During an era in which cinema screens are dominated by blockbuster action spectacles and superhero showdowns, indie studio A24 has made a name for itself by creating original, compelling, and often terrifying films. The production company's talent for intermixing timely societal themes with visceral horror and psychological thrills has made many of its films unforgettably striking and admirably ambitious.

A host of up-and-coming and vastly experienced revolutionary horror auteurs such as Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, and Joel Edgerton have partnered with the studio to create twisted films that keep audiences up at night. Be warned. If you read on, you might struggle to sleep too.

Updated on April 21, 2023, by Ryan Heffernan:

With the studio’s recent action film Everything Everywhere All at Once an unprecedented, Oscar-winning success, A24 has ascended beyond small-time artistic auteurism and become an essential cornerstone within modern cinema. However, the indie production house has shown no sign of departing the ground-breaking, twisted horror which has so defined its rampant popularity over the past decade. Ari Aster’s winding nightmare Beau is Afraid has already hit cinemas and the trailer to the upcoming Aussie horror Talk to Me has turned heads, ensuring A24’s commitment to twisted horror is as strong as it ever has been.

13 'Enemy' (2013)

College history professor Adam Bell (Jake Gyllenhaal) stands against a blackboard in 'Enemy'.
Image via A24

Like all great horror films, we're gently easing you into a false sense of security with this list. Though Enemy, directed by renowned filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, doesn't necessarily fit the parameters of a horror film, it is still a challenging film to both watch and decipher.

Anchored by two excellent Jake Gyllenhall performances, the film follows a man who begins to look for his doppelgänger after seeing him in a film. The film explores identity and manhood without offering clear answers on either subject. However, it earns its place on this list thanks to one of the most shocking final scenes ever put to screen.

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12 'Green Room' (2016)

Darcy (Patrick Stewart) hangs around a seedy, graffiti-covered area in 'Green Room'.
Image via A24

Patrick Stewart plays the leader of a Neo-nazi gang; need we say anything else about Green Room? Jeremy Saulnier wrote and directed the film, which follows a punk band who are forced to fight for their lives after witnessing a murder. The decision to cast Stewart, better known for playing beacons of morality such as Jean-Luc Picard and Professor X, as such a despicable character was a masterstroke.

Saulnier uses the grimy locations to his advantage, creating a claustrophobic thrill ride as the greatly-missed Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, and Joe Cole fight to survive. It all culminates to be a relentlessly heart-pounding and striking thriller with an uncanny knack for using its characters – and its violence – to creep under the audience's skin.

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11 'It Comes at Night' (2017)

Joel Edgerton, his family, and the strangers at the dinner table in It Comes At Night.
Image via A24

Just the second feature film from writer-director Trey Edward Shults, It Comes at Night takes the exhilarating terror of apocalyptic horror and meshes it with a contained intensity that made for gripping viewing. With the outside world decimated by an unnatural threat, it follows an uneasy alliance between a family surviving in a remote house and another younger family seeking refuge.

While the film utilizes the age-old horror concept that what audiences can’t see is far more terrifying than what is in plain sight, it also draws every ounce of suspense out of the complex and the deteriorating dynamic between the two families. The end result is a compact psychological thriller loaded with twists and turns that keep audiences on edge.

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10 'Lamb' (2021)

María (Rapace) screams at someone while Ingvar (Guðnason) nurtures their lamb child.
Image via A24

An underappreciated modern gem of folk horror, Lamb offers a gripping concoction of eerie terror, family drama, and grounded fantasy. Valdimar Jóhannsson’s directorial debut follows a childless couple living in remote Iceland who discover a lamb/human hybrid child in their barn and take it as their own, stoking the ire of mother nature in the process.

An unnerving psychological horror film, it stakes its brilliance on leading duo Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guonason whose flawless performances bring a harrowing, grounded weight to the film’s surface-level absurdity. It’s not without its flaws, but it manages to creep under the audiences’ skin with a peculiar charm, surprising comedy, and a nightmarish ability to haunt.

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9 'Men' (2022)

Harper (Jessie Buckley) stands in a hallway looking petrified of something.
Image via A24

While Alex Garland has become something of a living legend in the realms of science-fiction entertainment, Men was just his third feature film director’s credit and offered one of A24’s most twisted films to date. It follows Harper (Jessie Buckley), a woman reeling from a personal tragedy whose vacation to the English countryside takes a haunting turn when she begins being stalked by someone – or something – from the woods.

Rich with contemplative and often disturbing social allegory, the A24 horror film sets its sights on issues of misogyny and the patriarchy with unapologetic intent. Its true brilliance though comes in mixing those themes with a thought-provoking story elevated by Buckley’s and Rory Kinnear’s performances, the heart-pounding narrative turns, and a number of terrifying scenes that shake you to the core.

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8 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' (2017)

Steven performing tests on Martin in The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
Image via A24

Any film that opens with footage from a real open-heart operation fully deserves its place on this list. The Killing of a Sacred Deer saw Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos re-team with A24 after his dark comedy The Lobster earned rave reviews.

Lanthimos' second project with the indie company saw the director head in a different direction, moving away from The Lobster's surreal, satirical tone, instead telling a dark, supernatural story about life, death, and revenge. Barry Keoghan excels in his disturbing role, and this performance is undoubtedly one of the reasons Matt Reeves chose to cast him as The Joker in The Batman.

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7 'Under the Skin' (2014)

Laura (Scarlett Johansson) sits and watches from the front seat of a vehicle.
Image via A24

Not only is Under the Skin one of A24's strangest films to date, but it's also one of the strangest films of the last decade. And to be clear, we mean that in the best possible way. Jonathan Glazer's film, which is loosely based on Michel Faber's novel, sees Scarlett Johansson play a predatory alien making her way along the Scottish countryside, where she picks up men to lure into a strange black liquid that consumes them.

The film explores humanity through the eyes of a total newcomer to the planet, prompting questions about how we live our lives and interact with one another. There are a handful of authentic horror moments embedded within Glazer's somewhat bleak film, but his take on humanity is thorough, touching, and deserves to be seen by all.

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6 'X' (2022)

Mia Goth does a "shush" motion while being lit by a dull red light in 'X'.
Image via A24

X excelled as a recent reminder of just how warped an A24 film can be. Writer/director Ti West recruited Jenna Ortega, Mia Goth, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), and Brittany Snow for his 1979-set film, in which a set of young filmmakers rent a barn from a repressed elderly couple with the intention of shooting the best adult film ever seen.

But things get awfully bloody awfully quickly when their hosts realize the group's true intentions. West finds an abundance of creative, unique ways to create tension throughout, and he relishes in gore-filled scenes that are bound to unsettle even the toughest of stomachs.

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5 'Pearl' (2022)

Mia Goth doing the quiet sign while looking down at someone in Pearl.
Image via A24

After Ti West’s reflective slasher X became a surprise cult hit of 2022, horror fans eagerly anticipated A24’s prequel Pearl. Following Mia Goth’s scream queen and titular antagonist, it tracks Pearl on her rapid descent from an aspiring starlet waiting on her husband to return from the war to a murderous farm girl breaking free from her spiteful repression with a crazed bloodlust.

Whereas X excelled as a throwback to slasher cinema of the late 70s, Pearl placed far more emphasis on its characters, a decision which allowed Goth to showcase the full extent of her talents as the deeply tragic and violently intriguing Pearl. The end result is a striking and unforgettable horror movie that matches its predecessor for blood and gore and arguably surpasses it as a viscerally chilling masterpiece.

4 'The Lighthouse' (2019)

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe stand together in 'The Lighthouse'
Image via A24

Granted, the premise for Robert Eggers' highly-anticipated follow-up to The Witch doesn't sound particularly scary. The Lighthouse follows a pair of lighthouse keepers (played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) who must try to retain their sanity while living on a remote island in the 1890s.

Eggers opted to shoot the film in black and white, which feels like an intentional nod to the horror films of early cinema. The lighthouse the characters work in is both isolated and claustrophobic, ensuring that the film's descent into madness feels earned. Throw in a sex scene with a mermaid (no, we're not joking) and a little bit of gore, and you've got one of the most absorbing films A24 has ever made.

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3 'The Witch' (2015)

Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) stands in the dark, illuminated by the glow of a fire.
Image via A24

Have you ever wondered what life was like for 17th Century Puritans? The Witch has your answer. Robert Egger's directorial debut had an intimate focus on the fears and anxieties that could spread through these communities faster than the flu. The fear of the supernatural is enough to bring a group to its knees, transforming a gust of wind into the howl of an angry witch. Playing on this, Eggers uses the film as a character study, showing the breakdown of a family from the inside out.

The film features an exceptional cast, including Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, and Anya Taylor-Joy, whose role as Thomasin helped transform her into the household name she is today. The slow-burn tale builds tension and dread until the third act, which is left open to interpretation. As far as debut films go, they don't get much better than this.

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2 'Hereditary' (2018)

Annie Graham (Toni Collette) recoils in terror in 'Hereditary'.
Image via A24

What more is there left to say about Ari Aster's bone-chilling debut, Hereditary? The film follows a grieving family who begins to experience strange and disturbing occurrences, thrilling audiences upon its release in 2018. It was excellently cast, featuring chilling performances from the likes of Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff, but it also signaled the dawn of the new horror film.

What sets it apart, you ask? Well, though it would be easy to label Hereditary as an arthouse horror film, it's the relentless dread and misery that truly set it apart from other films. The first shocking twist arrives after about twenty minutes, and from there on, the horror is relentless, making watching Hereditary a somewhat difficult experience. Grief, regret, and disappointment eventually become something much darker, culminating in a third act that is everything we look for in horror: crazy, horrific, relentless, and genuinely terrifying.

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1 'Midsommar' (2019)

Dani (Florence Pugh) cries with support from the commune in 'Midsommar'.
Image via A24

It's hard to believe that a horror film set almost entirely in glorious, bright sunlight could be as disturbing as Ari Aster's second A24 film, Midsommar. Though a slower burn than Hereditary, Midsommar is the most twisted A24 film due to the matter-of-fact way the horrors are presented. Set at a Swedish Mid-summer festival, the film follows a group of young adults who arrive at the festival expecting an idyllic getaway but instead find themselves at the hands of a Pagan cult.

Florence Pugh delivers a career-best performance as Dani, a girl who, after her parents and sister's death, becomes desperate to hold onto her unloving and uncaring boyfriend (Jack Reynor) so she'll never have to be alone in the world. Much like Hereditary, Aster has extensively researched the focus of his horror, suggesting that festivals such as these happen, and there's nothing we can do to prevent that. The juxtaposition of the horrific acts and the picturesque settings only heighten the unease. Midsommar proves that Aster is by no means a one-trick pony; in fact, we have a feeling that he's just getting started.

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NEXT: The Best A24 Horror Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb