2025 started with…..
If the film world of 2025 made a mark for anything it was for horror. Though like most years the genre output was uneven. Kicking the year off was Robert Eggers much anticipated ‘Nosferatu a remake of the hugely influential 1922 film this time with Stellan Skarsgard in the title role in another iconic interpretation after his portrayal Pennywise. The film was a big success getting Oscar nominations and racking up $181m at the box office, a career high for Eggers and is currently working on a werewolf film that is eagerly anticipated.
The stand out horror film directors….
2025 was also a good year for director Osgood Perkins. Having stunned audiences with ‘Longlegs’ in 2024 he directed two further films for 2025. ‘The Monkey’ was an adaptation of the Stephen King short story and featured a load of outrageous set pieces as characters met their often incredibly gory demise. He followed it up in the Autumn with, ‘Keeper’ a more subtle but still unsettling film. All three of his films were stylistically different but it has established him as being at the forefront of the new wave of horror directors
Those 2025 franchise relaunches – good and bad!
It was also a year when horror franchises were relaunched to hugely successful effect starting with a new Final Destination film, Bloodlines, that appeared after a 16 year gap. It found a new generation of fans perhaps unfamiliar with the previous films and it racked up $315m at the box office making it by far the franchises most successful film to date another film was quickly greenlit. The other franchise re-launcher was “28 Years Later’ a belated sequel that arrived 18 years after the last film and again did huge business earning $151m which was just as well as a fourth film had been shot that picks up directly after the end of that third film . The other franchise success was the unintended re-launcher that was The Conjuring Last Rites albeit only 4 years after the previous film this was intended to close the franchise for some reason. Instead it made a franchise topping $494m , making it the most successful horror film of the year and consequently those plans to end the franchise were quickly kicked into touch. It wasn’t quite the same for the reboot of the 1997 film ‘I Know What You Did last Summer’ that flopped and seemed obvious that things were not right with it when the studio did not show the film to the press. Perhaps worst of all was, ‘Him’ a sports based film and horror parable with spiritual aspirations that was produced by Jordan Peele. It was a monumental misfire in what was a convoluted and ultimately incomprehensible mess making it arguably one of the worst films of the year and its box office of $27m would suggest that audiences agreed.
The Blumhouse year….
Even the normally reliable Blumhouse Productions had a bad year with Wolf Man (reviewed HERE) from the normally reliable Leigh Whannell. who has form for successful franchises with Saw & Insidious. An already troubled production the film made a paltry $34m. The Woman in the Yard suffered a similar box office demise ($23n) as inexplicably did their enjoyable thriller, ‘Drop’ ($28m). The biggest surprise was the complete misfire of the sequel to M3GAN where the first film had earned $180m they retooled the sequel with a sci-fi slant rather than horror and it crashed and burned with $39m. A spin off film ‘SoulM8te’ that was to be released in 2026 by Universal has now been pulled and put on the market for another studio to buy and at time of writing there’s been no takers yet. So Blumhouse were relieved that the success of The Black Phone 2 took the edge off things when it earned a respectable $132m
Big name bombs….
The flops continued with other horror films even if they were helmed by name directors. Steven Soderburgh’s ‘Presence’ (reviewed HERE) was a ghost story seen through the eyes of the spook in a haunted house and was another one of the directors art house experimental films and earned a meagre $11m. David Cronenberg’s ‘The Shrouds’ was largely overlooked earning a risible $1.5m and perhaps indicating that the admired 82 year old directors best films are now far behind him.
Those indy hits!
But 2025 saw small independent horrors offer up several great titles that included ‘Companion’ (reviewed HERE) and also ‘Together’ (reviewed HERE) Both were low key but ideas driven films that produced highly individual films and well worth searching out if you missed them first time round earning $36m and £$32m respectively.
The critical and commercial big hitters!
But the two stand out successes of the year were a big budget star driven genre film whilst the other was an ingenious horror thriller. The first was ‘Sinners’ starring Michael B Jordan and directed by regular collaborator Ryan Coogler. A period vampire tale set in the Deep South it earned $367m and is a likely strong Oscar contender. The other film was, ‘Weapons’ that was proof that a successful marketing campaign doesn’t have to tell you everything in the trailer and here it would have ruined the film. All that was known was a brief synopsis where a class of children disappear overnight. That’s it. Audiences were intrigued and were rewarded with what was arguably one of the best films of the year. If you’ve not seen it, do, and don’t give anything away once you have.
What’s clear is that 2025 was a very good year for horror both critically and commercially. Let’s see if 2026 can maintain the standard.
related feature : Director Danny Boyle introduces, ’28 Years Later’ at the London premiere
related feature : The story behind the X-Files script that became Final Destination
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