Longlegs operates in. It’s not the rules set up by the guy he’s working for, the Man Downstairs. With a final ‘Hail Satan’, our killer proceeds to smash his own face in against the table repeatedly until there’s nothing left but a disgusting, oozing mess. Not only a nasty kill, but one that robs us of the justice we, as an audience, had been wanting all film long. Hail Satan, indeed.” – Joseph Lee
“On its (heh) face, the death of Lukas Gage’s Lewis in Smile 2 isn’t that shocking. Hell, it’s literally shown in every trailer for the film. And even if not, we know the formula for Smile and are aware that Naomi Scott’s Skye has to see someone kill themselves to get “infected.” But Parker Finn did not have to go as hard as he did with this death. It’s not just the visuals like the creepy-ass smile or the way Finn shoots it, with Lewis looming over the camera (representing Sky’s POV). It’s the foley work — the hard pound of the weight hitting flesh, the dripping of blood, the squelching of skin faling off and sticking to the weight as it’s pulled away each time. I cringed in the theater at that beautifully horrifying sound design, which makes this death one of the horror kills that most stuck with me in 2024.” – Jeremy Thomas
“I don’t know that there was a kill quite as gleefully brutal in 2025 as the Chainsaw scene. There were more shocking kills in horror, and there were kills that ended up being more fun. But Art the Clown’s answer to the hacksaw scene in the first film struck that perfect balance between both. It’s vintage Terrifier in that you cannot imagine it’s going to keep going — and then it does. Poor Mia gets off (relatively) easy in comparison to Cole, and Art’s slasher Loony Tunes-like antics combine with the “It’s a Terrifier Christmas” song to make this whole thing so ludicrous that you can’t help but laugh. It may not be on the level of Allie from Terrifer 2 in terms of sheer brutality, but it’s arguably more entertaining and fits perfectly into the threequel’s tone.” — Jeremy Thomas
In A Violent Nature
BEST SCARE
Scares are the name of the game. If you aren’t trying to elicit fear from the viewer, what are you even doing? While most horror fans are jaded to these types of things, every once in a while a movie comes along with something that still gets under our skin.
And the nominees are…
The Reveal (Blink Twice)
“For much of its runtime, Blink Twice is a seductive thriller that holds its cards tightly to its chest. We know that there’s nothing good about the fact that Frida and the rest of the guests on Slater King’s island don’t seem to remember anything, but we don’t necessarily know why and that’s intriguing. So when Zoe Kravitz decides to finally reveal what’s going on, it’s one of the most genuinely shocking moments of the year. Even if you predicted what was actually going on, no one was prepared for what we were going to see. Kravitz holds zero punches with the scene, but she doesn’t make it exploitative either. Instead, we’re just subjected to the horrors of what’s going on in quick order — and then just like that, we have to process it. It’s beautifully placed and provides the fulcrum for the story to shift into a new gear.” — Jeremy Thomas
“As I noted for Movie Monster, the first moment Longlegs appears on screen drew a visceral reaction out of me. As a hardened horror fan, that hardly ever happens. And this is the scene that did it. It’s not just how Longlegs looks, it’s the entire build to what happens. It’s minimalist and cautious with how it creates the tension. Then suddenly, Longlegs appears and you know that this little girl he’s talking to needs to RUN. And then he shows his face and that’s all the scare you need.” — Joseph Lee
“I said elsewhere that it took me two watches to really understand what Nicolas Cage was doing with the titular Satanic serial killer in Longlegs. But it only took me one watch to be transfixed by the scene in which he is introduced to our heroine as a child. A wonderful combination of Cage’s off-kilter performance and Osgood Perkins’ framing of the scene, the way we see Longlegs just makes him more terrifying because we don’t know what he looks like as he does his creepy little monologue in his sing-song voice. And the moment when he suddenly drops down into frame for a split second before cutting to the title card is the chef’s kiss that sets the stage for the whole film, making it a key moment in a film full of such striking sequences.” — Jeremy Thomas
“I’m gonna put it straight here: I don’t think there’s been as effective a jump scare in several years than the tent moment in Oddity. We knew at the point of that particular moment that Dani (Carolyn Bracken) was dead, and that it wasn’t pretty. But that did not prepare me for the absolute heart attack that was the jump scare. Damian McCarthy beautifully builds the tension as Dani unzips the tent and looks into the darkness, with a classic misdirect of our attention so that when that horrifyingly blank face appears it destroys our nerves. It’s the perfect gotcha moment and at that point we don’t need to see the violence; we just get the aftermath. Brilliant.” – Jeremy Thomas
“Not a jump scare technically, but this truly unnerving scene really freaked me out with the stillness of the dancers every time the light came back on, and how close they were getting… and, of course, those damn smiles! ” – Jake Chambers
“There’s a lot of good, creepy moments in Smile 2, but it’s hard to top the dancers in the hallway. Skye Riley is being driven insane the entire time she’s infected, and this is one of the top moments that makes you question what the hell you’re watching. A group of dancers suddenly appear and then, with the scariest dance choreography you’ll ever see, pursue our heroine down the hallway as she justifiably runs for her life.” – Joseph Lee
“The Substance isn’t exactly a scary movie in the same way that say, Smile 2 or Oddity are. The scares here are more subtle and personal, especially if you identify with the fear of aging in any way. And the moment those fears are brought home are after we find out just what happens if you do not adhere to the rules of the titular drug. It’s the start of a lot of body horror to come, as Elizabeth Sparkle sees her finger look more like that of some type of cartoonish old hag, setting the stage for what can and will happen later on.” — Joseph Lee
Oddity
And that’s it for Part One! We’ve got six more awards to hand out, which we’ll do at the end of the week!
