In an unusual development for my end-of-year surveys, half of the top titles among this past year’s releases hail from major studios (and one major streamer). Three of them were from the same studio, Warner Bros., whose commitment to original horror in 2025 bore memorable fruit (while they also issued a couple of more-successful-than-expected sequels). Elsewhere, a genre master realized his dream project and several newcomers made indelible contributions with their very first features.
As usual, the titles on this list are drawn from those that received commercial release over the past 12 months, with a few festival faves awaiting their places in next year’s lineup. There were a few contenders for the #1 spot, but in the end, the movie I most want to watch again right now is:
COMPANION: A terrific example of a genre-blender—folding in horror, science fiction and toxic-relationship drama with a side order of satire—that gets all the elements right and combines them perfectly. As a bonus, the script by debuting feature writer/director Drew Hancock never stops surprising us, and Sophie Thatcher impressively holds the center with one of the most memorable characterizations the fright scene has seen in recent years. The fact that this was Warners’ lone genre box-office nonperformer (out of five!) in 2025 is as confounding as it is disappointing; if you missed COMPANION in theaters, seek it out immediately on disc or streaming. (Review)
The rest, in alphabetical order:
BRING HER BACK: A smorgasbord of domestic dysfunction and grief perverted into monstrous behavior, Danny and Michael Philippou’s follow-up to TALK TO ME succeeds by never losing sight of the humanity in both its good and cruel characters. Billy Barratt and Sora Wong play the former, siblings who are orphaned and find strength in each other, and Sally Hawkins is the latter, a woman who takes the youngsters into her home with diabolical intentions. Splendid performances by the trio grab and hold us while the Philippous (Danny also scripted with Bill Hinzman) unleash a series of ghastly sights and developments that confirm them as two of the current scare scene’s sharpest and most uncompromising talents. (Review)
FRANKENSTEIN: Guillermo del Toro finally got his decades-long passion project on the screen this past year, and that passion bleeds from every frame. As he did in CRIMSON PEAK, del Toro makes horror beautiful as he puts his own personal spin on Mary Shelley’s timeless masterwork, honoring the source while making this adaptation his own. Oscar Isaac gives a compelling reading of the driven Victor Frankenstein, here carrying some additional Freudian motivations, and Jacob Elordi is even better as his creation, who evolves from childlike curiosity to tormented “adulthood,” trying to find his humanity and his place in a world that views him as a monster. Sumptuously crafted, from its production and costume design to Mike Hill’s superb makeup effects, del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN emerges as a rich emotional experience as well.
GOOD BOY: It seems like a simple, albeit moving, premise: A haunted-house story told from the point of view of that old genre standby, The Dog That Senses Danger. In this case, however, Todd (played physically by director Ben Leonberg and voiced by Shane Jensen) brings his retriever Indy (as himself) to a remote house while dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and this creepfest becomes an affecting meditation on mortality as well. In his maiden feature-length voyage, Leonberg (who scripted with Alex Cannon) not only ignored the old warning about working with animals, but guided his own pooch and edited his takes together into a remarkably expressive canine star turn. Not only is Indy immediately and consistently empathetic, his simplest looks and movements help scarily suggest the presence of the lurking ghosts. (Review)
SINNERS: No sooner had Ryan Coogler’s Depression-era supernatural saga opened to rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences than the cries of “It’s not a horror film!” began. Sorry, deniers, SINNERS absolutely is a horror film, doing what the great horror films do: employing a classic trope (vampires) as a launching pad to address sociopolitical and socioracial themes in rich and rewarding ways while fully delivering the scares. A sterling cast, led by Michael B. Jordan’s galvanizing double act, is backed by topnotch craft and a soundtrack (score and songs) as delicious as fresh blood is to the fanged villains. (Review)
TOGETHER: Relationships literally going to hell have been a key theme of 2020s terror, and first-time feature writer/director Michael Shanks’ entry in this trend finds a perfect, and often seriously unnerving, physical metaphor for emotional codependence. Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) are already having issues when they move into a new rural home, and bad luck for them that the relocation puts them within walking distance of a malignance that will force them together in squirm-inducing ways. The bodily distortions and combinations, and the couple’s eventual extreme attempts to separate themselves, hurt to watch particularly because Shanks, Franco and Brie have gotten us so invested with Tim and Millie, who are definitely more than the sum of their parts. (Review)
28 YEARS LATER: Returning 23 years later to their film that jumpstarted the fast-zombie/infected genre, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland disappointed some fans who wanted more consistent carnage. Instead, the filmmakers went for a scenario focusing on a young boy (the superlative Alfie Williams) forced to grow up fast in an environment overrun by the ravenous ghouls, and to make fateful choices that pivot the movie from headlong terror to deeper emotions. In doing so, the duo demonstrate a commitment to further imagining out the world they created, and deliver not only nerve-gnawing suspense and shocking bursts of violence and gore, but developments that tear straight to the heart. (Review)
THE UGLY STEPSISTER: Fairy-tale horror meets body horror in a film that’s exquisitely realized on a modest budget, while also containing some more of the hardest-to-watch moments of 2025. Yet feature-debuting Norwegian writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt rivets your attention by plunging headlong into the macabre, Brothers Grimm origins of the Cinderella story and then taking several morbid steps further. As Elvira (the terrific Lea Myren) undergoes painful and painful-to-witness surgical treatments in the hope of winning a handsome (on the outside but not necessarily on the inside) prince, Blichfeldt pointedly critiques society’s standards of beauty, merging classical imagery with modern aesthetics. The result is as artful as it is harrowing. (Review)
THE WAILING: The second standout international chiller with that title (after the 2016 Korean film) is an expert exercise in time-jumping terror. We begin in Spain, where a college student is haunted by both a mysterious figure and an ominous apartment building, then jump back a couple of decades to Argentina and another student indulging in video voyeurism. The gradual discovery of how their stories tie together is intriguing, and numerous moments along the way are deeply frightening, with the unifying theme of its protagonists living through their devices. It’s a very auspicious debut by director Pedro Martín-Calero, who wrote the taut, complex script with Isabel Peña. (Reviewed in RM #228, coming soon)
WEAPONS: What more is there to say about Zach Cregger’s widely lauded horror hit? Well, since I didn’t want to reveal the character in my initial review, I should acknowledge Amy Madigan’s immediate and unexpected ascension into the genre pantheon with her indelible, wonderfully wicked performance as Aunt Gladys. Another film that plays with its chronology to keep the twists coming, WEAPONS also offers a resonant depiction of a community dealing with a threat it can’t understand, and experiencing uncanny fear that’s shared by the audience. (Review)
There’s an especially long list of runners-up this year, movies big and small encompassing every type of terror: BLACK PHONE 2, BONE LAKE, CANNIBAL MUKBANG, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, DEAD MAIL, THE DEAD THING, DUST BUNNY, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, HEART EYES, IN OUR BLOOD, KEEPER, THE LONG WALK, LURKER, MAN FINDS TAPE, THE MONKEY, PARVULOS, PRESENCE, THE SHROUDS, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT and THE SURRENDER, plus the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE documentary CHAIN REACTIONS.
