Where To Watch the Best Horror Movies of the Year (So Far)
2025 has been an excellent year for horror movies. In truth, every year is. Creators are putting out more original ideas than ever before, and no matter what floats your boat—camp, legacy sequel, quiet ghost story—there’s something for everyone. We’re more than halfway through the year now, and we’ve already had some real winners. 28 Years Later exceeded expectations, and Clown in a Cornfield has reminded us how damn good a cutthroat slasher movie can be.
Here, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best horror movies of the year, all of which you can stream now. Prepare to be scared.
Fréwaka (dir. Aislinn Clarke)
Where To Stream: Shudder
Per Shudder: Shoo is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman, who fears both the neighbors and the Na Sídhe—sinister folkloric entities she believes abducted her decades before.
If we’re talking best horror movies of the year, we have to talk Fréwaka. This folk horror surprise not only comes with a recommendation from Mike Flanagan, but it’s also helmed by one of the brightest filmmakers quietly working in the horror scene. Several years ago, Aislinn Clarke floored me with The Devil’s Doorway. That was one of the scariest found footage movies I’d ever seen, so my expectations were high for Fréwaka. Clarke’s film is not only one of the year’s best, but arguably one of the best Irish horror movies ever made. The way it blends raw humanity with fluid folklore is unbelievable, and it’s not something I’m going to forget any time soon.
The Ugly Stepsister (dir. Emilie Blichfeldt)
Where To Stream: Shudder
Per Shudder: Determined to outshine her beautiful stepsister, Elvira resorts to extreme measures to win the prince’s heart in this dark re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale.
You might not believe The Ugly Stepsister is Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut. Harkening back to the real nasty origins of today’s fairy tales, The Ugly Stepsister is a triathlon of the gnarliest, ickiest, dare-you-to-look-away body horror the year’s had to offer. It’s all so assured, so technical, so precise in its tone, it’d be an accomplishment for a seasoned vet, let alone a first timer. The Ugly Stepsister is the Cinderella movie horror fans have always wanted. With the conventional structure in place, Blichfeldt augments the more noxious themes with plenty of tapeworms, dismemberment, and eye trauma to make even the most hardened horror fan flinch.
Presence (dir. Stephen Soderbergh)
Where To Stream: Hulu
Per Hulu: It’s there before the family even moves in. It witnesses the family’s most intimate, uncomfortable moments. It navigates the family’s new house at supernatural speed.
I was fortunate enough to see Steven Soderbergh’s Presence at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and in my review, I was nothing short of positive. I was also very, very clear that Presence wasn’t just an unconventional haunted house movie, but an unconventional horror movie, should it even be considered such. When the marketing effort went into full swing, that’s what Presence was billed as. A scary ghost story. It’s not, and it was never intended to be.
Yes, it’s scary, but it’s also deeply human and deeply sad. The genre elements are there to buttress the very real tragedy that Presence centers around. Yes, the ghost is a metaphor (don’t worry, I’m rolling my eyes, too), but Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp are too talented a duo to replay the hits. Anyone who saw their follow-up collaboration Black Bag this year will know what I mean. Yes, Presence might scare you irregularly, but what it really wants to do is reach its ethereal hand into your chest and squeeze until your heart pops. In that case, it does a pretty damned good job.
Heart Eyes (dir. Josh Ruben)
Where To Stream: Netflix
Per Netflix: When a killer who targets romantic partners every Valentine’s Day mistakes them as a couple, co-workers Ally and Jay have a deadly date with destiny.
Heart Eyes exists for a very specific kind of person, and that person is me. As someone raised on the digital slasher films of the late 1990s and early aughts, I’ve longed for the day the subgenre went back-to-basics without all the meta-twists and Serious Intentions. Just put someone in a mask and have them start killing everyone. However loosely tethered one scene is to the next doesn’t matter; just give me that classic slashing. Heart Eyes delivers with a wickedly fun script, a pronounced sense of self-awareness, and an appreciation for the tropes slasher fans have grown to love. I’m talking dramatic killer monologuing, protracted chase scenes, and killers that blip from one set to another in record time to set up the perfect scare. When accounting for the best horror movies of the year, Heart Eyes is positively swoon-worthy.
The Rule of Jenny Pen (dir. James Ashcroft)
Where To Stream: Shudder
Per Shudder: A former judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child’s puppet to abuse the residents of their shared rest home with deadly consequences.
I’m telling you right now. James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen is going to make my year-end list. This is feel-bad horror at its finest, but also most empathetic. Hidden within all the psychological torment and dour, depressive staging is a strident cry to better care for our elderly. Okay, maybe not those like Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), but the rest of ‘em. The Rule of Jenny Pen is this year’s “what kind of horror fan are you” test. It’s principally psychological, yes, but it also scared me in ways I wasn’t prepared for. I’m talking that existential, pit in your stomach kind of scared. Naturally, there are some who reject The Rule of Jenny Pen’s horror qualifier—it isn’t scary, it’s psychological, all that. However you classify it, it’s one of the best horror movies of the year. Follow Jenny’s rule and watch it as soon as you can.
What do you think? What are the best horror movies of the year? Additionally, how does 2025 compare to last year? Where would you like to see the genre go next? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
Categorized: Editorials
