The 10 Scariest Jumpscares in A24 Horror Movies, Ranked

A24 horror movies have earned a unique reputation for their willingness to deviate from the conventions of the genre. However, while most horror movies made and/or distributed by the company are indeed responsible for challenging the genre’s tropes, they still employ one of the most iconic elements of the horror genre: jumpscares.

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Some of A24’s jump scares look like the traditional horror trope, while others are a bit different, generating their scariness via the context in which they appear. However, regardless of how they’re used, these jumpscares have played a major role in A24’s rise to prominence within the horror genre.

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10 Dani Sees a Figure in the Mirror While on Drugs

Midsommar

A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown’s fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Director: Ari Aster
Release Date: July 3, 2019
Studio: Paramount – A24
Cast: Florence Pugh , will poulter , Jack Reynor , William Jackson Harper
Runtime: 148 minutes

Midsommar is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster featuring Florence Pugh in one of the most impressive performances of her career so far. Her character is Dani, a young woman who loses her entire family in a tragic murder-suicide committed by her depressed sister. As she struggles to deal with losing her sister and both her parents, her relationship with her toxic boyfriend Christian falls apart. When Christian and his college friends decide to go to Sweden to visit the village that Pelle, one of their friends, comes from, Dani tags along having no idea how much her life would change after this trip.

The amazingly-written script creates an unsettling psychological horror that doesn’t rely on jumpscares by any means. However, there’s a scene in the first act of the movie that does have a classic type of jumpscare, and it’s so unexpected and spooky that it serves to remind the audience this is a horror movie. When the group arrives in the grassy fields near the village, they are offered hallucinogenic mushrooms. Fighting off a bad trip, Dani goes into a dark toilet cabin and lights a match. The figure of her dead sister appears in the mirror behind Dani and then quickly disappears, while Dani’s face becomes distorted. Then, Dani gets out of the cabin running and a dramatically loud score kicks in when she opens the door.

9 Howard Breaks Lorraine’s Finger

X (2022)

In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.

Director: Ti West
Release Date: March 18, 2022
Cast: Mia Goth , Jenna Ortega , Brittany Snow , Kid Cudi
Writers: Ti West
Runtime: 105 minutes
Production Company: Little Lamb

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X is a 2022 slasher about a group of young filmmakers who set out to make an adult film on an elderly couple’s rural Texas property. The Ti West movie featuring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow and other amazing actors is helping to revive the slasher subgenre, and it’s a great example of how A24 horror movies aren’t only psychological slow-burners. Jenna Ortega plays Lorraine, a quiet and religious young woman who agrees to help out without knowing they are making a pornographic film.

In the sequence where Lorraine wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t find her boyfriend RJ, she runs into the old man who owns the property — Howard. He convinces her to go get a flashlight in the cellar in the basement and locks her up in there. After a disturbing discovery of what’s in the basement with her, Lorraine finds an ax and desperately opens a hole in the basement door. As she puts her arm through the hole in the door and tries to unlock it, Howard’s shadow suddenly appears along with a jumpy sound effect. He hits her hand three times, breaking her finger.

8 Wayne Looks Through The Wrong Hole

X

Martin Henderson as Wayne Gilroy in his death scene from the movie X

Although somewhat predictable, Wayne’s death scene in X is so uncomfortable and scary that it deserves to be mentioned. There are some situations regarding physical pain that are universal fears and work well in slasher movies. Some of the most common “body horror” fears are having teeth pulled out, skin peeled off or eyes pierced.

Wayne’s death scene in X starts with him walking inside the barn late at night. He steps on a nail sticking out of a wooden board on the floor, and falls down in excruciating pain. Wayne then hears something outside and peeps through holes in the wall, when suddenly something is pushed through them and pierces his eyes. The entire scene is hard to watch because the viewer can imagine the pain of stepping on a nail, and the jumpscare towards the end of it is terrifying despite it being easy to imagine something would be pushed through those holes.

7 The Monster Breaks Through the Car Window

The Monster (2016)

A mother and daughter must confront a terrifying monster when they break down on a deserted road.

Director: Bryan Bertino
Release Date: November 11, 2016
Cast: Zoe Kazan , Ella Ballentine , Keira Knightley , Aaron Douglas , Christine Ebadi , Marc Hickox , Scott Speedman , Chris Webb , Meeko
Writers: Bryan Bertino
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Budget: $3 Million
Studio(s): Atlas Independent , Unbroken Pictures
Distributor(s): A24

The Monster is a 2016 movie written and directed by Bryan Bertino, starring Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine. A woman named Kathy (Kazan) and her teenage daughter Lizzy (Ballentine) get stranded at night on a dark road waiting for a tow truck, where a terrifying monster begins to hunt them. A tow truck driver shows up, but he’s attacked by the monster before he can finish repairing their car.

As the mother and daughter hide inside their car, the music from Lizzy’s teddy bear gives away their location. Terrified, Kathy makes a “shush” gesture with her finger to Lizzy and is soon interrupted by loud sound effects and a figure grabbing her from her back. Although both the characters and the audience are expecting the monster to show up again at this point, the intensity of how he breaks through the car window and drags Kathy out of the car makes the viewers jump off their seats.

6 Peter’s Demons Haunt Him In His Sleep

Hereditary

A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.

Director: Ari Aster
Release Date: June 8, 2018
Studio: A24
Cast: Toni Collette , Milly Shapiro , Gabriel Byrne , Alex Wolff
Writers: Ari Aster
Runtime: 127 minutes

Hereditary is the 2018 horror movie that marks Ari Aster’s directorial debut. Toni Collette brilliantly plays the protagonist Annie, a miniatures artist whose secretive mother recently died. Annie, her husband and children are tormented by a supernatural force that they eventually realize is a powerful demon that Annie’s mother hoped to summon to Earth. Annie’s son Peter is played by Alex Wolff. He’s the character that goes through the most disturbing situations, from accidentally decapitating his little sister in a car accident to being possessed by a spirit that makes him break his nose by hitting his head on a school desk.

In one of the film’s scariest scenes, Peter wakes up in the middle of the night and sees his dead sister Charlie in a dark corner of his room. Her head falls from her shoulders, and it turns out to be a ball that rolls across the bedroom floor. Then he notices their dog standing by the door, looking at him. In a jumpscare, a hand suddenly gets into the frame and grabs his head from behind. Two arms start holding his head down on the bed and strangle him. The scene ends with no explanation, adding to the mystery of the family’s struggle.

Peter Graham looks down in horror and his mother Annie looms on the ceiling, blurry in the background in Hereditary

5 Howard Shoots Lorraine From Out Of Nowhere

X

Following the sequence where Lorraine’s fingers are broken, Maxine finds her and helps her get out of the basement. Completely distraught, Lorraine cries uncontrollably and screams at Maxine. Although Maxine tries to calm Lorraine down, Lorraine doesn’t trust Maxine anymore.

That’s when Lorraine makes the worst possible decision. She runs out of the house, and Howard shoots her from the side. X has many other jumpscares, but this one is the scariest because the audience can relate to Lorraine’s despair during the scene and the gunshot is completely unexpected.

4 Amanda’s Face Gets Distorted

Saint Maud

A pious nurse becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient.

Director: Rose Glass
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Cast: Morfydd Clark , Jennifer Ehle , Lily Frazer
Runtime: 84 minutes

Saint Maud is Rose Glass’ feature debut and one of the scariest A24 movies. Morfydd Clark plays Maud, a religious nurse with questionable mental health who starts caring for a four-stage cancer patient called Amanda, played by Jennifer Ehle. Maud becomes obsessed with saving Amanda’s soul, but her own might be more at risk.

The movie is almost completely devoid of jumpscares, but one around the one-hour mark is extremely memorable. In this sequence in the transition to the third act, Amanda and Maud are talking and Maud suddenly starts crying. Unexpectedly, Amanda’s body is propelled upwards, and her face is bizarrely distorted.

3 Riley Bites Jade’s Hand After Succumbing To The Effects Of Their Possession

Talk to Me

When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

Director: Danny Philippou , Michael Philippou
Release Date: July 28, 2023
Cast: Sophie Wilde , Joe Bird , Alexandra Jensen , Otis Dhanji
Runtime: 94 minutes

Danny and Michael Philippou’s feature directorial debut film titled Talk to Me is one of A24’s most recent releases and one of 2023’s most discussed movies. In this terrifying tale of demonic possession, a group of teenagers discovers how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. This soon gets completely out of control, with Joe Bird’s character Riley being one of the possessed teens that suffers the most.

After being unconscious in the hospital for a while, Riley briefly regains consciousness. His sister Jade tries talking to him, but he suddenly bites her hand. This terrifying jumpscare is followed by one of the movie’s most disturbing scenes, with Riley hitting his head against the wall to the point of breaking the tiles and licking his own blood off the floor. Even though this is Joe Bird’s first major movie role, his talent is undeniable when watching this scene.

Mia sits in a bathrobe in front of an enormous speaker system in Talk to Me

2 Travis Has a Nightmare About Being Infected

It Comes at Night

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It Comes at Night is a 2017 psychological horror film written and directed by Trey Edward Shults. It’s set in a post-apocalypse world where two families need to share a home and fight together to keep an evil force out, facing the paranoia of whether they can trust each other. Played by Kelvin Harrison, 17-year-old Travis is haunted by disturbing nightmares that foreshadow events in the movie and may be a symptom of the virus outbreak the characters are trying to survive.

In one of his nightmares, three consecutive jumpscares make the scene increasingly more disturbing after each one. At first, the tension builds up with the camera focusing on his expression as Travis sees something out of frame. The first jumpscare comes with him apparently waking up and realizing he’s infected, full of marks on his arms and vomiting blood. Then he looks up and a second one comes with a hard cut to his dead grandfather, who’s also vomiting blood. And the third comes when he actually wakes up, still plagued by the imagery of his nightmare.