No horror fan has any right to complain about the cinematic magic that has been in regular supply throughout 2025. This has been such an incredible year for the genre that even if you hated half of the acclaimed titles that have been released in the last nine-plus months, you’d still have at least a half dozen to awe at. There’s been a phenomenal mix of tones (some nightmarishly scary, others disgustingly hilarious), and we’ve seen winners that are wholly original (Sinners, Weapons, Companion, Bring Her Back), adaptations (The Monkey, The Rule Of Jenny Pen), and new franchise installments (Final Destination: Bloodlines, 28 Years Later).
As I look back on this smorgasbord of horrific excellence about one month before the arrival of Halloween 2025, a big part of what I feel is delight… but I also have a nagging feeling of confusion. Stoked as I am to be living in a time when amazing horror movies are arriving in theaters all year round, I can’t help but also think that there has also been some proverbial robbing of Peter to pay Paul. Simply put, the brilliance that we’ve seen from the genre since January doesn’t jive with the underwhelming slate of releases that major studios have set up for scary season.
