It’s been a year punctuated by a lot of alright or pretty-good movies, with a few gems emerging as the best among a batch of mid-tier titles. If one genre has thrived in 2024, though, it’s undoubtedly horror.

Here are 10 performances that gave me great joy or moved me deeply—or both—in the last year. Every one is a tribute to what actors, at their best, can do—and a reason to keep going to the movies, one of the best ways to feel connected to other humans in an often inhumane world.

She doesn't merely do a serviceable job for a mainstream horror movie - she commits fully to the script's intense demands and delivers a performance that, in a just world, would be courting awards buzz tight now.