Tag: Horror

Weapons (2025) | REVIEW

One of the vanishing kids running down the street in Zach Cregger’s Weapons — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Zach Cregger — Screenplay by Zach Cregger.

Whenever an up-and-coming new filmmaker, whose previous film had the makings of a bona fide genre classic, is about to turn in his latest film, you pay attention. You especially pay attention when the filmmaker’s script for his new picture was so highly regarded in the American film industry that it not only launched a bidding war but also, reportedly, got a modern horror master to fire his manager over their failed attempt at securing the distribution rights to it. Such is the case with Barbarian writer-director Zach Cregger and his latest film, Weapons, a multi-perspective horror-thriller with drama and comedy elements that had a memorable and fantastic marketing campaign built around it, and which also, thankfully, turns out to be exactly the kind of must-see thriller epic that I’ve been craving.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) | REVIEW

Jennifer Love Hewitt in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (2025) — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing (still image from trailers).

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson — Screenplay by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Sam Lansky.

I often mention that my parents let my sister and me watch horror films when we were very young. We grew up watching and enjoying many of these, including especially the Kevin Williamson-written slasher flicks Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Luckily, subsequent sequels and later legacy sequels of Scream have been very satisfying experiences for me to watch. Now, they’re trying to resurrect I Know What You Did Last Summer with its own legacy sequel from director (and Thor: Love and Thunder co-writer) Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. However, it pains me to report that, unlike the Scream legacy sequels, I found the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer to be a disappointing and often dreadful experience. It’s the movie this year that made me check my watch the most times, and also the worst film I’ve seen in a theater so far in 2025.

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28 Years Later (2025) | REVIEW

A mysterious bone temple in Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Danny Boyle (Yesterday) — Screenplay by Alex Garland (Annihilation).

Nowadays, we’re inundated with zombie, or zombie-adjacent, entertainment, which, once upon a time, was popularized by George A. Romero. But before The Last of Us and before The Walking Dead, there was an early 2000s zombie movie revival — e.g., the Resident Evil film adaptation, Shaun of the Dead, and 28 Days Later — the effects, influence, and iconography of which are still being felt to this day. Two of the primary voices in this revival — though I doubt they thought of themselves as such — were Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the director and writer, respectively, of 28 Days Later. Here was a film, which was filmed in the UK at the time of the 9/11 attacks in the US, about civilization breaking down, about how quickly we can be turned into people blinded by rage, and about how important it is to hold on to our humanity. Now, 23 years later, following both Brexit and the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown, Garland and Boyle have re-teamed to continue the story of the rage-virus that shook their world and humanity’s varied response to it with 28 Years Later. It’s one of the most anticipated genre films of the year, but does it live up to all the buildup? Well, I really like this film, but, due to certain elements that are sure-to-be divisive, I think it’s only fair to say that the answer must be a tentative ‘yes and no.’ Let’s dive in.

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Dangerous Animals (2025) | REVIEW

Jai Courtney in Sean Byrne’s DANGEROUS ANIMALS — PHOTO: IFC FILMS (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Sean Byrne — Screenplay by Nick Lepard.

Dangerous Animals is a survival horror shark film from Aussie director Sean Byrne that follows a female American drifter surfer named Zephyr (played by Hassie Harrison), who, after a romantic encounter with a young Aussie real estate agent (Moses, played by Josh Heuston), has cold feet and skedaddles away to to a beach to surf, without saying goodbye. However, before she can catch the waves late at night, she runs into Tucker (played by Jai Courtney), an eccentric Aussie boat captain who makes money taking tourists out to swim with sharks in cage dives. However, Tucker is not a friendly stranger, as he actually abducts Zephyr and traps her on his boat. It turns out that Tucker is a sadistic murderer who gets off on videotaping people getting eaten alive by sharks. While Zephyr tries to escape the boat, Moses partakes in an official search for the woman whom he was smitten by.

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Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) | REVIEW

A hulking Predator in PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS — PHOTO: DISNEY.

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg — Screenplay by Micho Robert Rutare.

With 2022’s Prey, 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg proved himself capable of shepherding the Predator franchise and steering it in a new and exciting direction. Now, in 2025, Trachtenberg’s next moves with the iconic sci-fi horror action film series are coming our way. This November, his second live-action Predator-film, Predator: Badlands, is set to premiere theatrically, but if you’re jonesing for more Trachtenberg-Predator goodness right now, then you’ll be happy to know that Disney+/Hulu just released a brand new Predator from Trachtenberg that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from this franchise, given the fact that it is actually a fully animated film. That may not sound like the ideal way to tell these stories, but, in actuality, Trachtenberg has, with Predator: Killer of Killers, used the medium to pull off some genuine wish-fulfillment Predator movie moments that are exactly as out there and as gory as you could possibly like.

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Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Matt Palmer — Screenplay by Matt Palmer and Donald McLeary.

In 2021, Netflix pleased horror fans with the nostalgic horror-slasher trilogy of films, adapting R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series from director Leigh Janiak. Janiak’s films all had clear style, grisly horror sequences, and well-done references to their cinematic inspirations. They were all quite solid films that got their hooks into a certain audience, and it put Fear Street on the map for Netflix. So much so that I had, honestly, been looking forward to seeing how Netflix would follow up the relatively successful trilogy. Four years later (and, notably, without Leigh Janiak in the director’s chair), we now finally have that next step. Fear Street: Prom Queen also tries to be a nostalgic slasher flick, but it fails in most departments and, frustratingly, fumbles the goodwill that the first three films had earned.

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Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) | REVIEW

Tony Todd in FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein — Screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor.

It was only a matter of time before the recent trend of legacy sequels, including in horror, would make its way to the Final Destination franchise, which burst onto the scene with James Wong’s iconic 2000 entry but stalled after Steven Quale’s Final Destination 5 in 2011. Now the horror movie franchise, which is built around a Rube Goldberg machine-esque chain reaction focus on Death’s design as a direct result of someone having cheated death, has been resurrected a quarter of a century after the release of the original film. I’ll admit that I was concerned that the inevitable legacy sequel would just be a quick cash grab, but I’m happy to report that it’s, in actuality, one of the sharpest films in the entire series. It’s clear from the first scene to the last that this was made by filmmakers who have a lot of love for these films and who understood fully what makes these films tick.

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Until Dawn (2025) | REVIEW

(L-R) Ji-young Yoo, Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, and Belmont Cameli in UNTIL DAWN — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing (Still image from trailers).

Directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) — Screenplay by Gary Dauberman (‘Salem’s Lot) and Blair Butler (The Invitation).

After years and years of middling-to-poor video game adaptations, it seems we’re finally at a moment in time when Hollywood is confidently turning video games into beloved and/or successful films or series. We’ve got The Last of Us, Fallout, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, just to name a few. Now, of course, there are still some duds out there, such as Eli Roth’s Borderlands adaptation, which was largely regarded as one of the worst movies of last year. The latest attempt at turning a popular video game into a successful movie is David F. Sandberg’s Until Dawn from Sony Pictures, with which the studio is hoping to find low-budget horror movie success, like certain studios have become quite known for on a regular basis, but with a video game adaptation. In a lot of ways, Until Dawn makes a lot of sense for that model, and, heck, it should be a success given the horror movie veterans — like Gary Dauberman and David F. Sandberg — they’ve hired to get the job done. But does Until Dawn succeed as a video game adaptation? Frankly, I think it’ll divide opinion.

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Sinners (2025) | REVIEW

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Ryan Coogler — Screenplay by Ryan Coogler.

Ryan Googler should be a household name. He burst onto the scene with his incredible feature debut Fruitvale Station, revitalized the modern American sports drama (and an iconic franchise) with Creed, broke box office records with the iconic superhero film Black Panther, and took on the daunting task of making a sequel to his superhero epic, even though it would be without its leading man with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, following Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing. Coogler has proven himself to be a commercially viable filmmaker with something on his mind and the skill with which to pull off his ideas breathtakingly. But now he’s finally made something unique and original, despite the genre tropes his film willingly embraces, following years upon years of working with true stories, established characters, or within the Marvel machine. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is an original vampire period film of which he insisted on having full creative control and future ownership, with a deal that resembles what Quentin Tarantino, among others, have done before him. That was a deal worth fighting for, because Sinners is the kind of instant classic original genre film that will blow people away.

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Control Freak (2025) | REVIEW

Kelly Marie Tran in CONTROL FREAK — PHOTO: DISNEY PLUS (Still image from trailers)

Directed by Shal Ngo — Screenplay by Shal Ngo.

Shal Ngo’s generically titled body horror flick Control Freak follows Valerie (played by Kelly Marie Tran), a motivational speaker, who, in her first scene, talks to her audience about rejecting and resisting the voice inside of your head that keeps you down. Valerie, who is struggling with a constant itch in her scalp, is quite popular, it seems, as she is getting ready to go on a tour of Asia. This world tour requires her to go find her birth certificate, which forces her to face her troubled family history. When she meets with her father, who fought in the Vietnam War and is now a Buddhist monk, she is told that the itch, as well as the frequent visions of both ants and a dark figure, is a direct result of a demonic parasite that will attach itself to a host and will continue to gnaw away at them until they’re all gone. Valerie initially refuses to believe her father, but when things start to escalate, she realizes she has to do something drastic. 

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