12 Best Horror Movies of 2025 (So Far)

With the much-hyped Weapons, director Zach Cregger announced the director as a new and intimidating voice in the horror world. Cregger has the distinct ability to straddle witty societal and cultural commentary and effective scares. No wonder Jordan Peele was (allegedly) fuming when he lost his bid to produce this film. You really should walk into the movie knowing as little as possible to fully enjoy every absurd and morbid morsel. All you need to know is that it centers on a classroom of grade school students in suburbia disappearing in the middle of the night. If there were an Academy Award just for horror films—which, c’mon, let’s get that going—Weapons is a shoo-in for Best Picture.

Watch Now

The last installment in producer and creator James Wan’s The Conjuring franchise hit theaters this fall. It marked the highly anticipated reunion of beloved characters Ed and Lorraine Warren, based on real-life husband-and-wife paranormal investigators. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as the haunted spouses, closing out the last chapter of their supernatural sleuthing. This time, the film draws on material from the documented haunting of the Smurl family house. Scares are in no short supply in this last jaunt for the Warrens. However, it’s the chemistry and strong emotional bond established between Wilson and Farmiga that saves this installment from the curse of the mediocre franchise conclusion.

In theaters now.

We’re hardly at a loss for Stephen King adaptations, but as a die-hard King fan, I could never bash on an attempt to bring the horror legend’s words to the screen. When it’s done well, there’s nothing more satisfying. The Long Walk tells the story of a dystopian society (as if life could get more dystopian than right now) in which every year a group of young men compete to see who can last the longest in a marathon walk to win fortune and fame. Failure to do so results in immediate death. The story is simple and compelling enough, but it’s the performances of the young leads—Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, and Ben Wang—that pluck your heartstrings and damn near rip them out of your chest.

In theaters now.

Body horror is once again enjoying its time in the sun. Well, in the case of Together, it’s more like relishing some time in a cave, but either way I’m eating it up. Directed by Michael Shanks and starring real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, Together is about a codependent relationship that gets really close. If you can stomach the incredibly realistic effects that make it look like Brie and Franco are literally fusing together, you’ll be able to enjoy this stomach-churning horror-romance.

Watch Now

Osgood Perkins, the director of last year’s breakout film Longlegs, adapted his new feature from a Stephen King short story titled “The Monkey.” In case you’re just catching up, the story sees a murderous toy monkey that haunted two brothers in their childhood return to wreak more havoc on their lives. Theo James flexes his acting range playing the titular twin brothers while Osgood charms with some slick dark humor and stunningly gory death scenes. Is it quite what we expected from him following Longlegs? Not exactly. But Osgood knows that a horror film’s threadbare plot can still be saved by visceral scare tactics.

Watch Now

Twins are in! Ryan Coogler must have heard the innermost wish of women all around the world when he decided to give us two Michael B. Jordans in his Southern Gothic vampire film, Sinners. And Coogler did not disappoint with his first original feature idea since his groundbreaking 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. The director combined his trademark sense of style and instinct for deep cultural storytelling to create a historical horror about a vampire invasion of a Black community in the Mississippi Delta. His near-religious reverence for blues music and his depiction of the beauty of the Deep South will ensure this film a lasting legacy—and probably earn some award nods.

Watch Now

Drew Hancock’s Companion explores the almost unbearably in-vogue idea of AI sentience and human relationships. If the thought of that doesn’t make you delete your ChatGPT account, then the no-holds barred violent sequences in this film will. Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher put their horror-genre experience on display in this sci-fi thriller directed by Drew Hancock. We love horror that takes into account technophobia and our looming fears of ever-evolving AI technology. Companion’s stacked cast deftly navigates Hancock’s dark vision of humanity’s future.

Watch Now

One good thing about the trend of rebooting and/or remaking every single millennial-beloved franchise is that we occassionally see a banger follow-up to a beloved classic. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein had a huge weight of responsibility with a long-awaited sequel to the Final Destination franchise. Their dedication to using practical effects for all the Rube Goldberg traps that make the Final Destination movies so fun enshrined this entry as a top-tier sequel. Final Destination: Bloodlines delivered on what most fans of the franchise loved about the series and more.

Watch Now

This might be the year of iconic sophomore films from horror auteurs. With Bring Her Back, Michael and Danny Philippou destroyed any doubters who thought they would go down as one-hit wonders after their first feature, 2023’s Talk to Me. This film centers on a brother and sister who are left vulnerable after their father dies suddenly. They’re thrust into the home and care of a strange foster mom, played by Sally Hawkins. This movie dives into the Philippous’ comfort zone, which is, you know, making the viewer extremely uncomfortable. Bring Her Back is another meditation on grief and the extreme emotional places that trauma can take a person to. The Philippous are not afraid to tread scary territory, be it in gore-packed action or in devastating emotional blows.

Watch Now

We made a best friend (or enemy, in the case of our entertainment editor, Brady Langmann) in M3GAN when she was introduced to us by director Gerard Johnstone in 2022. The viral meme machine and multitalented AI doll sliced and diced her way into our hearts, and we’ve since been impatiently awaiting her return to the big screen. M3GAN 2.0 sees the titular killer children’s toy take a new role—as humanity’s savior. Some viewers found the genre switch a little too much of a left turn to handle. But in my house, any M3GAN is a good M3GAN. Especially if she has a brand-new wig, outfit, and a load of attitude.

Watch Now

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland teamed up again to revive the 28 Days Later series they created in 2002. Of course, the world has changed a lot since then, and so has the world inside the dystopian zombie-infested 28 Years Later. This time, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, and Jodie Comer join the cast as survivors after the original virus that turned human beings into monsters has been mostly wiped out. However, as we’re all painfully aware, society doesn’t necessarily change for the better after a large global pandemic. In fact, extremist beliefs and isolationist behavior tend to thrive in such environments! Boyle and Garland take a hard glance at the current cultural political climate with their apocalyptic sequel.

Watch Now

Thought you had enough of body horror after watching The Substance last year? Think again! The Ugly Stepsister, the debut feature film by Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt, takes the genre to new extremes. A retelling of the fairy tale Cinderella, The Ugly Stepsister focuses instead on the oldest new stepsister of Cinderella, Elvira. She’s plain and invisible compared with the conventionally attractive and naturally charming Cinderella. Elvira believes that true love and validation will come in the form of being chosen as the prince’s bride. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to mutilate her body until she’s eye-catching enough to hook the prince. Her transformation isn’t aided by any fairy godmothers but rather by brutishly antiquated plastic surgery procedures like sewing (yes, with needle and thread) false eyelashes to her eyelids and breaking her nose until it can be reset into the perfect shape. Blichfeldt weaves a darkly funny yet brutal tale of the doom in trying to change yourself for others.

Watch Now