Horror has always been a shape-shifter, changing with the times to throw our darkest fears back at us in clever, unsettling ways. In 2025, the genre feels especially alive — not just in sheer output, but in emotional depth, thematic ambition, and formal daring. Many of this year’s standout films push beyond jump scares and familiar tropes, digging into the complexities of modern dread, whether that’s fractured identity, tech gone wrong, or the collapse of trust and safety.
From blood-soaked lakeside psychodramas to cursed toys that unravel families, from the pressure-cooker tension of isolated cabins to everyday tech turned terrifying, these films show a genre that remains restless and inventively alive.
Case in point: what follows is a selection of 2025’s most compelling horror films — each chosen for the distinctiveness of its voice, the bite of its resonance, or the daring and ingenuity of its nightmares. These are the films that have stamped an indelible mark in our minds this year — and have every intention of living there, rent-free, for the foreseeable future.
[Last Updated November 6]
20: Good Boy (Ben Leonberg)
What it’s about: A loyal dog moves to a rural family home with his owner, only to discover supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities threaten his human companion, the brave pup must fight to protect the one he loves most.
Why we love it: While it leans on many well-worn horror tropes, this is a film that finds fresh ground, thanks to the simple, affecting choice to filter terror through the eyes of man’s best friend. A creepy tale with real bite, powered by an astonishingly emotive canine performance, Good Boy earns every treat.
19: Appofeniacs (Chris Marrs Piliero)
What it’s about: When Duke goes on a frenzy of reckless deepfake creations, his callous disregard of consequences shows how, with a few clicks of an app on a phone, anyone can create a deceiving video of an unsuspecting victim and ruin their life… or end it. Blending psychological horror, dark satire, and real-world tech paranoia, this cinematic feast explores the weaponization of deepfake technology and the disintegration of truth in a digital-first culture.
Why we love it: Appofeniacs takes deepfake tech out of the abstract and drops it straight into ordinary life, making the consequences hit hard. Marrs Piliero blends horror and bleak humour with characters who are painfully recognisable, making the film unsettling because it feels so close to home. Sharp, gruesome, and brimming with chaos that could spill into the real world at any moment.
18: The Monkey (Osgood Perkins)
What it’s about: When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a chain of bizarre and violent deaths tears their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey resurfaces, setting off a new wave of terror and forcing the now-estranged siblings to confront the curse they once thought they’d escaped.
Why we love it: Perkins’ The Monkey takes King’s cursed toy premise and keeps its core of family fracture intact, with Theo James and Christian Convery delivering superb performances that suit the film’s tone down to a tee. The kills unfold like a nastier, even more anxiety-inducing spin on Final Destination — darkly funny, sharp, and genuinely unpleasant in all the right ways.
17: Together (Michael Shanks)
What it’s about: Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) move to the countryside in the hope of starting fresh. But the isolation only highlights cracks already forming between them — and when a bizarre, otherworldly force enters their lives, the boundaries between love, identity, and physical form begin to unravel in ways neither of them could have predicted.
Why we love it: Together takes the well-worn “relationship under strain” setup and gives it a savvy shake-up. Franco and Brie work brilliantly together, capturing that mix of love, resentment, and the fear of losing yourself inside someone else. The body-horror transformation serves as a savagely sharp metaphor for codependency and emotional entanglement rather than just a gross-out trick, and the balance of dark humour and horror keeps the whole thing wildly entertaining from start to finish.
16: Bone Lake (Mercedes Bryce Morgan)
What it’s about: A couple’s romantic trip to a secluded lakeside estate takes a sharp turn when another charming, impossibly confident couple arrives to share the space. What starts as a flirtatious holiday quickly slips into manipulation, obsession, and a tangle of power plays that spiral toward violence. The lake is beautiful — the company, less so.
Why we love it: Bone Lake is a wild, intoxicating blend of eroticism, psychodrama, and dark humor, masterfully twisting familiar genre beats into a sharp, unsettling exploration of toxic modern relationships. Its blood-soaked climax hits hard — a final flourish of chaos and carnality that cements it as one of the most perversely entertaining horror films of the year.
15: Heart Eyes (Josh Ruben)
What it’s about: For years, the so-called “Heart Eyes Killer” has terrorised Valentine’s Day, targeting romantic couples with unsettling precision. This year, the fear spreads fast — no couple is safe, and what should be a celebration of love turns into a frantic fight for survival.
Why we love it: In a genre where slasher films often risk becoming formulaic or predictable, Heart Eyes stands as a bold, inventive entry. With its creative kills, a sure-to-become-iconic villain, and chemistry that pops, Heart Eyes is a bloody good time for both horror fans and rom-com lovers alike.
14: It Feeds (Chad Archibald)
What it’s about: A young girl becomes convinced that something malevolent is feeding on her, draining her piece by piece. Her father fights desperately to protect her, and a clairvoyant therapist is drawn in — forced to confront her own past as she tries to save the child before it’s too late.
Why we love it:
It Feeds may draw from familiar supernatural territory, but it’s the care in the filmmaking that makes it work. The tension is measured, the scares well-earned, and the performances give the story real weight. A steady, menacing supernatural horror that leaves its mark without overplaying its hand.
13: The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence)
What it’s about: Each year, young men “volunteer” for a brutal endurance contest where only one will make it out alive. The rules are simple and stark: keep walking, maintain pace, and don’t fall behind. Three warnings mean elimination — and elimination is final.
Why we love it:
Lawrence approaches the story with restraint, focusing on character, endurance, and the quiet pressure of survival rather than spectacle. It’s a bleak journey, but one shaped by connection, fear, and the unspoken bonds that form when death walks beside you. Thoughtfully written and grounded in its performances, The Long Walk finds its power not by widening its world, but by narrowing in on what keeps a person moving when there’s no real way out.
12: Shelby Oaks (Chris Stuckmann)
What it’s about: Twelve years ago, a group of paranormal investigators known as the “Paranormal Paranoids” vanished without explanation. Now, Mia Brennan begins searching for her missing sister Riley, the group’s lead investigator, after a disturbing encounter suggests she may still be out there. As Mia digs deeper, old childhood fears resurface, leading her into an unsettling investigation that unearths the truth behind the Paranoids’ disappearance — and what’s been waiting in the shadows ever since.
Why we love it:
Stuckmann takes one of horror’s most divisive formats — found footage — and folds it into a more grounded, cinematic approach. The result has the uneasy realism of Lake Mungo and the investigative dread of Ringu, without ever feeling derivative. Shelby Oaks is an ambitious and confidently handled debut: eerie, tightly constructed, and clearly made by someone who knows the genre inside out.
11: Killing Faith (Ned Crowley)
What it’s about: In the summer of 1849, a widowed physician reluctantly agrees to escort a recently freed slave and her mysterious Caucasian daughter on a five-day journey through the blood-soaked frontier to seek a faith healer in a distant town. The woman believes her daughter is possessed; the doctor insists she simply carries a sickness. Either way, anything the girl touches dies — and the road ahead is as treacherous as the truth they’re running toward.
Why we love it:
Trading in six-shooter blazing for something much darker and more patient, Crowley’s Killing Faith is a Western that doesn’t ride in on worn-out tropes, but carves its own trail – thick with doubt, desperation, and a creeping dread that always feels close by and ready to strike without warning.
10: Presence (Steven Soderbergh)
What it’s about: Presence takes an innovative approach to the haunted-house genre. Shot entirely from a first-person perspective, the film follows a family who, after relocating to what seems to be a picture-perfect suburban home, begin to feel the presence of something – someone – lurking in the shadows. As the tension mounts, their belief that they are not alone grows stronger, leading them into a chilling spiral of doubt and fear.
Why we love it: In an era where the haunted-house genre often follows a familiar formula, Soderbergh and Koepp’s collaboration brings fresh energy. The unique narrative structure, coupled with its disorienting first-person visuals, sets the film apart from the typical supernatural thriller. Presence isn’t just about the fear of ghosts – it’s about the creeping dread that something is infiltrating the very fabric of a seemingly safe domestic space.
9: 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
What it’s about: It’s been nearly three decades since the rage virus escaped a bio‑weapons lab and plunged the world into havoc. Survivors now eke out an existence on a fortified island linked to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of them ventures onto the mainland, he uncovers new horrors—infected that have evolved, and fellow humans who’ve changed in darker ways.
Why we love it: Boyle returns to this bleak landscape with fresh eyes and brutal clarity. The film stretches the original idea into a broader reckoning—how trauma endures, how fear becomes routine, how survival changes you. With fantastic performances across the board and a steadfast gaze, 28 Years Later is both a worthy continuation and a fascinating re‑examination of the rage‑virus mythos.
8: The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt)
What it’s about: In a twisted take on the classic Cinderella story, The Ugly Stepsister follows Elvira as she battles to compete with her insanely beautiful stepsister. In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira will go to any lengths to catch the Prince’s eye. The film is a gory tale of the blood and sweat, grit, and gold that goes into making Elvira the belle of the ball.
Why we love it: With The Ugly Stepsister, Emilie Blichfeldt flips the Cinderella story into something grim, gory, and brilliantly dark. Lea Myren delivers a career-making performance as Elvira, balancing grit, ambition, and desperation, while the film’s bold visuals and twisted take on beauty culture make every scene all the more potent.
7: Final Destination: Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein)
What it’s about: This latest chapter centers on Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student tormented by recurring nightmares of a tragic accident she feels inexplicably connected to. Convinced these visions are more than dreams, she’s drawn into a race against time to uncover a buried family secret – and to find the one person who may hold the key to ending Death’s cycle once and for all.
Why we love it: After a 14-year break, Final Destination: Bloodlines brings the franchise back with surprising energy. Lipovsky and Stein approach the familiar setup with real confidence, crafting set pieces that feel like intricately wound mousetraps – half the thrill is trying to work out which everyday object is about to become lethal. It strikes a sharp balance between suspense, black humour and genuine emotional weight, reminding us why this series landed with such impact in the first place. If Bloodlines proves anything, it’s that there’s still plenty of blood pumping through the franchise’s veins.
6: Obsession (Curry Barker)
What it’s about: After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic gets exactly what he asked for—but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Why we love it: Curry Barker takes a familiar wish-gone-wrong tale and turns it into one of the year’s most unique horror films. With sharp direction and Inde Navarrette absolutely nailing obsession personified, Obsession is a debut that defies expectation and stakes its claim as a singular vision.
5: Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
What it’s about: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Why we love it: Ryan Coogler delivers a tense Southern Gothic horror that blends the supernatural with raw, emotional stakes. Michael B. Jordan delivers a superb dual performance as twin brothers caught between past and present. The film’s music – a mix of blues, gospel, and folk that flows through the characters and the story itself – drives tension, underscores emotion, and becomes almost a character in its own right. Tautly paced and richly textured, Sinners balances suspense, chills, and emotional weight, making it one of 2025’s most assured and memorable genre entries.
4: Bring Her Back (Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou)
What it’s about: After a tragic accident, step-siblings Andy and Piper are placed in foster care. While waiting for legal guardianship, they move in with Laura, a seemingly kind foster mother living in a secluded home. But as Laura’s true intentions emerge, Andy and Piper discover that her warmth conceals something far darker.
Why we love it: With Bring Her Back, The Philippou brothers turn grief into an almighty unsettling engine of horror, blending psychological tension with moments of startling brutality. Sally Hawkins is terrifying as a foster mother whose warmth gradually twists into menace, and the film’s mix of intimate family drama and ritualistic dread keeps the viewer on edge throughout. It’s a horror story that grips just as much emotionally as it does viscerally, once again proving the directors’ knack for turning familiar genre elements into something viciously unnerving.
3: The Holy Boy (Paolo Strippoli)
What it’s about: Sergio, a teacher seeking a fresh start, is transferred to Remis, a village famed for its happiness. But the town harbours a sinister secret: each week, the villagers gather around Matteo, a fifteen-year-old they call an angel whose embrace supposedly relieves all sorrow. As Sergio uncovers the dark reality behind Matteo’s role, he finds himself confronting the village’s disturbing obsession.
Why we love it: Strippoli’s The Holy Boy nods to classics like The Exorcist and The Omen while establishing its own unsettling tone. It is less about shocks and more about a creeping dread — a study of grief, faith, and the unbearable weight placed on a child forced into a role no one should bear. Slow-burning but wholly disquieting, it draws you into the village’s unsettling rhythms and the moral tension at its heart.
2: Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
What it’s about: Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist whose attempt to bring a creature to life ends in tragedy for both creator and creation.
Why we love it: Del Toro’s Frankenstein is as much a study of ambition as it is a gothic horror story. The film captures the consequences of obsession and hubris with precision, showing how a dream pursued without caution can unravel lives and reshape the world in unexpected ways. Richly detailed and emotionally resonant, it’s a reminder that brilliance and recklessness are often two sides of the same coin.
1: Weapons (Zach Kregger)
What it’s about: On a single night, every child in a particular class vanishes — all but one. The community reels in disbelief, desperate to understand who, or what, could be responsible for such a sudden, inexplicable disappearance.
Why we love it: Weapons plays out like a contemporary Grimm story, yet told with the restless energy of modern cinema. Kregger shifts effortlessly between perspectives and genres, blending horror, suspense, and dark humour in a way that keeps the audience alert and unsettled. The interweaving narratives and sharply drawn characters ensure that each twist lands with precision, while the film’s tonal shifts — from the macabre to the mordantly funny — offer moments of genuine surprise and unease. It’s a film that rattles and amuses, drawing you fully into its unpredictable world.
