My 10 Favorite Horror Movies of 2025
Really have to get the 2026 list out before 2027 starts…
One of the things I love about horror, particularly as someone who suffers from anxiety and catastrophizing thinking, is that it serves as a more controlled gateway into those negative feelings of abject terror. Scary stories are a consensually entered environment where we might confront and safely face our fears in lieu of keeping them bottled up until they escape in paralyzing panic when least convenient. I repeat the Stephen King quote heading the section on the Plays page, “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.”
I don’t think I’m alone if I say that 2025 itself has been a year of very high highs and extremely low lows (the beginning of this one hasn’t gotten off to the greatest start, either, has it?) What do you say about times when real-life horrors eclipse anything we’ve gotten to see on-screen? About times that feel hopeless and insurmountable?
My thinking as I write this is that hopeless is precisely how the fascists want us to feel. I pray we’re in the extinction burst. But until it does, the fight is on. More than ever, let us carry ourselves with kindness and empathy (civility can go fuck itself), and remember that we’re all supposed to be on the same team. Let us go forth and protect our communities instead of deporting them, love our neighbors instead of genociding them, and help however we can to make the world a place where the scariest things are our stories instead of our capacity for cruelty. If you’ve a problem with any of that, fix yourself.
So now…my top horror movies of 2025.
A brief reminder that these are my favorite watches of the year, not necessarily the “best films.” There’s always overlap in play with those, but your mileage may vary depending upon your personal tastes. And some mild spoilers ahead, but nothing too ruinous. I got you.
#10 – Fréwaka
Written and Directed by Aislinn Clarke
Where I Watched: Shudder
Call me a sucker for Irish horror, but whatever your feelings, you know you’re in for something special the second you hear the opening notes of Horslips “Dearg Doom,” your new favorite song. This folk horror brings the VIBES straight out of the gate.
In the wake of her mother’s passing, home care worker Siubhán (Shoo) is assigned to provide aid to an elderly woman named Peig. She’s suffering from delusions and paranoia, and years ago, even disappeared on the night of her marriage. The locals say she spent time in a Magdalene laundry (learning history is fun! More human cruelty!), but you quickly get the inkling that Peig’s version of events has even darker implications. Namely? The fae.
From there, it’s a slow-burn descent into a mad, moody, and melancholy whirlpool of religious horror, the mindfuckery of The Lighthouse, the grief-driven trauma of Hereditary, and more. It gets bonkers in the best ways, and becomes a grand fever dream on womanhood and cycles of abuse both systemic and familial.
It’s also a rare film that treats the fae as the dangerous creatures of folklore that they are, and it’s a breath of fresh air for that.
#9 – Weapons
Written and Directed by Zach Cregger
Where I Watched: Theater
A frightening and far funnier than anticipated riot upon anyone’s first watch (probably first several), Weapons continues fascinating me as the days go by.
A large reason for this is Cregger’s insistence that his tale of a fractured and grieving community after 17 third-graders vanish via getting up in the middle of the night and mysteriously running off into the darkness wasn’t intended to be a school-shooting allegory. When you put a giant, floating assault rifle into a dream sequence, you’re either bullshitting us (which I respect) or your foresight needs a little sharpening.
At the same time, it’s also a perfect example of how sometimes we write a story thinking about one thing and an audience grabs something we didn’t anticipate. Sometimes, that flexibility is what makes a story last longer in the public zeitgeist.
Cregger has admitted he’s welcome to other interpretations and did intentionally go for a little ambiguity, but was primarily thinking about grief, after the unfortunate passing of fellow Whitest Kids U’ Know collaborator and close friend, Trevor Moore. And perhaps more than anything, that 100% comes through. The monstrous grief of sudden, unexplainable loss permeates every frame, culminating in an off-beat dark fable for our troubled times.
Whether we’re taking a deeper commentary from Weapons or just thrills, it not only functions, but smashes expectations as an overlapping, Escher-esque tale of encountering forces beyond our control. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth your time.
#8 – Companion
Written and Directed by Drew Hancock
Where I Watched: HBO Max
Is there anything worse than finding out you’re a fuckbot?
Call me a sucker for robot humanoids finding out they’re robot humanoids (let it be known the first draft of Slush was written back in 2018), but there’s just something so relatable about the proceeding identity crises they go through. It’s so…human (eh?).
Sophie Thatcher leads an all-star cast in this savvy and eternally shifting sci-fi/horror thriller. I love me a re-contextualizing plot twist that makes me audibly gasp (although I’ve also done this during a movie’s production company logos before, so take that statement as you will), and there’s several great ones in here. It’s the kind of movie that gets better with every watch.
What takes Companion from great to even better, however, is that throughout every beat and reveal, the hilarious satire stays embedded and on point in every scene. Hancock’s script uses every single moment and line of dialogue it gets to maximum effect. And whether it’s tackling misogyny, toxic masculinity, or the commodification of relationships, it’s an insightful and rightful condemnation of the nice guy/tech bro ideologies trying so desperately to be correct.
(Let it also be known that robot rights might very well one day be human rights)
#7 – Queens of the Dead
Directed by Tina Romero
Written by Tina Romero and Erin Judge
Where I Watched: Shudder
Don’t bury your gays lest they rise again. Straight up, I’d say this is the funniest, proper zom-com since Shaun of the Dead. Nothing else this year made me laugh harder or more consistently, and I had to work to tamp it down because other people in the house were sleeping.
Tina Romero (yes, Romero) busts out a queer AF homage to her late father’s Dead films and I very much intend the pun that it absolutely SLAYS. As far as impromptu shelters-of-necessity go, a drag show is the mostest and bestest choice, and the ensemble (ranging from performing queens to the promoters to the uncomfortable, conservative plumber brother-in-law) is clearly having the time of their lives. It’s also quite neat to see Jaquel Spivey of A Strange Loop and Mean Girls fame fighting back the undead during a musical number.
In classic Romero fashion, too, the zombies pull proper double duty by serving (cunt?) not just as monsters, but slow-walking social commentary. They seem just as content to watch livestreams on their phones as they do a good helping of brains. To think of it, we spend a lot more time on our phones than we do eating, ourselves, don’t we? Does content feed our brains? Or starve them?
Either way, I am hungry now. I could use a chicky parm sub.
#6 – The Surrender
Written and Directed by Julia Max
Where I Watched: Shudder
Sometimes when I recommend something, likely for fear of revealing something that I sincerely enjoyed not knowing going in, it just feels right that the less I say about it, the better. Maybe this is me being a tease, but also the whole point of these posts is to get to watch the stuff you haven’t heard of yet. Right?
Anyway, The Surrender is one of these. I hesitate to say too much about it lest I ruin the ride, but what I will say is this: You know how in every story where someone tries to bring a loved one back from death, it doesn’t go great?
Yeah, this one doesn’t either.
An absolutely tremendous debut feature by writer/director Julia Max, my favorite Shudder watch of the year is simply unlike anything else playing in the same wheelhouse. It feels like theatre, honestly, in the most complimentary of ways, and focuses equally on dialogue and interpersonal mother daughter drama as it does the horror, making both better for it every passing second.
I highly recommend checking it out if you’ve got a steelier stomach (I guess that’s also something I can say).
#5 – 28 Years Later
Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Where I Watched: Netflix
The latest installment of the….Days franchise? 28 franchise? LATER franchise? Whatever it’s called, this 3rd installment sees the return of Boyle and Garland after going on 2 decades’ worth of failed attempts and rocky rights histories.
This was an eagerly awaited movie for many, and boy howdy did it turn out to be a polarizing one for a LOT of people. Was it uneven as hell? Or simply narratively unexpected, the long wait time allowing many to build up a hype for what they wanted to see only to become mad when they didn’t?
As a newcomer to the universe, for me it was the latter. I loved every second. It’s why I’m a firm believer in writing stories for yourself first, and not catering to what fans might wish (i.e., if you hate The Last Jedi, you have no media literacy and are bad at art). 28 Years Later ratchets between heart-pounding tension and meditative wonder, and is 100% one of the most genuinely beautiful horror films I’ve ever seen, let alone of the year.
A small island off the mainland of a Rage-virus infected UK (fast zombies) has a moderately thriving population. It is a special day for young Spike, whose father is taking him to said rage-infected mainland for a hunting rite-of-passage. What follows, however, is the gradual discovery that there might be someone on the mainland who can help diagnose and aid his ailing mother.
Apocalypse films and coming-of-age films have gone hand in hand before, but never have they been so sublime. And although there’s so much to take from it (there’s Brexit vibes and isolationist themes for days), my first watch marveled at how poignantly and with such gonzo aplomb this thing confronted the reality of death, life in it, and the bonds between a mother and son. Just gutting.
#4 – Final Destination: Bloodlines
Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein
Written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor
Where I Watched: Theater
And on the other side of the coin of death, comedy!
You remember how I said last year if I am a fan of anything, it’s Alien? Well, also…call me a sucker for Final Destination, because if there’s any horror franchise for us anxious, catastrophizing overthinkers, it’s the one where Death kills people via hilariously escalating Rube Goldberg sequences. Let’s be honest, if you were at all interested in watching this movie, it’s likely you already have. Which means I’m just singing its praises to the rest of the choir, yeah? I thought Final Destination 5 was truly a hard act to follow, arguably being the best in the franchise (seriously) but Bloodlines killed it, y’all.
A reminder that fans suck, but I think most of us would agree that a good FD requires a few things to succeed: a fun cast, a neat opening disaster, and gory, bizarre deaths (the only one that has really failed the assignment was the 4th). Bloodlines provides in spades, carving out a new, bold story and managing in a 6th outing to intelligently take advantage of and play on audience expectations. It zigs and zags at *chef’s kiss* times, giving us memorable sequence after memorable sequence, all the while providing some great lore additions and clarifications.
Most impressively, it’s a legendary and gorgeous send-off for series main-stay and horror icon Tony Todd (RIP), whose final haunting and tender words stretch through the screen directly to us. Masterful.
(Unironically, I have the perfect way to adapt FD for a TV series should they ever decide to make one. Anybody got writer room connects? Because hire me. I’m more ready than Spongebob.)
#3 – The Ugly Stepsister
Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt
Screenplay by Emilie Blichfeldt
Based on “Aschenputtel” by the Brothers Grimm
Where I Watched: Shudder
It might have been an Evangeline Lilly interview? She was speaking on her Wasp suit from her Marvel tenure and how it wasn’t the most comfortable, but that it was fine. Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but note her male co-stars complained about their suits endlessly. I’m paraphrasing, but, “women are used to being uncomfortable to look good.”
Yep. Yep, indeed.
Being a woman is hard.
And we did some pretty goddamn barbaric body horror things in the name of beauty back in the day, huh?
Blichfeldt’s adaptation of Cinderella is a grimm (EH?), pitch-black comedy horror and it is guaranteed to make you yell at the screen. Definitely don’t watch it while eating, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better or more entertaining treatise on the societal temptation we force on women to be attractive and “succeed.”
The casting and adaptation choices, particularly pushing Cinderella into the realm of asshole popular girl who gets everything she wants, are inspired and whip smart. Add on everyone’s killer performances (with a very special shout-out to that tapeworm)? It’s why some stories still get riffed with centuries later. Cringey, squirmy fun.
Seriously. Don’t watch it while eating.
#2 – The Long Walk
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Screenplay by JT Mollner
Based on “The Long Walk” by Stephen King
Where I Watched: Theater
Full disclosure, here, The Long Walk is one of my favorite books. I had been waiting 18 years for this movie.
And I’ll be goddamned if it didn’t deliver.
I almost didn’t even put it on this list because I wanted to talk about it, and how its translation to screen is pretty much flawless, in its own post (I still might). But also, because this film is just as much, perhaps more, of a war movie than it is a horror movie. King penned the original death-game tale of 100 boys competing against one another to walk indefinitely until one remains just after Vietnam.
But there’s always a most recent or current war, and it’s nigh impossible to watch this filmed version (which bumps the number of participants down to 50) without thinking of how this country eagerly asks young men to be willing participants in their own traumatic deaths. Some might argue the contemporizing language for our current political era was a bit too heavy-handed. I call it good melodrama, baby. Also, they’re not wrong. We retell these stories for how they speak through time to the moments we find ourselves in.
If you’ve always wanted to feel what it’s like to have your heart skip a beat at the sight of a “steep grade” road sign? This is your moment.
I’ve talked up basically every ensemble so far, but these young actors take the cake this year, tenderly and ferociously, step by step, taking us through this story of finding brotherhood, friendship, and meaning in the midst of absolute, nihilistic hell.
I’m a Pisces, so maybe I’m just more empathetic, but watching this movie felt like going to war. And despite what our leaders might tell you, no one wins in war.
Honorable Mention:
Before #1 (it’s what you’re expecting anyway), this is the part where I have to admit I haven’t watched Frankenstein yet. Or a plethora of other films I meant to get to. It was a fucking year.
There’s a fair chance Predator: Badlands would have made it. And Predator: Killers of Killers. I also spent a good amount of time debating if I could bullshit KPop Demon Hunters onto here (unfortunately no, but was it the best movie of the year? Probably).
That all said, hopefully there’s still something on this list where the recommends prove useful and are for movies you haven’t also already seen.
This honorable mention is me trying to hedge that bet one last time.
Grafted
Directed by Sasha Rainbow
Written by Mia Maramara, Hweiling Ow, Lee Murray, and Sasha Rainbow
Where I Watched: Shudder
Wikipedia calls this movie a “coming-of-age” body horror and I do not have a better way to describe it. I mean, I could also describe it as a movie about a socially awkward Chinese teen genius at a New Zealand college who uses her late father’s research to literally steal other people’s faces to be more popular at school and fit in socially. If corporate needs us to find the difference between these two pictures, they’re the same, right?
But yeah. There’s a lot of great commentary on the immigrant experience here amidst the identity theft-flavored gore. And this one just gets so delightfully bonkers that I cannot leave it unmentioned.
So.
That all said, now…
Let’s get on with #1, shall we? And I’m not cheating this year by declaring a tie.
#1 – Sinners
Written and Directed by Ryan Coogler
Where I Watched: IMAX (I saw this in IMAX. I don’t think I watched a movie in IMAX since Godzilla 2014. And I mostly regret that choice)
Because was it ever going to be anything else? 2025 was and is the year of Sinners.
An original, period horror movie (not a movie with horror elements, if you liked Sinners, you like horror. Sorry!) with rich, allegorical subtext galore, Coogler and company delivered a uniquely American epic we’ll all still be watching decades from now.
From Michael B. Jordan pulling down TWINS, to Delroy Lindo’s masterclass performance, to every single second of the brilliance that is its soundtrack and score, Sinners fires on all cylinders and astounds the senses with music and spiritual power and my god, it’s been so long since we’ve seen a sexy movie. This movie is HORNY.
There’s also a scene where you realize in real-time that you’re watching one of the most iconic cinematic experiences of your life. And then the movie still keeps going and playing its cards.
The vampirical aspects have been compared to From Dusk till Dawn (which Coogler has cited as an influence), but it’s a gargantuanly deeper film, swapping a priest’s crisis of faith for a vast yet intimate commentary on the soul-moving vigor of blues music, cultural appropriation amongst races and immigrants, power, revenge, religion, and more.
It is an unflinching film, and far and away the best horror of the year.
They don’t make them like this anymore, partly because studios are afraid to take risks like this (corporate largely has the same mentality as fans), and partly because this is truly a movie that could have only been made today. It is required viewing. And if you are somehow still late to the party, get on it.
And that’s all she wrote.
Did I miss something you felt strongly about? Anything you think I’d like? Lemme know! Happy 2026. Fuck ICE.