2024 was a breakout year for horror films from across the globe, the likes of which deserve just as much attention and accolades as any domestic genre achievements. 2024 has been a fascinating year for film. Still reeling from 2023’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes and pushed back release dates, movie audiences have […]
2024 was a breakout year for horror films from across the globe, the likes of which deserve just as much attention and accolades as any domestic genre achievements.
2024 has been a fascinating year for film. Still reeling from 2023’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes and pushed back release dates, movie audiences have continually embraced the safe and soothing nostalgia of franchise fare and superhero cinema. Nearly every film from 2024’s top ten highest-grossing titles are sequels, which is creatively frustrating on some level, but this trend hasn’t impeded the horror genre from making significant cinematic gains.
Horror has seen incredible success in 2024, whether it’s The Substance accruing five major Golden Globe nominations, Terrifier 3 and Smile 2 setting new franchise records, and the critical acclaim of original releases like I Saw the TV Glow, Abigail, and Cuckoo. These domestic horror movies all bring something original to the table, but audiences are doing themselves a disservice if they don’t check out what other countries have to offer. 2024 saw the release of some remarkable international horror films that should be mandatory viewing for any fans of daring, groundbreaking, and unforgettable horror.
These are the top 10 best international horror movies of 2024.
Body horror is a broad enough sub-genre that manages to cover a tremendous amount of ground, but there’s a very specific sect of these stories that unpack the idea of people who find themselves transforming into an animal. The Wolfman struck a chord with this premise in 1941 and now, more than 80 years later, it’s being taken to innovative places through horror films like Emma Benestan’s Animale. The French horror movie is as much a character-driven lesson in gender studies as it is a brutal tale of transformation and loss of self.
Nejma (Oulaya Amamra, who gives a tour de force performance) is an outlier as a female bullfighter who struggles to find respect in a vocation that’s dominated by men. Nejma begins to experience disturbing changes after she’s mauled by a bull, all of which coincides with a string of murders that see her male bullfighting peers being taken out by a rogue bull. Animale is aggressive and vicious, but it’s also deeply human and a film about identity. It’s the perfect double-feature with Amy Adams’Nightbitch. Animale is female-driven body horror done right that bucks like a bronco and goes for the jugular with its horns.
Under Paris
Directed by Xavier Gens; France
Animal attack movies are a visceral variety of horror that have featured everything from lions to alligators as murderous creatures. However, sharks hold a special role in this horror subgenre and there are well over a dozen movies that pit people against these ravenous aquatic creatures. Under Paris is more The Meg than it is Jaws, but it adeptly balances B-movie camp with ultra-violent terror. In Under Paris, a grieving marine biologist becomes Paris’ best hope for surviving a brutal bloodbath when a monstrous shark invades France’s Seine river.
Under Paris doesn’t take itself too seriously and understands why people watch a shark attack film, yet it doesn’t just reduce its characters to blood-filled snacks for its central beast. There are some exceptional set pieces in Under Paris where all hell breaks loose that are guaranteed to make audiences wince. Under Paris benefits from its direction by Xavier Gens, the New French Extremity filmmaker who first made waves with the woefully nihilistic Frontier(s). Under Paris may not be as strong as Frontier(s), but it proves that Gens still has bite. Under Paris sets itself up for a bigger and bloodier sequel, so don’t be surprised if a more unhinged follow-up hits Netflix in 2025 or 2026.
Tiger Stripes
Directed by Amanda Nell Eu; Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar
Tiger Stripes was initially released in 2023 in Malaysia after it won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s such a striking debut feature from Malaysian filmmaker, Amanda Nell Eu, that presents an eye-opening coming of age tale of repression, conformity, and how to rise above these things and embrace your truest self. Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) is an 11-year-old girl whose body begins to change as she experiences puberty, only for this natural experience to go in a very unexpected direction. Tiger Stripes is a body horror transformation story that’s like Cat People – or Ginger Snaps – but with pre-teens. Child actors can make or break a movie and Tiger Stripes showcases an exceptional cast of young talent, especially Zairizal. The whole central trio of girls are revelatory and carry the film, which is no small feat.
The effects in Tiger Stripes are slightly cheap and hoaky (there’s a recurring glowing eye effect that’s likely to elicit more laughs than screams), but this is excusable for such a micro-budget production that still nails its performances, storytelling, themes, and uncomfortable energy. Tiger Stripes expertly masters how puberty can turn someone into an outcast who is afraid of their own body, but the film turns this up to 11 as Zaffan’s body begins to fail her and turn her into an impossibility. It’s a movie that’s not frightening, per se, but effective and creative as it indulges in pure chaos that has something to say.
Cloud
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a filmmaker who has been fascinated for decades by the hidden horrors of the internet and the freedom that’s allowed through technology’s distant and anonymous nature. Kurosawa struck gold with this alienating premise with Pulse, while Cloud returns to these themes, albeit in a more modern and nihilistic context. Masaki Suda’s Ryosuke Yoshii is an internet reseller who grows addicted to the power trip that accompanies his items being in demand. However, make no mistake, Yoshii has no interest in helping others and the goods that he sells have more to do with his ego and the ability to manipulate others. Cloud leans into two distinct extremes, where its first-half is a masterful slow-burn psychological horror story that forces audiences to spend time with a truly deplorable protagonist. The film’s second-half is when Yoshii’s wicked acts catch up with him and the film becomes more of a bullet-filled action film.
Fans of Kurosawa’s past works are likely to prefer Cloud’s fist act, but the movie commits to its ideas and deserves credit for an unpredictable trajectory that’s as chaotic and random as an internet message board. Cloud’s biggest monsters are the humans who are willing to cheat one another and flaunt their collateral, yet this becomes a cathartic experience that’s hard to turn away from. Much like any transaction on the internet, Cloud is an extended exercise in trust. It’s a taut thriller that sticks the landing and hopefully marks a comeback for one of Japan’s most interesting voices in horror.
Stopmotion
Directed by Robert Morgan; United Kingdom
Coming from the United Kingdom, Stopmotion may seem like a bit of a cheat. However, Robert Morgan’s feature-length directorial debut is such a confident burst of original horror that it deserves all the love that it can get. Stopmotion animation isn’t a medium that’s inherently creepy, but its stilted and surreal nature naturally lends itself to confounding visuals that feel like waking nightmares. There are endless movies about the creative process and how storytellers can lose sight of themselves as they get progressively lost in their craft. Stopmotion tackles these familiar themes, but in a manner that’s completely original and endlessly unnerving. The psychological horror movie follows a struggling stop motion filmmaker, Ella (Aisling Franciosi), who strives to perfect and finish her mother’s magnum opus after she experiences a stroke and is left in a coma.
Stopmotion depicts Ella’s messy attempts to exorcise her demons by turning them into stop motion creations, while the lines between reality and fiction become hopelessly blurred. Stopmotion is like if Synecdoche, New York and Mad God were to get into one of the telepods from The Fly. It’s a lucid drug trip that needs to be seen to be believed, while the movie’s unsettling “Ash Man” is a modern horror monster for the ages. Robert Morgan hopefully has a rich horror career ahead of him that continues to provoke and push boundaries.
Rita
Directed by Jayro Bustamante; Guatemala
Dark fantasy is such a powerful horror sub-genre when it’s properly handled. It’s nothing short of magic when an imaginative veneer shrouds reality and can turn a dark narrative into a transformative adventure. Rita is Jayro Bustamante’s follow-up to 2019’s serviceable La Llorona and it’s such special cinema, albeit one that isn’t afraid to get lost in darkness. Rita is provocative storytelling that’s reminiscent of Pan’s Labyrinth, with some Sucker Punch thrown in for good measure (or, honestly, The Promised Neverland anime). Rita (Giuliana Santa Cruz) is a young girl who escapes from her abusive guardian, only to end up in a dour institution that’s full of angels and fantastical beings with incredible powers who need her help to take down the demons and witches that call the shots and oppress them.
Rita makes a meal out of the contrasting extremes that make up its narrative and how these mystical creatures have their wings clipped — figuratively and literally — through horrible abuse. Rita is a hauntingly beautiful dark fable that isn’t for everyone, but most will be hypnotized by the film’s remarkable visuals that don’t hold back. There’s a lot of seething rage that bubbles under the surface in Rita. However, it’s the eye-popping and sumptuous cinematography by Inti Briones that’s Rita’s secret weapon. It elegantly compliments the movie’s dark fantasy genre and themes.
Oddity
Directed by Damian McCarthy; Ireland
Damian Mc Carthy first made waves with 2020’s Caveat and this year’s Oddity illustrates that he’s only grown more accomplished as a filmmaker. Caveat and Oddity are both psychological horror films that are in conversation with each other, but Oddity packs a slightly stronger punch that is likely to stick with the audience long after it’s over. Set within the rich and unsettling world of curio and antique shops, Oddity follows a blind medium, Darcy (Carolyn Bracken, who also does double duty as Darcy’s twin, Dani), who tries to process her grief over her dead twin sister and simultaneously solve the mystery surrounding her murder.
The titular “oddity” is a life-sized wooden mannequin that’s such a perfect prop for this macabre horror story. McCarthy creates effective scares and tense sequences that gradually reach terrifying breaking points. Oddity grabs hold of the audience and doesn’t let go, plus it’s a rare horror movie that concludes on a truly perfect final shot. There’s a lot of Child’s Playand Dollsin Oddity. However, McCarthy should be the first name in the conversation if they ever remake the gonzo human anatomy dummy movie, Pin.
Lumberjack The Monster
Directed by Takashi Miike; Japan
Takashi Miike is a legendary director with an extremely diverse filmography that includes quirky musicals, clandestine rom-coms, samurai showdowns, kid-friendly ninja fare, and dozens of anime and video game adaptations. Miike has directed over 100 movies and shows no signs of slowing down. Despite his eclectic interests, horror has always been Miike’s greatest love and there’s just such a palpable energy when he indulges in his signature ultra-violence and soaks the screen in blood and guts. Lumberjack the Monster is a heightened slasher massacre that pits a desensitized psychopath against an axe-wielding serial killer with a twisted story that functions like Dexter meets Se7en.
Lumberjack the Monster creates a gripping mystery around its murders that grows increasingly convoluted, but in a manner that’s vintage Miike. There’s such a wild first act twist that turns this cat-and-mouse hunt into an entirely different story. Lumberjack the Monster was quietly buried on Netflix, but this is no reflection of its quality. It keeps the audience guessing until its final moments and it’s yet another scary, stylized triumph from one of Japan’s most fearless filmmakers.
Grafted
Directed by Sasha Rainbow; New Zealand
Sasha Rainbow’s Grafted is a subversive black comedy body horror masterpiece that’s like if Takashi Miike directed Face/Off as a Tales From the Crypt episode. Wei (Joyena Sun) is a Chinese exchange student who moves to New Zealand to live with her cousin after her father’s experiments with skin disease and facial disfigurements have fatal consequences. Wei, determined to finish her father’s life’s work, is pulled in different directions as she attempts to juggle her father’s science, her awkward social anxiety, and her desire to be comfortable in her own skin and find popularity.
Wei’s inability to fit in as an expat and her status as an “other” in a new country becomes a powerful emotional center to this bold, bloody spectacle. Sun’s performance is on a whole other level and she rises to the occasion with Wei’s incredible journey. Grafted accomplishes the right level of camp as she each act pushes the story to wilder places. In a year where The Substance largely dominated horror’s female-driven body horror narrative, Grafted is a worthy counterpart that composes a distinct symphony, albeit one that hits many of the same notes.
Exhuma
Directed by Jang Jae-hyun; South Korea
Jae-hyun Jang’s Exhuma, an atmospheric and immersive occult thriller that’s steeped in history and the sins of the past, broke box office records and became South Korea’s highest-grossing film of 2024. A mysterious grave’s excavation triggers a dangerous domino effect that unearths far more than just a body. Exhuma is steeped in class strife, wealth disparity, and a story that digs into family, lineage, and legacy. This all amplifies the foreboding narrative, only for it to grow increasingly unnerving and surreal as spirits strike and bodies drop. Exhuma explores the idea of what becomes of people – and their energy – after they die and how this can fester and spread to become rampant curses. It’s a mature and psychological approach to hauntings, negative power, and “ghost diseases.”
Oh, and there’s a giant samurai oni who starts slicing up bodies to balance the karmic scales.
Honorable Mentions: Handling The Undead (Norway), Grave Torture (Indonesia), Out Of Darkness (Scotland), Sayara (Turkey), The Moor (United Kingdom).
