2025 was a year full of hope for the Horror genre. Horror dominated the box office, made headlines at festivals, and garnered award nominations that should carry into 2026. It was a year that further proved that audiences want more Horror, but more specifically, original Horror. Whether it was on limited screens, streaming services, or big theatrical runs, both franchise films and original fare broke through the fog and landed on open arms, but the freshest voices, the risk-taking filmmakers that dared offer new worlds and fears to a hungry audience, were the clear winners of 2025.
Here’s to more fearless Horror in 2026. Now, here are what I consider to be the best films of 2025.
- Mother of Flies
2026 is going to start off strong, as The Adams Family’s most recent offering Mother of Flies will be hitting streaming services in January. What better way to start off the new year than with some proper indie Witch Horror? Though it was only seen at festivals throughout 2025 (I myself caught it at the wonderful Brooklyn Horror Film Festival), I feel this is a good moment to highlight this special film and get more eyes on it as we wrap up. The Adams have been producing quality films for quite some time now, honing their techniques and themes, and even exploring witchcraft from different angles and fresh perspectives. I’ve sung the praises of Mother of Flies right here on the Beat, but such a beautifully macabre (or macabrely beautiful) film deserves not only top billing on this list, but to continue finding its audience.
Where the family’s cult hit Hellbender explored coming of age and feminine rage through witchcraft, Mother of Flies focuses on death and rebirth, belief and survival. Zelda Adams (co-writer and co-director) plays Mickey, who seeks the help of witch Solveig (Toby Poser, also co-writer and co-director) after diminishing hope from her cancer treatment. Along with her skeptical father (John Adams, also co-writer and co-director), they stay at Solveig’s secluded home, where they experience the witch’s magic firsthand, and slowly discover a hidden motive behind her good intentions. The Adams, rounded out by Lulu Adams, have perfected their DIY, handcrafted style with Mother of Flies, further cementing their status as one of the freshest voices in modern Horror cinema. What these filmmakers are able to achieve on a limited budget is beyond impressive, CGI and production design melding perfectly to create an elevated world where a witch’s home feels natural in the New York woods. Add to that a clever script that hides compassion within the Horror and commanding performances from Poser and Zelda, and we have a film to be remembered and revisited for years to come.
- Sinners
It’s difficult to write about such an all-consuming phenomenon as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was. What could I possibly say to further prove just how special and impressive this film is when it has been close to universally praised? Perhaps that is evidence enough to include Sinners on my list, but the reality is that I have to confess that though I was impressed after coming out of the theater, I felt something was missing from my experience. Individual moments sang, but I couldn’t find the proper rhythm to enjoy its tune. However, as many a film lover will also confess to, some films truly come into focus in memory rather than in the precise moment of watching. That is what happened to me with Sinners, a huge swing that did not appear to land all its blows, only to fully come into shape as I replayed and replayed all its marvelous moments in my head.
A Vampire film with a Western structure, a film about the power of music and the history embedded within, a family drama with bite, and a uniquely Black Horror film whose monsters materialize as supernatural creatures and the real prejudices of the era it portrays. Coogler directs the hell out of this story of twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) who come back to their Mississippi hometown to establish a juke joint for their community, and reap the benefits of course. Enlisting their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) to provide some nasty blues music, they inadvertently capture the attention of an ageless creature (Jack O’Connell) amassing an army of the undead in the hopes of capturing Sammie’s magic. After much pondering, Sinners became to me a song itself, a blues-tinged rollicking good time that is not content with just delivering tasty riffs but also makes a statement about the black experience and the violence hidden within even the safest of spaces. A true blues tune indeed.
- Sister Midnight
The art of the Horror-Comedy lies in delivering laughs but also in subverting genre tropes to the point where something altogether new is birthed. Sister Midnight from director Karan Kandhari is one such idiosyncratic effort that pushes and bends genre until it is subdued and remade. A sort of Folk/Vampire Horror hybrid that explores the banality of arranged marriage and the perils of rebelling against rigid norms in a conservative society, Sister Midnight is one of 2025’s most rewarding hidden gems—a biting satire, a darkly hilarious sendup of Indian traditions, and fabulous showcase for lead actress Radhika Apte.
Sister Midnight tells the story of Uma (Apte), who is struggling to adapt to her new marriage with the awkward and mostly useless Gopal (Ashok Pathak) in Mumbai. When she decides to break with tradition, she begins to transform into a bloodthirsty creature, first consuming animals who come back to life after being sucked dry. Uma’s life continues to unravel as she attempts to hold a nocturnal job as a janitor in the city, completely abandoning her home duties and ostracizing herself from her neighbors who now see her as a demon (which she actually kinda is). The film is a downward spiral of deadpan humor and beautiful vignettes of malaise as Uma navigates a world that has no place for her, and thus finds solace in her new form as a creature of the night. A tale of monstrous feminism that feels like a cross between Jim Jarmusch and Chantal Akerman, Sister Midnight is as funny as it is unpredictable, a wholly original Slice-of-Life Horror with a unique context and expert direction. But at the end, this is Apte’s show, and she shines in every single frame, fully committed to going to all the weird places the film requires.
- Bring Her Back
Even though Possession Horror boasts one of the greatest films of all time, the subgenre has a slim offering of successful films compared to other subgenres. The Exorcist is a tough beast to conquer, but many a Possession film’s mistakes reside in an overreliance on mimicry rather than innovation. Danny and Michael Philippou’s Bring Her Back reimagines and reconfigures the Possession film and delivers some of the most disturbing imagery and themes that the genre has seen in years. The Philippou brothers are no strangers to Possession Horror, as their 2023 hit Talk To Me neatly fits the bill, but where that film fell into the trappings of many familiar modern Horror tropes, Bring Her Back finds dread in roads less travelled.
Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), two step-siblings whose guardian suddenly dies, are forced to find a new home. Laura (Sally Hawkins), a former child counselor, takes Piper in with open arms while begrudgingly accepting Andy as well. Laura is also fostering a child named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), who doesn’t speak and acts strangely. As Andy and Piper navigate their nice, new surroundings, Laura sets in motion a ritual meant for Piper that involves her dead daughter, while manipulating the emotionally fragile Andy. There is visceral shock in Bring Her Back, but nothing compares to the psychological assault the film brings to the screen. It’s a heavy and infuriating film, all thanks to a stellar, mindblowing performance from Hawkins. Laura is equal parts annoying, terrifying, and tragic, and Hawkins walks that tightrope of emotions with unparalleled grace. Come for the twists and bloody turns, stay for the disturbing performances.
- Wolf Man
This might be a controversial take, but for this reviewer, Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man is the most interesting interpretation of a classic monster this year. Where Guillermo Del Toro went for a mostly faithful and familiar retelling with Frankenstein (a solid but flawed film), Whannell imbued the Wolf Man mythos with a very personal twist on themes of inherited trauma and masculinity. In this iteration, Christopher Abbott plays Blake, an overprotective family man in a struggling marriage who receives news of his estranged father’s death. Taking the opportunity to spend time with his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth), they set out to his family home in Oregon where they are attacked by a creature, Blake becoming infected from a deep cut. As the family hides in the old home, they must contend with the creature outside and the one transforming inside.
Taking the same risks as he did with his great take on The Invisible Man, Whannell transplants the monster to a realistic and recognizable world where the heartbreaking story can resonate with modern audiences. Abbott and Garner deliver intense, believable performances, and the practical creature effects are both reverent and original. But it’s the melding of sound design and performance that truly brings the horror of the transformation into a new realm. If An American Werewolf in London produced the greatest werewolf transformation in a single scene, Wolf Man provides the greatest journey towards that transformation put on film.
