What a year for horror. 2025 draws to a close with no shortage of box office smash hits, legacy sequels, reboots, crowd-pleasing faves, and indie gems thanks to horror’s continued dominance; the genre was never in short supply this year. So much so that it can be daunting to keep up, especially with monster theatrical […]
All of which to say that 2025 may have disappointed in a variety of ways, but horror remains the reliable exception.
Without further ado, here are the top fifteen best horror movies of 2025.
15. Hallow Road
Hallow Road 2025 horror
The latest from Under the Shadow filmmaker Babak Anvari, released as part of a Halloween-night theatrical double feature only, plunges stars Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys into an anxiety-inducing race against the clock as a tragic accident sets up one intense moral conundrum. Hallow Road frames the frantic parents’ plight almost entirely from within their car as they speed to reach their daughter in the middle of the night. Anvari’s minimalist approach serves a dual purpose here, palpably capturing the psychological intensity of its nightmarish scenario and weighty questions while honoring and modernizing the ancient oral traditions tied to its specific brand of horror. The psychological, real-time thriller gives way to surprising folk horror, revealing an inventive cautionary tale anchored by two incredible lead performances.
14. Keeper
Director Osgood Perkins leaves the splatstick mania of this year’s The Monkey behind for a simple but haunting folk horror chamber piece penned by Nick Lepard (Dangerous Animals). Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) set off for a romantic getaway in the woods, one riddled with red flags, before the strange hallucinations and spectral encounters even set in. As such, Maslany, who wowed for her carefree spirit in The Monkey, turns in an even more impressive and gripping performance here. The director’s signature use of background scares prevails in the early half, but Perkins builds this bizarre pressure cooker until it explodes in an inspired and satisfying finale, one owned by a primitively fierce Maslany and some inspired creature designs. While this grim fairy tale doesn’t forge new ground with its domestic themes, Perkins’ strong grasp of surreal imagery and surgical precision with dread ensures this simple folk tale sticks with you.
13. Beast of War
Spoiler alert for this list: I’m beyond delighted that 2025 delivered not one, but two worthy shark horror movies. The first of which is the latest horror movie from Wyrmwood and Sting filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner. His 1942 Australian war movie draws inspiration from the true account of the HMAS Armidale, trapping soldiers at sea with one ravenous shark. Cinematographer Mark Wareham infuses Beast of War with a rich visual language that not only elevates the production value but also lends a rich Gothic style, enhanced by bold hues and dense fog. Anchoring this atmospherically shot war thriller is Leo (Mark Coles Smith), the kind-hearted protagonist harboring a traumatic past with the sea. But it’s the behemoth animatronic shark, one employed strategically to thrilling success, that ultimately steals this stunner.
12. Dust Bunny
Mads Mikkelsen in the Wicked Fairy Tale/Horror film, DUST BUNNY, a Roadside Attractions film. Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
“Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller’s charming feature directorial debut blends action, adventure, horror, and heart in a dazzling gateway genre-bender. Sophie Sloan instantly worms her way into your heart as 10-year-old Aurora, the adorably precocious young girl tormented by a dust bunny turned monstrous beast that lives under the floor beneath her bed. When she turns to her neighbor for help, an unnamed hit man (Mads Mikkelsen), magic (and a body count) ensues. It’s the type of whimsical tale filled with quippy dialogue and zingers, an adorably vicious monster, boundless imagination, and a tremendous cast fully committed to the wacky scenarios Dust Bunny demands. It’s feel-good cinema at its finest, wholesome enough for the whole family but with just enough sharp teeth to entice budding horror fans into the genre.
11. A Desert
Director Joshua Erkman’s feature debut presents a captivating and stylized blend of neo-noir and horror via a dusty desert road trip through the American Southwest. A photographer (Green Room’s Kai Lennox) sets out to revive his career by capturing abandoned roadside structures, but instead finds himself in the crosshairs of a volatile couple. Erkman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Bossi Baker, hangs this genre-bender on the familiar framework of neo-noir. Themes of isolation, alienation, and paranoia permeate this moody thriller that builds to an appropriately grim finish. The debut filmmaker juxtaposes a landscape abandoned and eroded by time with larger-than-life characters, nearly all of them operating in shades of moral decay or corruption.
10. Presence
It’s not the ghost that unnerves in this unique POV haunted house tale, but real-world horror that slowly reveals itself in the latest from Unsane director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic World Rebirth). Presence frames its haunted events entirely from the perspective of its ghost, but using the camera’s gaze as the ghost’s observing eyes isn’t the only trick up Soderbergh and Koepp’s sleeves. The moody story builds into a thrilling finale that devastates, subverting expectations around the spectral entity haunting a family of four. Soderbergh, working as cinematographer under the pseudonym Peter Andrews, wields the camera in breathtaking ways that infuse the incorporeal character with personality. There are plenty of skeletons lurking in this haunted suburban home, the type of which unsettles before breaking your heart.
9. Heart Eyes
The chemistry sizzles in this slasher/romcom hybrid. Director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within, Scare Me), working from a script by Phillip Murphy (The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard) and Christopher Landon (Drop, Freaky) & Michael Kennedy (Freaky), gives romance and horror equal weight in this seamless fusion, ensuring that the gore hits just as hard as the infectious romance between leads Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. Heart Eyes walks the fine line between a ’90s slasher with a modern savage edge and a romcom with rare, white-hot chemistry without ever feeling gimmicky. It’s simply a breathlessly entertaining ride that leaves you cheering for love and creative kills in equal measure. It’s not the steadfast commitment to intense thrills and suspenseful set pieces that earns easy rooting interest in Heart Eyes, though that certainly helps, but rather its magnetic cast.
8. Dead Talents Society
Director John Hsu (Detention) delivers the most vibrant and endlessly charming horror-comedy of the year with Dead Talents Society, a much stronger answer to Beetlejuice than its recent sequel. It follows the recently deceased Rookie (Gingle Wang) as she shyly tries to navigate life as a ghost. That means learning how to scare the living, as ghosts who don’t fade away permanently. The Rookie teams with tenured diva Catherine (Sandrine Pinna) to learn the ropes before she dissipates for good, but Catherine has her hands full with her gentle mentee. Hsu, who co-wrote the script with Vincent Tsai, lovingly pokes fun at supernatural tropes without ever losing a sense of heart or horror. It’s a comedy where the characters are endearing and the jokes land, but it’s also surprisingly bloody and, occasionally, spooky. The competition is fierce in the afterlife, yielding one of the year’s biggest crowd-pleasers that’s flown far too under the radar for my liking.
7. It Ends
Writer/Director Alexander Ullom’s feature debut became available for rent via Letterboxd Video Store only this month after its SXSW debut, but expect a much bigger release in 2026. Ullom nestles an existential crisis within his genre-bending road trip, which he’s aptly dubbed his “horror hangout” movie. In it, four recent college grads set out for one last hurrah before life takes them on diverging paths, but a short excursion turns into a nightmare when they find themselves trapped on a never-ending road. The twist on the road trip movie captures a universal fear, that anxiety-inducing transition into full-blown adulthood, where we’re all expected to become responsible contributors to society. It’s a vibe movie that shifts through a variety of genres, ultimately settling on an authentic form of catharsis, one that instantly makes Ullom one to watch.
6. The Long Walk
Tut Nyuot as Baker, Ben Wang as Olson, Jordan Gonzalez as Harkness, Charlie Plummer as Barkovitch, Joshua Odjick as Parker, Cooper Hoffman as Garraty, David Jonsson as McVries in The Long Walk. Photo Credit: Murray Close
Director Francis Lawrence and Strange Darling filmmaker JT Mollner capture the bleak pessimism and bruising brutality of Stephen King’s novel, but never without losing hope in their emotionally devastating adaptation. Despite an unwavering eye on the dour and ruthless death march and all its grotesqueries, it’s the pervading camaraderie and heart that solidifies this as one of the best King adaptations yet, in large part due to the tremendous ensemble cast. Cooper Hoffman (son of late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Alien: Romulus breakout David Jonsson stand out in a talented group of young men, all portraying participants in a lethal annual event under an authoritarian regime. The friendships forged on their death march, combined with Mollner’s smart deviations from the source material, ensure this dystopian nightmare never loses its potency or its poignancy.
5. Dangerous Animals
Jai Courtney delivers an electric, career-defining performance as Captain Tucker, a disarming yet sadistic serial killer who feeds his victims to sharks while capturing the carnage on camera. It’s a concept that breaks from the standard shark thriller format, one that puts lead heroine Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) through the wringer. Director Sean Byrne (The Devil’s Candy, The Loved Ones) and screenwriter Nick Lepard deliver a high-stakes battle of wits and brute force in an intense cat-and-mouse game, one that underlines that man remains far more dangerous than the ocean’s most infamous predators. Dangeous Animals opts to keep the sharks real, blending in captured footage featuring a variety of species with beautiful underwater photography and embellished digital details that give a sense of lived-in realism. Byrne walks the razor-thin line of nihilism without ever losing heart or humor, made unforgettable by Courtney’s scene-stealing performance.
4. 28 Years Later
Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures’ 28 YEARS LATER.
Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland took a far more unexpected path with their trilogy starter set, you guessed it, 28 years after the initial outbreak that left the British Isles permanently quarantined. The infected are merely part of the equation in newcomer Spike’s (Alfie Williams) coming-of-age story that touches on everything from Brexit to the inevitability of death. Boyle plays with form, introducing a sensory assault through rapid cuts, a punishing soundscape, and immersive camerawork that employs a variety of techniques, including strapping cameras and iPhones to actors to evoke danger and suspense. Instead of a sensory onslaught of infected terror, though, Boyle and Garland instead opt for introspection and empathy, with a profoundly cathartic and moving third act that finds beauty in death.
3. The Ugly Stepsister
‘The Ugly Stepsister’
Norwegian writer and director Emilie Blichfeldt upends the Disney-fied vision of Cinderella for a much darker, Grimm style retelling in her enthralling feature debut, getting graphic with the medieval torture women endure in their pursuit of happily ever after. In Blichfeldt’s version, the little ash girl is Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), but the familiar fairy tale is framed from the perspective of stepsister and romantic rival Elvira (Lea Myren). It’s not just the dedication to the gory transformation that impresses, but the way Blichfeldt adds dimension and new layers to these classic characters. The only true villain here is the society that demands impossible standards and casts aside those who don’t meet them. The production design is stunning and immersive, creating an almost ethereal backdrop to a grim, gory body horror tale, and the characters are wonderfully nuanced and authentic. It’s elegant, stylish, and gnarly. But maybe don’t go in with an empty stomach; the film’s final burst of prolonged body horror might make you lose your lunch.
2. Weapons
Filmmaker Zach Cregger‘s sophomore effort exceeded beyond horror audiences and entered the mainstream zeitgeist this summer thanks to its unpredictable narrative structure, mysterious marketing strategy, Amy Madigan‘s standout character Aunt Gladys, and an attention-grabbing running pose that quickly achieved meme status. A classroom of elementary school children, all save for one, disappearing into the night at 2:17 am without explanation is merely the opening catalyst for the methodically unfurling insanity. Cregger employs an ambitious narrative structure broken down through chapters, each told from a different perspective through an incredible ensemble cast, corraling a variety of themes into a cohesive, yet wildly entertaining journey that builds to one over-the-top finale. Themes of alcoholism, grief, child abuse, and more collide with modern metaphors surrounding contemporary suburbia, without ever losing a biting sense of humor or an ability to catch audiences off guard.
1. Sinners
‘Sinners’
Few films made an impact this year quite like writer/director Ryan Coogler’s first foray into horror, evidenced by its box office staying power since its April release and an ongoing slew of awards nominations and recognition. That includes the distinction of earning the first “A” Cinema Score. It’s not the horror that unites audiences along with Sinners’ densely packed themes and worldbuilding, but the music. Led by Michael B. Jordan, who turns in a career-best performance as twins Smoke and Stack, this ensemble cast soars in a dizzying period epic that sets a juke joint as the center stage for a siege of vampires desperate to drain them dry of life and culture. It’s the characters that provide most of the worldbuilding, and Ryan Coogler’s writing ensures their dialogue is as instrumental to fleshing out this complex world as the setting itself. Gorgeous cinematography, lived-in characters, and a soulful soundtrack connect a sprawling period drama to an energetic horror blockbuster in ways that no one could have predicted, not even Warner Bros. The well-trodden vampire subgenre gets a welcome shot of adrenaline with this year’s biggest stunner.