Welcome, spookies, to Graveyard Shifts and our inaugural post! Today I am taking you through my favourites of 2024 so far; this year has been a whopper for horror! With a mix of straight horror, sequels, and comedy on my list, this year’s offering has some strong contenders for the top spot of my favourite of all time. Without further ado and in no particular order, here are my tops of the year.
MaXXXine (dir. Ti West)
“I will not accept a life I do not deserve!” My mantra since I saw X in late 2022, MaXXXine did not disappoint me. A glittering, glamorous, heart-stopping, ball-stomping wild ride, MaXXXine follows our Maxine Minx finding her stardom after the traumas of X. Say goodbye to the blue eyeshadow of the 70s and hello to the bouncing blonde curls of the 80s it’s a new decade and Maxine is determined to make a life worthy of her stardom. Now cast in a high-profile horror flick, Maxine is ready to leave the world of adult film behind and become a red-carpet star. However, someone knows her bloody past and is picking off Hollywood’s brightest to get to her. MaXXXine sees Miss Minx as a badass survivor, an eternal final girl, not afraid to crush balls under her heel in a dark alleyway. We also learn a little more about her youth, seeing her performing for her father with a very familiar dance routine. (Has Pearl been giving you tips?) Overall, this was a wild ride, a fun end to a strong trilogy, one of my summer faves of the year.
Abigail (dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett)
“Sammy, those are fucking onions!” Of course, onions are not as effective as garlic against vampires but in the world of Abigail, garlic doesn’t do a thing either! A brilliantly funny Radio Silence horror, Abigail follows a crime gang as they kidnap miniature ballerina Abigail and guard her while they wait for the ransom money from her father. And then it all goes wrong. Between great action pieces, a beautiful setting of the Guinness Manor, and more fake blood than the whole of Ireland could provide, Abigail delivers scares and laughs in abundance. Plus the dance scene with Alisha Weir and Kathryn Newton is absolutely beautiful and iconic and will be replayed for years to come. A crime flick turned monster movie, the twist was spoiled by the marketing for many but if you are like me and missed the message, it is worth watching unspoiled. All I knew was that there was a monster twist and it is so worth not knowing more.
Lisa Frankenstein (dir. Zelda Williams)
“When you cry it smells like a hot toilet at a carnival!” Kathryn Newton strikes again! This time as the 80s teen Lisa Swallows who’s just trying to find her place in this world. And body parts for her undead boyfriend. She’s trying to find those too. After a freak accident raises a young bachelor from the dead, he sticks by Lisa. What follows is a twisted web of events that weaves around Lisa’s school, family, and life that threatens to expose Lisa and her creature to the world – or at least their small, late 20th century American town. Trading a mad scientist for a sewing teen and lightening for a tanning bed, Lisa Frankenstein is a great modern(-ish) take on Mary Shelley’s sci-fi classic with equal parts funny and romantic, this is my kind of rom-com.
Alien: Romulus (dir. Fede Alvarez)
“I can’t lie about your chances… but you have my sympathies.” Oh my God this movie was so good! Not since the original has an Alien movie made me so successfully spooked. A brilliant injection of fresh, flesh-melting blood into the franchise that was so hyped and for good reason. It was received happily by critics and fans alike and it’s not hard to see why! Taking place 20 years after Ripley jettisoned herself into space in Alien and 37 years before she was found again in Aliens, Romulus follows a group of young people just trying to make a better life for themselves by stealing cryo pods to sleep their way to a better colony than the smog choked colony they currently call home. Of course, what do we find on the ship they’re stealing the pods from? The extra-terrestrial reason the ship is abandoned. The ship, you might have guessed, is the titular Romulus with it’s nearby sister ship, Remus, named after the Roman mythological twins. The aesthetics are beautifully inspired by Alien: Isolation (2014) which was teenage me’s first video game I bought for my laptop after a childhood of Nintendo consoles. Amidst the terror is a fun exploration of what Weyland Yutani really want and why they keep putting people in danger’s scaly, acid blooded path. If you’re like me and like knowing when everything in a franchise takes place, here is the current timeline: Prometheus (2012) taking place in 2093, Alien: Covenant (2017) in 2104, Alien (1979) in 2122, Alien: Isolation (2014) in 2137, Alien: Romulus (2024) in 2142, Aliens (1986) in 2179, Alien 3 (1992) following later in 2179, Alien Resurrection (1997) taking place nearly three centuries after this saga started in 2381.
Longlegs (dir. Osgood Perkins)
“It seems I wore my long legs today.” If this guy came to my door I will not be letting him in now, it will not be nice. What does it say about these women that Nicolas Cage and director Osgood Perkins made the movie as a tribute to their mothers? Delightfully creepy and brimming with the Satanic panic (and Bill Clinton) Longlegs sees horror legend Maika Monroe (she’s a legend to me, okay?) starring as FBI agent Lee Harker decoding messages and hunting down serial killer Longlegs who’s been killing in a very particular way. Who is the man down the stairs? Longlegs has so many mysteries that make it well worth a rewatch if only to find how the devil truly becomes a character in its own right. The marketing made this such an anticipated movie because it gave us nothing. It basically said that there was a movie coming and everyone wanted to find out what the hell was going on. This was actually Cage’s highest grossing live-action film in 13 years – passing 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengance, if you were wondering. Creepy, beautifully shot, and a cameo from the original Annabelle doll. What more could you want?
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (dir. Tim Burton)
“The juice is loose!” Over three decades in the making, the sequel is here! I know it wasn’t for everyone, especially considering what a classic the original is, but it’s absolutely for me! Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sees Lydia grown up with a ghost show and a daughter of her own, played by Jenna Ortega slotting into the cast absolutely brilliantly. Following a family tragedy that brings Delia, Lydia, and Astrid back to the house from the original, Beetlejuice comes back to the land of the living for the three generation of Deetz women to deal with. Everything I’ve read on the production makes it sound like it was a great set to work on and in all the interviews I’ve seen the cast have such great things to say about the production which I love and I feel like that really translates into the final product. I won’t give too much away since it’s the most recent movie on my list, only coming out last month, but it feels like a labour of love.
There’s still time left in the year for something to blow me away and I’m so excited for what 2025 has in store for us in horror. My most anticipated upcoming movies include Nosferatu (2024), Saw XI (2025), They Follow (TBC), and Haunt Season coming to streaming later this month! Did I include your favourites for the year? Thanks for reading! Catch you next time, spookies.
Graveyard Shifts 
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