Horror at SXSW: Five standout scary movies from the 2024 festival

Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, and more brought their best new scares to this year's film fest

By Matthew Jackson  |  March 19, 2024 | 3:00pm
Film Features Cuckoo
Horror at SXSW: Five standout scary movies from the 2024 festival
Left to right: Cuckoo, Immaculate, Azrael, Birdeater (all images courtesy SXSW) Graphic: The A.V. Club

The film festival portion of South by Southwest is always packed with stars, bringing their would-be blockbusters out to Austin, Texas, for splashy premieres. But it’s also a festival that’s never lost sight of the power of genre. Through its Midnighters section and beyond, the annual movie extravaganza makes quite an effort to deliver the best in sci-fi, fantasy, and, of course, horror to audiences. This year was no different.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see every single horror film rolled out at SXSW this year, because I’m just one guy and it’s a big festival, but I did see quite a few that piqued my interest and even scared me right out of my seat. So, from big names to potential indie hits, here are five horror films from this year’s festival that you’ll want to put on your radar right now.

Azrael
Azrael
Samara Weaving in Image SXSW

Samara Weaving (The Babysitter, Ready Or Not) leads this high-concept chiller from director E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and writer Simon Barrett (You’re Next), and cements her place in the horror pantheon in ways she never has before. Weaving stars as the title character, a woman who’s taken a vow of silence in the wake of what appears to be the actual Biblical rapture, embarking on a quest for vengeance and survival in a fight against a strange cult. Because of the character’s muteness, the film is almost entirely without dialogue, which makes it both an interesting exercise in storytelling and a true tightrope of tension. If you love Weaving’s work, and you want to watch a horror film that unfolds like no other this year, don’t miss this one.Release Date: TBD

Birdeater
Birdeater – Official Trailer 2023 Drama, Thriller Movie HD

Easily the least crowd-pleasing of the films on this list (in a good way), Birdeater is a truly uncomfortable watch that will make you look twice at even your closest confidants. The setup is simple: In an effort to get his fiancée (Shabana Azeez) closer to his friend group, a groom-to-be (Mackenzie Fearnley) invites her to his bachelor weekend at a secluded house out in the woods. It’s a recipe for awkwardness, sure, but no matter how awkward and tense you’re expecting things to be, you’ll never see the depths of this one coming. It’s one of those films that keeps making you question every single relationship in its ensemble while never losing its grasp of character, tone, or pacing. That makes it brutal, but in the best way.Release Date: TBD

Cuckoo
Cuckoo Teaser Trailer (2024)

A young woman named Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) arrives in Germany with her father (Marton Csokas) and stepmother (Jessica Henwick), while still mourning her birth mother back home. It’s supposed to be a fresh start, but Gretchen can’t seem to shake the feeling that something’s off with their German benefactor (Dan Stevens). Then things get weird, and violent, and Gretchen is plunged into the nightmare that is Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo. While the film can be a bit tonally challenging as it tries to navigate the ground between slasher and creature feature, Schafer and Stevens are both doing tremendous work in the lead roles, and the creature design, when it appears, will stick in your head for days.Release Date: May 3

Immaculate
IMMACULATE | Official Trailer | In Cinemas March 22

Sydney Sweeney’s much-hyped horror project blew into SXSW as one of the most-anticipated of the entire festival, and it mostly delivered on all that buzz. Starring Sweeney (who also produced) as a nun who immaculately conceives a child shortly after arriving at a convent in Italy, Immaculate is blessed with knowing exactly the kind of film it is, and never letting up on that vibe. At its best it’s a jump scare-laden, squirm-inducing piece of nunsploitation horror, driven by Sweeney’s fiercely committed performance. At its worst, it falls back on some of Catholic horror’s most well-worn tropes, but that’s enough to dull the impact, particularly once you’ve gotten to the final scene.Release Date: March 22

 
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