From humble beginnings to cultural phenomenon
For over a century, filmmakers worldwide have been scaring audiences with visual tales of terror. Each passing decade has seen the genre expand, adding new ideas and further pushing the creative envelope. As with all genres, innovation and bold new filmmaking approaches to horror keep things fresh.
As Halloween approaches, now is the perfect time to discover or re-experience the full range of A24 horrors.
Arriving on the film scene in 2012, A24 quickly established itself as a place that championed new creative minds. It was also clear that, as an independent studio/distributor, they had little interest in doing anything ‘the Hollywood way.’
For over a decade, A24 has produced a vast catalog of groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and meaningful films that have left an indelible mark on audiences. Oscar-winners Everything Everywhere All At Once and Moonlight confirmed that A24 was here to stay. And their approach to horror films helped birth a new sub-genre of elevated horror.
From surrealist to nightmarish, A24 horror films are unique and continue to leave lasting impressions on audiences worldwide. So, what is it about the A24 approach that makes such phenomenal horror films?
Auteur-driven filmmaking
A24 has set itself apart by collaborating with visionary new filmmakers and giving them complete creative freedom.
Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) is so impactful because of its unsettling style, using purposeful framing to communicate how a particular character feels. Aster’s evolution was on full display in his next film, Midsommar (2019). The methodical camera movements were still there, but the bright, dreamlike setting perfectly juxtaposed the awaiting darkness.
Emphasis on psychological horror
A jump scare in most horrors is as expected as an explosion in an action movie. While it’s a genre staple, all that energy spent building tension dissipates instantly. A24 horror films trade more in slow-burn dread and unease, the kind that builds into feeling deeply uncomfortable.
In Trey Edward Shults’s It Comes At Night (2017), a family who survived an unspecified disaster becomes suspicious of the couple they took in. As tensions mount, a deep dread creeps in as the dark nature of humanity takes form.
A24 makes horror films that get under your skin and engulf the mind. From the ill-at-ease of the quiet country village in Men, to the swirling anxiety of Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the paranoia is soaked into every frame.
Genre blending
None of A24’s films can be neatly categorized, and as a result, they’ve created some genuinely unique genre cocktails. This fluid approach to storytelling conventions helps create a sense of the unexpected in all A24 films.
Alex Garland’s Ex Machina takes elements from sci-fi, which steadily evolves into a psychological horror. Even films that aren’t strictly horror, such as Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario (featuring another wonderous performance from Nicolas Cage), can take us to some dark places.
On the other side of the genre-blending, Halina Reij’s Bodies Bodies Bodies takes a traditional slasher set up of youngsters partying and bolts on a sinfully good dark comedy. It’s as funny as it is scary.
Character-centric narratives
While plenty of their films feature supernatural or traditional horror antagonistic forces, A24 films focus more on the horrors of the human condition. These highly relatable stories draw the audience into the narrative in deeply personal ways.
From the layered family dynamics of Ari Aster’s Hereditary to religious devotion taken to the extreme in Rose Glass’s Saint Maud (2019), the full complexities of human nature are on display. Most A24 horror films let the characters drive the story forward.
Unconventional storytelling
Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end, but nobody said it had to be presented in that order. A finite ending where everything gets neatly wrapped up isn’t always required. Take the surrealist structure of Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013) — the fragmented style only creates a more sinking dread for both characters played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Osgood Perkins’s directorial debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, is a tremendous achievement and a great example of a nonlinear narrative working to the story’s advantage.
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Atmospheric world-building
From the oppressive isolation of Robert Egger’s The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019) to the vibrantly sun-soaked (yet sinister) commune in Midsommar, the worlds created in A24 horror films are stunning. The attention to detail creates immersive worlds for audiences to inhabit.
It is worth highlighting that the extreme weather conditions seen in The Lighthouse were genuine as the film was shot on location in Cape Forchu. The real-world locations result in a textured, believable world regardless of the setting.
Minimal use of CGI
You’ll find no digital effects-heavy horrors at A24 as they continue championing the use of real locations and practical effects. CGI is used sparingly so audiences get a more authentic experience.
The meticulous recreations of The Witch’s 1600s New England were all made for real. The shocking transformations in Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Spring (2014) resulted from painstaking practical effects. These tactile details make an immeasurable difference.
Thought-provoking themes
Challenging themes sit at the heart of every A24 film, but horror is frequently the ideal platform to explore human conditions. Grief and trauma are recurring central themes, but as there is no one way to process those, the stories they create can be wildly (and wonderfully) diverse.
The nature of self-blame, loss, and toxic masculinity is central to Alex Garland’s folk horror Men (2022). With the recent death of her husband, Harper (Jessie Buckley) seeks solace in some time alone in the countryside. Her time to heal is perpetually disturbed by various men in the town (all played by Rory Kinnear), which gives way to a waking nightmare and an unforgettable finale.
Innovative marketing
Too many films give away too much in their trailers long before they arrive in cinemas. A24 horror films take a different path by adopting a less is more, but intriguing is better, approach. A24 trailers showcase the atmosphere and are frequently more cryptic than expositionary.
This even filters down to the artwork for their posters, with the minimalist design for The Witch, the extreme closeup of Florence Plugh for Midsommar, and the eerie underpass from Men — strong images that evoke powerful reactions but give nothing away.
Subversion of horror tropes
Taking familiar horror settings like the haunted house or the slasher genre, A24 knows how to put a fresh spin on something old. Take Ti West’s X (2022). The setup is pure vintage slasher, but what he serves up is something progressive. Lee Croin’s The Hole in the Ground (2019) takes conventions from the traditional haunted house movie, relocating them to the most unlikely places.
Limited exposition
Most horrors go to great lengths to explain the why, the what, and the how. A24 films favor ambiguity instead of exposition, which is a big part of why their movies create discussions. The nature of the unseen threat in It Comes at Night or the specifics of how the entity came to be in The Lighthouse don’t really need definitive answers.
A24 horror films might ask a little more from audiences, but it makes for a more rewarding viewer experience.
Multidimensional female characters
Female characters in A24 films cannot be defined by traits such as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘strong.’ More authentically, their movies feature multifaceted female characters with recognizable flaws, weaknesses, hopes, loves, and fears.
Take, for example, Toni Collette’s powerful portrayal of Annie Graham, a grieving mother whose life is unraveling in Hereditary. Her pain is tragic yet utterly relatable, with emotions such as rage and depression often coexisting in the same scene. Annie Graham is not a character that could be singularly defined as being ‘vulnerable.’
The same can be said for Florence Plurgh’s Dani Ador from Midsommar, Mia Goth in Pearl and MaXXXine, Anya Taylor-Joy as Ellie from The Witch, and so many more. It’s this throughline that makes A24 horror films resonate with audiences.
A source of inspiration
Artlist has a huge range of high-quality creative assets to fit any type of video. Using A24-inspired music, sound effects, and footage collections put together by our catalog’s curators, together with this title template and the Gloom AI voiceover, we created this mock movie trailer in the A24 style.
A24 is here to stay
A24 films stand out in the oversaturated horror genre for their creative freedom, genre experimentation, deeply authentic character work, and strong visual and thematic storytelling. They excel at producing unique stories that stay with you long after the credits roll.
Whether it’s an atmospheric horror, a tender coming-of-age drama, a dark comedy, or an existential sci-fi, A24 films offer an art-house sensibility to every aspect of their projects. Blending the cerebral, emotional, and nightmarish, A24 has set a new high standard in horror. Long may they continue to make unconventional, uncompromising, and unmissable cinema.
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