1. CORALIE FARGEAT

In her horror debut The Substance, French director Coralie Fargeat crafts a bloody body horror that peels away at a particular fear of womanhood—the cruelty of aging.

Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth, a fading actress who succumbs to her insecurities and undergoes a mysterious medical procedure. The result is a clone, portrayed by Margaret Qually, a younger, idealized woman crafted from Elisabeth’s DNA. In order to let her younger body thrive, Elisabeth is forced to follow the procedure’s main rule: the two bodies cannot coexist, and one must always be asleep. 

The Substance’s elevated style of horror is more polished than Fargeat’s first film, the gritty thriller Revenge (2017), which follows a sexual assault victim as she hunts down her abusers in the desert. In both features, Fargeat’s work is gory and confrontational, an exploration of female desires, fears, and how they overlap. 

The Substance premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, earning the Best Screenplay win, and is slated for wide release in September. 

See Rebecca Shuttleworth’s article on the film here. 

2. ISHANA NIGHT SHYAMALAN

Following in her father’s footsteps, a new Shyamalan has arrived on the horror scene with The Watchers (2024), a dark fantasy film based on A. M. Shine’s eponymous novel. Ishana Night Shyamalan’s directorial debut takes place deep in the Irish forests, where a young woman—played by Dakota Fanning—is forced to flee unseen monsters after her car mysteriously breaks down. With moments to spare, she finds refuge in a windowed bunker, which is already inhabited by other stranded travelers. Like the others, she finds herself trapped and at the mercy of the watchful creatures lurking beyond the glass. 

Despite this being her first feature, Shyamalan is no stranger to the horror genre, with writing and directing credits for several episodes of the horror series Servant on Apple TV. With her newest and biggest project yet, Shyamalan continues to establish her vivid and darkly imaginative style. 

The Watchers premiered June 7th.

3. JANE SCHOENBRUN

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) is the second horror film of nonbinary director and screenwriter Jane Schoenbrun. Their previous feature, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), received critical acclaim for its depiction of the ties between isolation and the internet. 

Schoenbrun’s slow-burn storytelling dives into the uncanny and surreal qualities of mundane life, a visual language which underscores the weight of queer identities in an unfriendly world. I Saw the TV Glow (2024) is Schoenbrun’s clearest exploration of this yet. Against the backdrop of an empty suburb, two misfit teens develop an obsession with a mysterious, supernatural TV show that begins to unravel their understanding of reality itself. The more they are drawn into the fictional world, the greater the distance grows between them and the lives they led before. 

I Saw the TV Glow saw a wide release in May and is currently streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime as well as other streaming services.

4. NATALIE ERIKA JAMES

After more than fifty years, the 1968 cult classic Rosemary’s Baby is getting a prequel with Natalie Erika James’s Apartment 7A (2024). The film follows a struggling professional dancer, played by Julia Garner, as she becomes acquainted with a mysterious socialite couple in her apartment building. Too vulnerable to keep her guard up, the dancer can’t resist the intriguing pair that seem to hold the key to her professional success. 

In her first film, Relic (2020), James displays a notable ability to blend traditional horror elements with complex and authentic emotions, the raw pain of losing a loved one to dementia. The film is a twist on the haunted house narrative, the story of a woman who moves in with her elderly mother to take care of her. As time passes, it becomes clear that her mother’s fear of an evil presence in the house is not just a symptom of the dementia. 

Apartment 7A is set to release this fall.

5. CAROLINE LINDY 

Your Monster (2024) is Caroline Lindy’s directorial debut, the feature adaptation of her 2020 short film of the same name. In this genre-bending, rom-com horror, Melissa Barrera plays Laura, a shy and self-conscious actress who grows attached to the humanoid monster she finds living in her closet. As the bond between them strengthens, the monster’s influence on Laura grows into something explosive and transformative.

Despite multiple shorts in various genres, Your Monster is Lindy’s first horror film. Her recent work—the short film Aspirational Slut—won an Audience Award at SXSW in 2022. 

Your Monster won Audience Favorite at its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival.