Terrifying people seems to be one of artists’ favorite pastimes — and definitely one of ours to enjoy. From books to television series to movies, there’s no shortage of fantastic horror out there, and each year keeps getting better. This year has been an especially great year for the genre in film, and here are our picks for the best horror movies of 2025 (so far).
What are the best horror movies of 2025?
As any fan knows, the horror genre has a wide range of subgenres, and we tried to choose films that were both well-received and well-reviewed. That said, we didn’t limit ourselves to only the ones we thought were the scariest.
Weapons
Considered Zach Cregger’s most terrifying film to date, though maybe not the scariest movie of the year, Weapons does what modern horror often strives to do by laying out every thematic thread it’s unpacking or interrogating. But he never makes it exceptionally obvious. Weapons could be about COVID-19. It could be about school shootings. It could simply be what suspicion and grief do to a community. But Cregger never tells us outright, instead piecing together a mosaic of ideas that keeps us uncertain and uneasy. In doing so, he gives the audience a rare gift: a horror film that makes you think as much as it makes you squirm.
The movie opens with seventeen parents tucking their children into bed for what they don’t realize will be the last time. That night, at 2:17 a.m., the children rise, leave their beds, and run into the woods with their arms stretched out behind them like some terrifying version of Naruto. It’s a haunting, unforgettable image. The next morning, a teacher named Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) arrives to find her classroom empty, except for one student (Cary Christopher). As the community struggles to piece together what happened, suspicion begins to turn toward Justine. As much a mystery as it is a horror-thriller, Weapons keeps twisting and turning until the very end.
Sinners
The summer blockbuster of 2025, Sinners, is as much a discourse on racial tensions as it is a gory vampire movie. It’s a redemption movie, a supernatural horror, a revenge thriller, a southern gothic, a musical (in that the music does as much of the storytelling as it is a driving part of the plot itself). Even if you didn’t love Sinners, though very few seemed to feel that way, it’s the kind of film that leaves you dissecting it for an hour after the credits roll. This writer probably had more conversations about this film with different friend groups and strangers than I have about any other film in a long time. Not all of them liked the movie, but the time spent discussing it is worth noting. That alone is the mark of a film that does something.
Directed, written, and produced by Ryan Coogler, Sinners takes us to 1932 Mississippi, when twin brothers “Smoke” and “Stack” (both played by Michael B. Jordan) returned home after time in Chicago. They purchase an old sawmill and plan to open it as a venue for music and dancing for the Black community in their hometown. On the night the club opens, they find something far more sinister is drawn to the sound of the music from a young blues prodigy, Sammie (played by Miles Canton).
28 Years Later
The sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Years Later, picks up 28 years after the original film’s Rage Virus outbreak devastated the world. Directed by Danny Boyle from a script by Alex Garland, the movie opens during the early days of the virus in the Scottish Highlands, where a group of children watch Teletubbies. Moment by moment, we can sense the danger coming closer, and finally, a horde of the infected descends on them.
We then jump forward nearly three decades, to a small family of a scavenger (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife Isla (Jodie Comer), and their 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams) struggling to survive on an isolated island. Though the virus has been mostly eradicated and the UK has a protocol in place for quarantine, any semblance of fragile normalcy begins to crack, leading Isla and Alfie to seek help for her debilitating illness.
Together
There’s something deeply satisfying about work that blends the fictive and the real. Though this meta-theatricality isn’t a device commonly used in film, Together is built entirely around it. Real-life husband-and-wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a married couple dealing with the ups and downs of a long-term relationship. In not entirely removing the mimesis, a fancy ancient Greek word for representation, the film inherently blurs the lines between their real-life chemistry and the characters they portray.
Already feeling the strain of a long-term relationship, this couple moves to the countryside to mix things up and start fresh. But the writing takes these characters into unknown territory, and the surrealism begins to take hold. Soon, the two find themselves to separate from one another, we’re talking about metaphorically and literally, in a uniquely disturbing display of body horror. Though the horror themes are strong throughout, Together is also layered with romance and dark comedy, which makes this movie work.
Frankenstein
The most recent release on our list, Frankenstein, falls into the gothic horror category, which means it’s not necessarily scary by modern standards. But it is absolutely breathtaking. Possibly one of Guillermo del Toro’s best films, right up there with Pan’s Labyrinth, Frankenstein retells Mary Shelley’s story in a way only he can. It stays remarkably close to the source material, with just a few deliberate changes.
The film opens with a framing device that begins at the end of Shelley’s novel, as the Creature hunts his creator across the Arctic. As he awaits his own destruction, Victor Frankenstein (played by Oscar Isaac) recounts his story to the captain of a ship trapped in the ice. It is a confession of obsession, ambition, and the desire to take back power from God, who can give and take life. From there, the film unfolds from his perspective until the Creature (played beautifully by Jacob Elordi) enters and offers his own.
Abused by his maker, this sentient being is unable to die. Though he was thought to be a collection of body parts reanimated with electricity, he is filled with the full capacity for thought and soul. He laments what it means to be despised yet unable to be free from the curse of immortality. By the end, Frankenstein leaves us with a profound mix of wonder, anguish, and aching beauty for this fragile thing called life.
How we picked the best horror movies of 2025
We narrowed down our picks for the best horror movies of 2025 (so far) based on audience and critical reception, the thematic elements each movie brought to the table, and the forms it used to make a compelling film. Other contenders for our list include Woman in the Yard, Good Boy, Companion, and Bring Her Back.
