Upcoming Horror Movies Releasing Soon (2025)

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In a continually volatile theatrical landscape, horror remains a reliable genre for achieving breakout box office success. As the tastes of moviegoers continue to evolve and shift, with changes now long-established by the normalization of streaming and the emergence of superhero fatigue, it's often the budget-friendly space of the horror genre where studios will find projects of the lowest risk. Whereas we're seeing the likes of "Fantastic Four: First Steps" fail to live up to amazingly ballooned budgets, movies like "Final Destination: Bloodlines" are securing reliable profits.

Between films like "Weapons," "Together," "28 Years Later," "Bring Her Back," and, of course, "Sinners," 2025 has already seen a number of horror features that have been breakouts critically and commercially, as the genre continues to evolve and work as a mainstay that general audiences will dependably show up to cinemas for. When pulling the upcoming slate of horror films releasing in the back half of this year, I did not intentionally pull movies releasing theatrically over streaming, but only one entry is poised to skip over cinemas  — these days, the studios simply know it's a smart move to put these movies in theaters, and it's reflected in this promising schedule.

Here are some upcoming horror movies releasing in 2025.

After three "The Conjuring" movies, three "Annabelle" movies, two "The Nun" movies, and one stray "The Curse of La Llorona, "The Conjuring" franchise is coming to an end with one last entry: "The Conjuring: Last Rites." Except that's not really true — New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. would never let such an established cash cow die a peaceful death. There's already plenty of behind-the-scenes discussion about the franchise's future, which apparently includes a "Conjuring" TV show. 

Still, this is seemingly the last time we'll be seeing Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga toplining one of these movies as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Michael Chaves — director of all the most underwhelming entries in the CCU ("Conjuring Cinematic Universe," of course!) — is helming the project after his work on "The Nun II," "La Llorona," and "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It." This time, the story has the Warrens tackling their most dangerous case yet.

Plot details are scarce, but the trailer reveals it's set in 1986 and pits the Warrens against a familiar, particularly evil demon from early in their ghost-hunting career. That setup seems to be the foundation for creepy ghosts lurking in shadows, eerie hands reaching for unsuspecting victims, and an exorcism to potentially end all exorcisms. It all looks properly spooky, but we'll see if it can finally measure up to the James Wan–directed entries when it opens on September 5, 2025.

An adaptation of Stephen King's novel "The Long Walk" has been floating around Hollywood for a long time. George Romero was tapped to direct the project back in the '80s, but by the mid-2000s, director and screenwriter Frank Darabont had obtained adaptation rights, and the project once again fizzled out. Eventually, "Trollhunter" and "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" director André Øvredal was on board to helm the film, and then he quietly exited, leaving us with the current permutation of a Francis Lawrence-directed film starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, and Mark Hamill.

Lawrence, a veteran of apocalyptic-adjacent stories with his work on "I Am Legend," "Constantine," and the majority of the "Hunger Games" franchise, is seemingly well-suited for the King story, from the first novel the horror literature legend ever wrote, released in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It concerns a tyrannical alternate vision of America ruled by an autocratic regime that holds an annual walking contest: 100 men are chosen to participate in walking along a pre-determined route, where they are put under threat of being shot and killed if they fall behind the specified pace, until one is left alive and standing. 

It's a wonder it's taken just so long for King's earliest-written story to get the cinematic treatment, after it's been long-proven that adapting King books can act as its own self-sustaining industry, but it looks as though audiences will finally be seeing one of King's bleakest stories in theaters on September 12, 2025.

Racking my brain for this entry, I'm not sure I can conjure up a major studio release that could be categorized under the subgenre of "sports horror." With that in mind, the upcoming film "Him" out of Jordan Peele's production house Monkeypaw Productions seems to be arriving to satiate a sizeable hole in the market.

The plot outline for the Justin Tipping-directed film seems to follow a familiar sports-movie template, injected with an unconventional dose of bloodshed: the classic archetype of the budding rookie (Tyriq Whithers as Cameron Cade) taken under the wing of an ill-tempered legend (Marlon Wayans as Isaiah White). Usually, the disparate personalities of the two would meet in the middle to discover some kind of newfound lesson that strengthens each of their individual resolve, which also matures into a genuine friendship. Here, it seems as though it will end in a do-or-die collision of carnage. 

With an extended cast that includes Julia Fox and Tim Heidecker, Peele seems to be continuing his streak of producing socially conscious genre movies that flirt with a comic edge, here ostensibly concerned with what it means to sacrifice one's body in pursuit of greatness. That, and making football, and Marlon Wayans, terrifying. "Him" releases in theaters on September 19, 2025.

The second entry in the new, strange, misbegotten re-vamped "The Strangers" trilogy, "The Strangers: Chapter 2" has the unfortunate task of following the woeful reception to "The Strangers: Chapter 1." Regardless, the new franchise shot simultaneously and spearheaded by director Renny Harlin — who lays claim to a few pulpy genre classics like "Deep Blue Sea" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" but many more pulpy genre trash piles — proves the rule that even the lousiest of horror ventures have a shot to profit at the box office, with the first film earning $48 million against an $8.5 million budget.

"Chapter 2" picks up with the sole survivor of the first film, Maya Lucas (Madelaine Petsch), as the masked goons who killed all her friends continue to hunt her down. That's pretty much it, though the trailer makes suggestions that there will be some deeper probing into whatever lore the world of "three killers go around murdering people" has to offer. With the exact same creative team having assembled all three of these movies, the likelihood of these having an upward trajectory in general consensus seems slim, but they will likely find financial success all the same. "The Strangers: Chapter 2" releases in theaters on September 26, 2025.

"Good Boy" made waves at this year's SXSW, largely due to its novel premise of being a feature-length horror movie entirely from a dog's perspective. Yes, the good boy of "Good Boy" is a dog actor named Indy who toplines this haunted house tale about an adorable and loyal pup whose owner seems to be being pulled into a supernatural abyss by ghostly forces populating his rural family home.

As someone who caught "Good Boy" earlier in the year, I can tell you this is a fun little genre jaunt to keep an eye out for, one that vindicates its cutesy and potentially overly mannered premise with an effectively moody horror picture that takes its concept seriously instead of simply coasting on it as an easy selling point. "Good Boy" capitalizes on the common, ominous experience of one's loyal companion growling or barking at nothing in particular, and puts forward the idea that it's actually something. Even worse, it's coming to get you unless your dog can stop it in time. At 70-ish minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and it fully embraces its concept of what it means to design a chilling mood and frights from the ground-level perspective of a dog. And yes, he is a good boy. Shudder will release "Good Boy" in theaters on October 3, 2025, followed by a streaming premiere on the platform later down the line.

"Shelby Oaks" has been a long time coming. The most successful horror movie in Kickstarter history, the film that began shooting in 2022 marks the directorial debut of longtime YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann, and it acts as an extension of the "Paranormal Paranoids" viral YouTube series. Marred by post-production delays due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes and eventually sent back for reshoots with double the initial budget by distributor Neon, "Shelby Oaks" is finally set to release on October 3, 2025.

/Film's own BJ Colangelo called "Shelby Oaks" a "stellar supernatural mystery" reminiscent of the foreboding gloom of found-footage cult classic "Lake Mungo" — personally, the exact kind of recommendation that will get me to a theater for a horror movie. With contemporary horror favorite Mike Flanagan on board as executive producer, and the film having been test-screened and fine-tuned with a crew of fellow genre filmmakers, the world just might be ready to get Stuckmann-ized.

"Bone Lake" follows that classic horror movie rule: If you end up in a secluded location with a couple of strangers who initially seem nice and normal, they absolutely will not be nice and normal. Mercedes Bryce Morgan's erotic horror-thriller-comedy generated buzz at last year's Fantastic Fest before being acquired by Bleecker Street, which will release the film on October 24, 2025.

If the title–premise combo — "Bone Lake" centering on two couples descending into sexual and bloody turmoil (get it?) — is any indication, this promises to be a remote-set, dark-comedy-laced thriller in the vein of "You're Next" and "Ready or Not," only much hornier. The trailer seems to confirm it, with "Sex and Violence" by The Exploited blaring over quick cuts of people getting naked, revving chainsaws, and nakedly outrunning crossbows in the woods. Not my idea of a good time, but hey, I'm not one to kink-shame.

Never mind that Ethan Hawke's mask-wearing, child-napping serial killer The Grabber died a painful death at the end of "The Black Phone" — he's back to inflict just a little more adolescent trauma. With the extraordinary financial success of long-time creative duo Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's initial adaptation of the Joe Hill short story, there was always going to be a way to bring that macabre butcher back. As the new tag line for "Black Phone 2" says, "dead is just a word."

To be fair, the inherent supernatural contours of "The Black Phone" as a story leave plenty of opportunity for survivor Finney Blake (Mason Thames) to continue to be haunted by his former captor. The trailer for "The Black Phone 2" seems to confirm this, as The Grabber has transcended the realm of the living and is now able to haunt Finney as he sees fit, unshackled from the constraints of, you know, being alive. There also appears to be a promising tonal pivot from the hidden menace of late-'70s suburbia to a frost-bitten wintry setting, which implies "The Black Phone 2" will be a welcome new addition to the relatively lean subgenre of sub-zero horror. "Black Phone 2" will release in theaters on October 17, 2025.

Osgood Perkins has been a busy man. Between the releases of "Longlegs," "The Monkey," and now his newest horror venture "Keeper" on November 14, 2025, he'll have had three theatrically-released films within the span of just about a year and a half. Neon, distributor of all three, seems happy to buy up all the Perkins stock they can, with "Longlegs" achieving the highest returns for any of their films so far and "The Monkey" doing solid business against its modest budget as well. 

The teaser for "Keeper" doesn't offer up much, simply portraying a minute-long montage of increasingly distressed women looking at whatever entity occupies the point-of-view of the camera, accompanied by the soundtrack of an ominous choir. It's my opinion that all of Perkins' films are a bit knowingly funny, despite their dour outward dispositions, but this first impression promises a return to the more moody qualities of "The Blackcoat's Daughter, "Gretel & Hansel," and "Longlegs" rather than the splattery mayhem of "The Monkey," which Perkins doesn't think of as a horror movie and is indeed more of a fiendish comedy. With a script by "Dangerous Animals" scribe Nick Lepard, Perkins has seemingly located a story that matches his more regular stylistic sensibilities. 

I liked "Longlegs" a bunch and didn't like "The Monkey" much at all, so that's just as well for me. So far, I'm sold on the enigmatic manner of the marketing for "Keeper," and trust that Perkins can deliver on my preferred mode of his — cryptic, dark whimsy. 

Having seen the first movie, I'm not sure I can sensibly recommend "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" as a movie to look forward to, but it is undeniably a horror movie releasing in the year of our lord 2025 — on December 5, to be exact. Director Emma Tammi and screenwriter Scott Cawthon return after the immensely financially successful first cinematic adaptation of the wildly popular video game franchise, once again attempting to transmute the static, security-camera-based peek-a-boo horror into a more digestible pop-thrill-ride slasher.

By the looks of the trailer, much of the cast is returning for "Five Nights a Freddy's 2" as well, with the story picking up where we left off: Josh Hutcherson's Mike Schmidt, former Freddy Fazbear's Pizza security guard, and his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) are still reckoning with the fact that they were almost murdered by novelty pizza restaurant animatronics. But they soon realize they haven't seen the last of them as those dastardly robots start escaping out of the confines of the restaurant. Seems bad! The supporting cast expands too, with Mckenna Grace, Skeet Ulrich, and Wayne Knight joining what will surely be — without question — a sequel to "Five Nights at Freddy's."

The one movie on this list likely to skip theaters entirely is the one that's probably best served by seeing it in its intended setting. Such is the irony of many an auteur-driven Netflix release, and so it goes with Guillermo del Toro's long-gestating adaptation of "Frankenstein," premiering at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals before heading to the streamer in November of this year.

Guillermo del Toro has been talking about a "Frankenstein" adaptation for nearly two decades at this point — naturally, as Mary Shelley's Gothic tragedy seems thoroughly suited to the filmmaker's darkly fantastical, wondrous, and somber horror yarns and fairy tales. Netflix is known for being amenable to giving its high-profile, awards-hopeful films small theatrical windows in select markets, but it's a shame that people around the world, for the most part, won't be able to head down to their local theater to experience what is likely to be a lusciously designed and emotionally stirring cinematic treat on the big screen.

The trailer for "Frankenstein" suggests a film making good on this promise with a deep bench of big performers and character actors well-inclined to fill out del Toro's vision: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance, and Ralph Ineson comprise the core ensemble, with the film set to a score by Alexandre Desplat. In a case of a filmmaker being so ridiculously suitable to the material at hand, it's hard to get more on the money than hearing the phrase "Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein.'" 

I'm sorry to say I had no idea about the new "Anaconda" remake until digging though the rest of the 2025 release calendar. Whatever that bodes for the upcoming stab at the late-'90s creature feature vehicle starring Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube is unclear, and not much has been released about the film anyway, aside from a title card and a goofy announcement video from Jack Black and Paul Rudd. But it looks like writer/director Tom Gormican and writer Kevin Etten, responsible for "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" and "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F", are leaning into the tongue-in-cheek nature of the original film's cult status (and ignoring the one theatrical sequel, three television movies, and one bonkers "Anaconda" Chinese remake that followed in its wake). 

With Black and Rudd leading the cast, it's a safe bet this will skew toward cheeky, broad action-comedy rather than true terror — especially since Gormican's résumé doesn't exactly scream "horror director." You can reasonably expect something in the tonal neighborhood of "Tremors" or "Deep Blue Sea," maybe a "Piranha 3DD," so hopefully a throwback to clever '90s pulp that's self-aware enough to have fun but affectionate enough toward the genre to deliver some genuine thrills. Columbia will be delivering "Anaconda" for Christmas on December 25, 2025.