Ashliene McMenamy’s Top 10 Horror Movies of 2025 [Dread Central Selects]
As a horror fan online, sometimes I feel like I’m being bombarded with the same posts every year: “horror is finally back,” “horror fans are eating so good right now,” “this has been the best year for horror ever.” And while I usually roll my eyes at this kind of discourse (every year is a good year for horror if you know where to look), this year I have to admit that 2025 might have actually been one of the most interesting years for the genre. We’ve seen the return of the horror blockbuster, fun reboots with fresh takes on the source material, interesting indie gems, and even a few freaky foreign films.
Perhaps this sudden boom has something to do with the fact that we’ve been living through what is shaping up to be a very dark time in history. Understandably, some of us will seek out catharsis in the safety of a theater. And there’s no genre more cathartic than horror.
So, with all that in mind, here are my top ten horror movies of 2025. Let’s get into it.
10. Together
This year I had been doing a lot of thinking about relationships and settling. What if you were in a mostly good relationship with a person you’re not in love with, but could tolerate? What if you fall in love with someone, but your relationship makes you feel tired and alone? Do you leave? Or do you find a way to make it work?
When we look back on 2025, we’re going to be thinking about heterofatalism, the declining birth rate, and the loneliness epidemic. And there’s no movie that captures these topics better than Together, a sick little film that illuminates the fears many of us have when it comes to love and relationships: resentment, codependency, or even worse, losing yourself entirely.
I saw this twice in theaters, and each time I was struck by the film’s sense of humor. Even when Alison Brie is about to take a reciprocating saw to her and Dave Franco’s conjoined arm, you can’t help but chuckle. But even that doesn’t mean you can fully put your guard down. This is a film that isn’t afraid to go there.
9. 28 Years Later
I didn’t expect to cry as hard as I did while watching 28 Years Later. I knew I was in for an emotional experience (the emotions being anxiety and fear), but I wasn’t ready to be as moved as I was by Jodie Comer’s performance as Isla, a woman dying of a mysterious illness as she navigates the infected-infested countryside with her son, Spike (Alfie Williams).
I’m not alone in this, by the way. Almost everyone agrees Isla’s death is heartbreaking. But when Isla confuses Spike for her father, I was crying so hard I had to stifle my sobs with a napkin. The only reason my eyes aren’t welling with tears as I write this is because I’m also thinking of Jack O’Connell as the the leader of the Jimmy Savile–inspired cult and the fact that we’re going to see more of him in The Bone Temple. Now that’s scary.
8. Final Destination Bloodlines
Final Destination Bloodlines made me kick my feet with joy in the theater. It’s been a while since I’ve watched any of the Final Destination movies, and I forgot how much fun it is to watch one person after another meet their terrible, cartoonishly disgusting end for a little over 100 minutes.
I was nervous going into this because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch yet another horror movie about familial trauma. But I appreciated how Final Destination Bloodlines never felt the need to hit me over the head with metaphors or exposition to communicate its message. Our refusal to confront death/trauma will destroy us, and everyone will love! The only way we can embrace life is by embracing death! It comes for us all! So we must lean on and embrace each other whenever we can!
This was also a gorgeous farewell to Tony Todd, whose final performance moved me to tears. What was with me crying in the theater this year? Anyway. What a perfectly gooey movie.
7. Weapons
Leading up to Weapons, I was rewatching The Whitest Kids U’Know, the raunchy, slightly off-kilter sketch comedy series that first introduced me to Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore. I must have been in middle school when I discovered the show, and I’d come back to it whenever I needed a good laugh. So of course, I was devastated by the news of Moore’s unexpected death in 2021. Because I knew Cregger threw himself into his writing to cope, I knew Weapons was going to be an interesting experience. A scary one, sure—I’ve seen Barbarian—but I knew it was going to be something else.
There’s been a lot of discourse online about Weapons being about nothing, and if you think it’s about anything, then someone will quickly remind you it’s not that deep. But I found Weapons to be a rich, surprisingly fast-paced, super engaging film that doesn’t need to justify or overexplain any of its choices. Sometimes, inexplicably bad sh*t happens, the people and institutions meant to protect us ultimately fail us, and we find ourselves alone, drinking every night or throwing ourselves into work or succumbing to conspiracy theories and magical thinking in an effort to make sense of it all.
6. Companion
If you’ve been following me for a while here on Dread Central, then you already know I have a lot to say when it comes to romance, gender, and technology, so it’s no surprise that I loved Companion. Sophie Thatcher proves herself to be one to watch with her performance as Iris, an android programmed to be the ideal girlfriend.
We’re already seeing entire sub-Reddits devoted to AI lovers, news reports of people proposing to their chatbots, and people on X debating whether or not artificial wombs are “the future,” so Companion came out at the perfect time. But I’d argue that the film has less to do with AI and more to do with male entitlement, emotional neglect, and manipulation.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Jack Quaid is a little too good at playing loser boyfriends. Can someone confirm that he’s a normal dude for me in the comments?
5. Frankenstein
Despite its made-for-Netflix sheen, Frankenstein is a gorgeous film that reminded me of what a joy it is to live, even if joy is fleeting and life has a tendency to be cruel. It also reminded me of how everybody doubted Jacob Elordi’s skills as an actor when the news came out that he would be replacing Andrew Garfield as the Creature. Doesn’t feel good to be proven wrong, huh?
Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation captured the essence of Mary Shelley’s iconic Gothic novel while introducing some interesting changes to the story. I really appreciated the production design and costumes in this film, especially Mia Goth’s dresses, which were inspired by beetle wings and fractal patterns. You can tell that this is the film del Toro has been waiting to do his entire career, and I’m happy he was finally able to bring his vision to life.
Like I said in my review on Letterboxd (if you’re not following me, then you should click here), Elordi makes some brilliant choices as the Creature. He reminded me of a caged animal. And I’d never blame a caged animal for acting out.
4. Eddington
You might be questioning me for including a movie that’s ostensibly not horror, but please hear me out. Eddington is a scary little film. And by scary, I mean uncomfortable. And by little, I mean 149 minutes. And I enjoyed everything about it.
This might be my favorite Pedro Pascal performance ever—Ari Aster weaponizes his charm and good looks to create a charismatic but corrupt politician that you know you can’t trust. But Eddington also features a scene-stealing performance by Austin Butler as a cult leader intent on gaining new followers and taking everything away from Joaquin Phoenix’s anxious sheriff, including his wife (I still can’t get over the fact that when we first see Phoenix, he’s watching a YouTube video about how to convince your spouse to have a baby, only for her to run away and get pregnant with Butler in the end. I don’t condone it, but hey, I get it).
Some argue that Eddington is irresponsible or hollow, and I completely understand their reasons for that. But I believe that of all the films on this list, this one will age the best. Check back in with me in the next two-to-five years. You’ll see.
3. The Ugly Stepsister
Going into The Ugly Stepsister, I knew this film was going to test just how much gore I could handle. What I didn’t expect was that I was going to be shielding my eyes from the sheer amount of maggots, broken noses, and tapeworms I’d see onscreen. And yet, this was one of my favorite movies of the year, horror or otherwise.
Like Charli xcx said, “it’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl.” Whether we’re conscious of it not, we’re conditioned to see each other as competition and encouraged to engage in self-destructive behaviors, spend ridiculous amounts of money, or ignore our basic needs in order to conform to societal expectations. I saw a lot of my teenage self in Elvira (Lea Myren), an imaginative but awkward young girl who believes beauty will save her and her family from destitution.
The Ugly Stepsister takes the issue of beauty seriously—what it costs, what it can access, and the lengths we’re willing to go to achieve it. And because of that, it feels more honest than something like The Substance, but you can fight with me about that in the comments below.
2. Bugonia
This is the first and only film on this list that has ever left me speechless leaving the theater. I don’t know if I said anything of any substance until halfway through the drive home, and even then all I could muster was, “Wow.”
Bugonia isn’t my favorite Yorgos Lanthimos film (that honor goes to Dogtooth), but it just might be in my top three. Like Weapons and Eddington, the film takes a look at conspiracy theories, but instead of simply saying that they’re bad, it tries to understand why someone would gravitate to them. Sure, certain ideas might feel comforting, but they don’t allow us to make any meaningful or positive changes in our lives. When we can’t accept the truth of a situation—when we refuse to take responsibility for our own wrongdoings, when we ignore our communities and succumb to hyper-individualism, when we refuse to acknowledge all the beauty and potential for joy all around us—we become the makers of our own destruction.
I didn’t think a coconut cake would make me laugh that hard in the middle of a scene that made me physically clench each one of my muscles. Loved Emma Stone in this one, but this might have been Jesse Plemons’ best work.
1. Sinners
I’m sure halfway through this list you guessed that Sinners would take the number one spot. Sinners felt like a full-on reinvention of the vampire subgenre, and it reminded me why I love going to the movies in the first place.
Sinners might be Ryan Coogler’s most ambitious project yet, blending elements of the Southern Gothic with vampire lore and period drama conventions to create his horror blockbuster (the world building here is fantastic). And while it’s technically not a musical, it has a few musical moments as well. I really loved when Sammy (Miles Caton) sings “I Lied to You,” luring the spirits of the past, present, and future to dance, and I also enjoyed the scene where Remmick (Jack O’Connell) sings “Rocky Road to Dublin” to celebrate the new community he’s created after turning the patrons of the Juke Joint into vampires. I’m saying all this as a person who doesn’t like musicals.
If we’re talking about the horror film of 2025, the one people will reference, argue about, rewatch, and study in the future, it’s this one. In fact, I think it’s already happening….
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