For years, horror movies have gotten a bit of a bad rap in mainstream criticism. They’re schlocky, they’re filler, they’re not deep. And while campy, B-movie horror will always have a place in audiences’ hearts, there is a lot more to the genre. 2023 was an incredible year for horror movie releases and 2024 has continued that strong trend.

Despite strikes and hiccups, 2024 has been a banner year for horror. More and more original stories have been put to the screen, and even smaller releases are finding audiences (such as In a Violent Nature or I Saw the TV Glow.) But so far, the year’s top-grossing horror movies all have some key themes and factors in common — and these patterns are very interesting for horror moving forward.

2024’s Highest-Grossing Horror Movies Establish a New Trend

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It’s already been an incredible year for horror movies, and 2024 is only halfway through. From imaginary creatures to vampires to one very scary swimming pool, there has been no shortage of fresh, inventive stories conjuring up new scares. And while past “big” years for horror were often focused on major franchise reboots or additions, 2024 has been more about one-off stories and quiet additions to less flashy franchises.

Currently holding on to the top-grossing horror spot for the year is Night Swim. With a modest $15 million budget, this standalone film has raked in around $54 million at the box office. With a story that conjures up some Are You Afraid of the Dark? childhood fears for millennials who watched “The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float,” the movie focuses on something evil lurking in an inground pool and the family that evil terrorizes. Though the concept was memed online, there is something to be said for audiences craving anything new, and a haunted swimming pool isn’t your typical movie focus.

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The second highest-grossing horror film of the year is another franchise entry, but nothing so splashy as Halloween Ends or another Scream film. The First Omen acts as a prequel to 1976’s The Omen and follows a woman who uncovers a horrifying conspiracy to birth evil incarnate in Rome. Interestingly, it was released within mere weeks of another high-performing religious horror, Sydney Sweeney’s nun-centered Immaculate​​​​​​.

And though a less cerebral and more classic mid-budget horror fare, Tarot has also performed exceptionally well at the box office. This jumpscare-filled tale centers on a cursed Tarot deck that kills off a group of college kids one by one and has so far pulled in just over $37 million on a meager $8 million budget. In fact, horror is a notoriously scrappy genre, with filmmakers pulling off grand stories on conventionally smaller budgets, such as Damien Leone famously making his cult classic Terrifier for only $35,000.

Other entries into the top-grossing horror charts include even more unique, standalone stories, like Abigail‘s fresh spin on vampire lore or the threat of a childhood imaginary friend in Blumhouse’s Imaginary. The other entry into a horror franchise is The Strangers: Chapter 1. Even with less than stellar reviews, the first new Strangers movie in a planned trilogy release has so far made over $37 million at the box office.

What 2024 Means for the Horror Industry Moving Forward

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So what does that mean for the future of horror right now? 2023 and 2024 have both proven that audiences crave originality. From the success of Kyle Edward Ball’s ultra-low-budget Skinamarink to Jane Schoenbrun’s hauntingly personal I Saw the TV Glow, it is clear that studios need to trust more standalone stories and indie voices. After all, the beloved Evil Dead franchise and George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead franchise all started as small, independent films.

There is a lot to be said, too, for franchise fatigue. Despite John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise being a beloved icon, the (alleged) final two movies, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends were both met with disappointment and some derision. Interestingly, the horror movies out in 2024 that are continuations of established properties take on smaller, more niche or more sparsely populated franchises. The First Omen is only the sixth entry into The Omen franchise since 1976 and does not feature an instantly recognizable Big Bad that continually rises from the dead, like Halloween’s Michael Myers or Scream‘s rotating cast of Ghostfaces.

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Similarly, The Strangers: Chapter 1 is only the third movie in The Strangers film series, following the original release in 2008 and the sequel in 2018. By not over-inundating audiences with The Strangers movies, even the poorly reviewed new entry generated a lot of hype and got audiences into seats. Even when though The Strangers: Chapter 1 was part of an existing IP, it promised something relatively new.

There are also a lot of common themes in the year’s best-performing horror movies that break free of typical unkillable franchise villains or the more recent trend of the monster being a manifestation of personal trauma time and again. Instead, religious trauma continues to be a big trend, with both The First Omen and Immaculate finding box office success and praise from both critics and moviegoers. More women-centric stories are also showing great staying power. Abigail and Immaculate both focused on women as leads and crafted new and compelling narratives because of that.

Interestingly, childhood fears have also been a recurring motif. The concept of a loss of innocence is always an interesting one to explore in movies, and horror in particular plays well with that fear and trauma of growing up and the unknown. Imaginary takes the seemingly harmless and wholesome world of imaginary friends and turns it into one populated with demons while Night Swim takes the seemingly idyllic family swimming pool and turns it into an invasive nightmare. Judging by the recent successes, the overused formula of recycling IPs and causing franchise fatigue are becoming a dying breed.

How the Rest of 2024 Could Play Out

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The latter half of 2024 has some highly anticipated horror releases, including standalone films and quiet, smaller story continuations. Rather than using trailers that give everything away, Longlegs is building immense hype by keeping their marketing cryptic and drawing in audiences based on an aura and the allure of the unknown. It also promises to continue some successful patterns from the first half of the year, following a female protagonist and featuring creepy prayers that play right into religious trauma.

Other entries into existing universes are similarly small venture, with the only “major” franchise receiving a new film being Alien. Instead, Ti West’s trilogy featuring Mia Goth releases its third entry, Maxxxine, following the interconnected yet non-linear stories of X and Pearl​​​​​​. The surprise sleeper hit of 2022, Smile, also gets a follow-up film. And the low-budget sensation, Terrifier, sees its third film come out in October. Although each of these movies builds on an established world before it, they are decidedly more indie, smaller budget, and more niche than the juggernauts of old.

Thanks to original ideas, clever marketing, word-of-mouth hype, and indie voices portraying diverse points of view, horror has been having a renaissance. In a post-COVID world, the singular blockbuster era has seemingly changed for good. Instead, horror movies that lean into their unique points of view and truly have something to say will likely continue to find success for years to come. After all, there’s nothing scarier than the unknown, and that is a concept that is infinitely ripe for picking.