I've Seen Every Major 2025 Horror Movie And Here's Where The Genre Is Going Next

2025 was a banner year for horror, as evidenced by more than just Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" setting a new record for most Oscar nominations. "Weapons" star Amy Madigan also nabbed a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Aunt Gladys, Guillermo del Toro had a strong showing thanks to "Frankenstein," and the Norwegian independent body horror film, "The Ugly Stepsister," scored an Oscar nod for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. But as any horror fan worth their salt already knows, mainstream approval from major awards bodies is not required for a film within the genre to become downright iconic.

The best horror movies of 2025 really run the gamut, with films like "28 Years Later" examining the rot of British masculinity, "Final Destination Bloodlines" reminding the world that facing our mortality can be some of the most fun you can have in a movie theater, "Good Boy" proving that we as human beings do not deserve dogs, and "Companion" delivering a techno-horror cautionary tale for anyone who thinks the government should provide state-issued robot girlfriends.

It was also a year that marked a pretty significant shift in the types of horror movies that broke out of containment and became crossover success stories. The 2010s and the start of the 2020s have been dominated by horror films that prioritize internal struggle — centering on themes of trauma, inherited grief, deeply-seated mental anguish, a loss of autonomy, and fighting inner monstrosity. Of course, there are always exceptions that prove the rule, but after Ari Aster's explosive success with "Hereditary" in 2018, it seemed as if studios and viewers alike were chasing that high.

But last year, horror movies proved that the genre is heading into a different direction, and we should all be excited about where we're going next.

I have a great affinity for films that explore the horrors we find within ourselves, but these movies are, more often than not, a total bummer. And that's okay! Having a horror film to help process or validate negative emotions is a good thing. Still, when every waking moment outside of a movie theater is bleak enough to lock all of society into an existential crisis, the last thing the majority of people want to do is watch a film that's going to exacerbate things.

Thanks to movies like the aforementioned "Final Destination Bloodlines," Oz Perkins' "The Monkey," "The Toxic Avenger," "The Housemaid," and "Together," horror movies with a fun streak are making a comeback. Not to mention, the inherent fun to be found in slasher films like "Heart Eyes," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Influencers," and "Black Phone 2." Even the public domain baddies in movies like "Popeye the Slayer Man" and "Screamboat" were pretty entertaining.

In January of 2026 alone, "Primate" and "Send Help" have both proven to be absolute blasts to watch with crowds in the theater, and the rest of the year's release slate looks to continue the trend. Maggie Gyllenhaal's "The Bride!," the highly-anticipated "Ready or Not 2: Here I Come," the aquatic horror flick "Killer Whale," the zombie comedy "Return of the Living Dead," horror comedies like "Cold Storage" and "They Will Kill You," and "Forbidden Fruits," and the high school horror throwback "Whistle" are just a handful of titles that will undoubtedly, at minimum, delight on the big screen. Not to mention, 2026 marks the return of the "Scary Movie" franchise, with the sixth installment due to arrive this summer.

The pendulum of focus looks to be swinging away from the internal conflict stories of the era of "trauma horror" and instead shifting outward to external threats, like in "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" — a clear reflection of the way we are globally currently facing threats of violence and continued oppression by outside forces (sometimes our own governments). This, paired with the resurgence in popularity of ultra-gory films, suggests a return to extreme horror, not unlike the so-called "torture porn" era of the aughts. That explosion came during a time when government-sanctioned violence and torture were inescapable, and as we live through a time where footage of assassinations and a full-blown genocide are sandwiched between thirst videos of celebrity fancams and puppies experiencing their first snowfall, the emotions that whiplash inspires have to go somewhere. Horror can provide an extreme catharsis for the hell that we're living in.

What is arguably most exciting, however, is that horror is continuing to thrive beyond the usual trends that defined the decades prior. For as much as the films of 2025 have plenty of thematic similarities, they also take wildly different approaches to their material. The bleakness of "Bring Her Back" is not the same as the bleakness of something like "The Long Walk." The comedy found in a film like "Borderline" is different from the comedy of "Freaky Tales." The found footage/POV horror of "Man Finds Tape" is nothing like "Shelby Oaks," and despite the latter film's director coming from the world of YouTube, his movie is nothing like the TikTok star-centered "House on Eden" (thank god).

The wide range of storytelling philosophies is a testament to horror's continued reputation of providing diverse perspectives a cinematic voice, even as mainstream film circles continue to regress.