Tag: Horror

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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The Monkey (2025) | REVIEW

The titular toy monkey in Osgood Perkins’ THE MONKEY — PHOTO: NEON / Black Bear.

Directed by Osgood Perkins — Screenplay by Osgood Perkins.

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins is fast becoming one of the most interesting horror filmmakers on the rise. Following three relatively unknown features, including the quite good The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Perkins finally had his breakthrough as a filmmaker in 2024 with the excellent horror-thriller flick Longlegs. Now in 2025, he’s hoping to fully etch his name into stone, as a prominent horror filmmaker with Keeper, releasing later this year, and The Monkey, an adaptation of a Stephen King short story, which was released in theaters at the end of February. Here Perkins is trying to prove himself in another horror subgenre, namely that of the horror-comedy, but, while there is a lot to like here, it isn’t quite as effective as his 2024 hit.

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The Gorge (2025) | REVIEW

Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy in “The Gorge,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Scott Derrickson — Screenplay by Zach Dean.

Scott Derrickson’s The Gorge follows two elite snipers, an American man named Levi Kane (played by Miles Teller) and a Lithuanian woman named Drasa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), as they are both independently recruited for a top-secret mission in the middle of nowhere. At some unknown place in the world, there are two watchtowers standing across from each other, one representing the Western Bloc and another representing the Eastern Bloc. Each watchtower is guarded by mechanized turrets and bombs, and between the two watchtowers is a giant long hole in the ground — hence the title. Levi and Drasa have been hired to do maintenance on the weaponry and, at the same time, defend the world from what is hidden inside the mysterious valley. As they are the only two people in the vicinity, Drasa and Levi establish a connection, but when one of them accidentally falls down into the valley, everything changes and top secrets are revealed.

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Companion (2025) | REVIEW

A burning Iris (played by Sophie Thatcher) sitting across from Josh (played by Jack Quaid) in COMPANION — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (still image from trailers).

Directed by Drew Hancock — Screenplay by Drew Hancock.

In the marketing for this film (more on this later), trailers have highlighted the fact that this new genre-bendy flick is the product of the studio behind The Notebook, arguably the most well-known American romance film, and the creators of Barbarian, the hugely surprising horror film with multiple tricks up its sleeves from 2022. It’s a good marketing narrative that does communicate the film’s genre fluidity from one thing to another from certain scenes to certain scenes. But, in actuality, this is the brainchild of writer-director Drew Hancock, a Blue Mountain State writer, who, to be honest, has crafted something quite entertaining for his feature directorial debut. 

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The Girl with the Needle (2025) | REVIEW

Vic Carmen Sonne in THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE — PHOTO: Nordisk Film (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Magnus von Horn — Screenplay by Magnus von Horn and Line Langebek.

A Danish, Swedish, and Polish international co-production, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle is the 15th Danish submission to the Best International Film Oscar category to earn a nomination. Based on a true story and set in Denmark some time after World War One, von Horn’s film follows Karoline (played by Vic Carmen Sonne), a woman struggling financially. When Karoline, who believes her husband to be dead, enters into a relationship with her well-off boss, Jørgen (played by Joachim Fjelstrup), she soon gets pregnant with his child. However, when Jørgen is forbidden from marrying her, Karoline starts to think that she would be better off without the child that she is expecting. It is at this moment that she comes into contact with Dagmar (played by Trine Dyrholm). Dagmar works at a candy shop, and she tells Karoline that she can help her get her child to a foster family for the right price. However, when Karoline gets to know this strange shop owner, it soon becomes clear that she isn’t being upfront about what she is actually doing to the children being left in her care.

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My Top 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2025

It’s a new year, and there is so much good cinema to look forward to in the coming twelve months. Today, I want to highlight specifically twenty-five of these films and count down to the film that I am the most excited to see in the new year. Now, granted, some of these films could theoretically be moved to 2026, but all of the films on my list are either currently listed as 2025 films or are expected to come out this year. If available, I’ll also post trailers for films, but, of course, not every film production has begun its marketing campaign. Also, if you are interested in a longer list of films that I am excited to see in 2025, then allow me to point you in the direction of my Letterboxd list, which contains 80+ films — click here to check it out! But let’s now count down from 25 to no. 1. What are the films that I am the most excited to see in 2025?

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