2025 Horror Round Up: The Top 5 Horror of this year.
- Eris Grey
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
We are halfway through 2025, and it's been an interesting year for horror. From haunting reboots to bold originals, here's our picks for the top five horror films released so far:
5. The Monkey
Released: 02.21.2025
Director: Osgood Perkins Written by: Osgood Perkins, Stephen King (Short Story in The Skeleton Crew) Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien
Featuring: Elijah Wood, Sarah Levy, Osgood Perkins
Osgood Perkins has no signature, from slow-burn dread like The Blackcoat's Daughter, and eerie serial killer features like Long Logs, Osgood Perkins continued to push horror boundaries with horror-comedy 'The Monkey'. A creepy, prophetic toy, cursed twins and lingering childhood trauma, when brothers discover a murderous monkey in their estranged father's closet, they're forced to confront what they've uncovered: a toy capable of triggering real-world deaths. Perkins leans into absurdity and black comedy; the result is wicked and unsettling, and The Monkey will keep the kills coming, each one more ridiculous than the next.
28 Years Later
Released: 06.20.2025 Director: Danny Boyle Written By: Alex Garland Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams
The actual beauty in 28 Years Later is not the zombies; in our humble opinion, the evolution of the rage zombies was the most disappointing thing in it. Instead, we have stillness, moral ambiguity and ache. While we didn't like the zombies and the mother, played by Jodie Comer, being reduced to nothing more than a sick woman, we stayed for Ralph Fiennes and his stunning performance as a man, isolated from society, embodying grace while surrounded by death. At its heart, this film is about family: what’s left after decades of rupture, and whether it’s possible to heal when survival demanded disconnection. A haunting, sorrowful entry that dares to ask: where do we go from here?
Final Destination: Bloodline
Released: 05.16.2025 Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Writers: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts
After a decade in limbo, Bloodlines jolts the franchise back to life with confidence and clarity. Richard Harmon commands the screen with a performance that gives the film its edge—charming, tense, and fun to watch. The story builds toward a final, respectful farewell to Tony Todd, cementing his legacy with his own beautiful speech. Best of all, while the film does not stay grounded: death scenes are creatively staged with real tension, using practical effects over digital excess (except a few obvious ones). It’s not just a return—it’s a reminder of why this series worked in the first place.
Companion
Released: 01.31.2025
Director: Drew Hancock Writer: Drew Hancock
Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quad
Companion starts as near-future loneliness, then spirals into something far more unsettling. When Sophie Thatcher’s character is matched with an artificial partner (Jack Quaid), what begins as comfort becomes dependence, then violation. The horror here is quiet but suffocating—identity blurred, boundaries crossed, and a slow unraveling of the self. Hancock’s restrained direction lets the performances shine, and by the time the film reaches its final shot, you realize it’s been about consent and connection all along. Dystopian horror that cuts deep.
Sinners
Released: 03.07.2025 Diretor: Ryan Coogler Writer: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Hailee Steinfeld
There was no other film this year that has been more daring than Sinners. Set in the Jim Crow South, it merges vampire lore, musical structure, and Black gothic imagery into something wholly new. Ryan Coogler delivers a film that’s less interested in jump scares than in wounds—ancestral, cultural, and personal. The performances sing (literally, and you'll cry as it ranges beautifully from an evolution of singing), and the visuals drip with symbolism. It’s horror as reclamation, as resistance, and as elegy. It's art. It's rage. It's perfection, a movie that transcends cinema.
Honourable mention goes to Bring Her Back, while absolutely dreadful in the best way, I never want to watch it again, and Clown in a Cornfield, which hits the nostaglic teen slasher buttons in the best way.
🩸 Coming Soon: Horror in Later 2025
I Know What You Did Last Summer – July 18
Eddington – July 18
Bambi: The Reckoning – July 25
Together – August 1
Weapons – August 8
The Conjuring: Last Rites – September 5
Predator: Badlands – November 7
Comments