Here at Binge News we made every attempt to check out, to screen every horror movie of note last year and rank them by grade. There are some exceptions though:
If the film wasn’t available in English, had no subtitles or dubbing we had to pass.
If the film was so low, low, low budget that the “filmmakers” couldn’t even get the simple things like editing, continuity or lighting right, we had to pass.
Also, each grade installment is listed from best to worst. So, the last entry in F Grade is what we consider the worst Horror movie of the 2025 and in turn the first entry in A Grade is what we consider the best of 2025.
So…the best horror movie of 2025 was…
Synopsis: Plagued by a recurring violent nightmare, a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them.
Review: If you are going to screw with something, do your homework first. Director and writer Guillermo del Toro is a horror fan. His house is a shrine to all things ghastly and grotesque. He knows his shit inside and out. It is why his sort of version of The Creature From The Black Lagoon (2017’s The Shape of Water) won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. His iteration of Frankenstein makes some major changes to the original story but there is no justifiable outrage because his deviations hold true to the spirit of Mary Shelly’s classic story of a mad scientist who has the arrogance to give God the middle finger by creating life.
A couple of the refinements as opposed to revisions are The Creature (Jacob Elordi) has Wolverine-like regenerative powers and has romantic connection of sorts with Elizabeth (Mia Goth) who is set to marry Victor Frankenstein’s brother (Felix Kammerer) not him (Oscar Isaac) as in the original story. The roles The Creature and his creator play or hold in the story are different. Both are very flawed, damaged characters in the book. They do a lot of good and a lot of evil. Victor is brilliant, passionate but he is arrogant, irresponsible and a coward at times. The Creature is sensitive and has a child-like innocence but becomes bitter and angry resorting to brutal violence, threats and intimidation to get what he wants.
Guillermo del Toro’s take favours The Creature. Victor is portrayed as the real monster of the piece. Like Dwight Frye’s Fritz in the original Universal film, Victor is fiendishly cruel to the vulnerable Creature. In this version, The Creature’s emotional journey from child-like innocence to a cynical, resentful and spiteful adult shaped by his life experiences. It is a fall from grace for both The Creature and his creator.
Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi play off each other so well and it is their private moments both in conflict and in peace that along with Guillermo del Toro’s extraordinary vision makes this a modern classic.
Synopsis: A young Predator outcast from his clan finds an unlikely ally on his journey in search of the ultimate adversary.
Review: Director and writer Dan Trachtenberg is on one hell of a roll. While others stumble and tumble with their IPs (I am looking at you Disney Star Wars!) Trachtenberg has not only been faithful to the original concepts and work before him, he has expanded them, branching the story of the Yautja into new and exciting directions with his three spectacular Predator movies. This is how creators used to be before Millennials decided that they must reshape everything in their vision instead of adding another square to the overall IP quilt. This one has it all including a throwback, a nod to Aliens. The fact that there are two Predator moves in the top ten this year shows not only did the franchise recover from its missteps, it has grown into something some would say is better.
Synopsis: Plagued by a recurring violent nightmare, a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them.
Review: Bloodlines is on the same level as the two most seminal entries in the series, the original movie and the sequel. It was pretty much all downhill from there with a few exceptions. Who would have thunk that the creative forces behind the Kim Possible live action movie ( Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein) and the director of Spider-Man Homecoming, Far from Home and No Way Home would reenergize and rejuvenate an underappreciated horror franchise such as Final Destination? Perhaps they need to hang up their capes and sharpen those machetes instead. It is safe to say though that just as the hacked up, shot up, burnt up corpses of Jason and Freddy will be resurrected one day, Final Destination is back with vengeance.
Bloodlines reenergizes the Final Destination franchise
Synopsis: When a 15th-century prince denounces God after the loss of his wife he inherits an eternal curse: he becomes Dracula. Condemned to wander the centuries, he defies fate and death, guided by a single hope – to be reunited with his lost love.
Review: This batshit crazy interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel is even more bizarre, at times more hilarious and far more over the top than Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film, although it certainly is inspired by it. At the core of Luc Busan’s version is that a grieving Vlad Dracula became a vampire after blaming God for his wife’s death and turning his back on Christianity. There are a great many touches here. Gargoyles instead of the Three Brides of Dracula, attend to Dracula’s every need. Christoph Waltz as the Van Helsing stand-in ‘Priest’, approaches vampirism from a sympathetic, scientific point of view as if he were assisting victims of a disease not battling supernatural monsters. The performances are all outstanding: Waltz as Priest, Caleb Landry Jones as a sympathetic and savage Dracula, Zoë Bleu as the tortured Elisabeta but the standout is Matilda De Angelis as the vivacious, absolutely electric Maria. In many ways, Busan’s vision totally surpasses and even eclipses Coppola’s. After such cruddy renditions such as Renfield and that TV series from the BBC, it is great to satisfy the thirst of any horror fan.
Synopsis: Two operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a classified gorge.
Review: With The New Mutants, The Northman, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Gorge, Taylor-Joy is really building the resume of an action film star while director Scott Derrickson with Sinister, Doctor Strange, The Black Phone and others under his belt is a welcome throwback to directors of the eighties and nineties like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, George Romero, Sam Raimi, Tobe Hooper, etc, who were proud horror auteurs waving that banner high their entire careers. We need more of that today in all the different genres. Perhaps then, we would have even more modern classics like The Gorge by artists who admire, respect and love whatever genre they have their sights set on.
Full Review: https://binge-news.com/2025/02/18/the-gorge-a-modern-horror-classic/
Synopsis: Three of the fiercest warriors in human history become prey to the ultimate killer of killers.
Review: Dan Trachtenberg, the director of Predator: Prey shot this sequel with the help of Joshua Wassung who created the visual effects for Ready Player One, War Horse and Prey, so the cinematic pedigree involved not only loves sci-fi and horror but also the Predator saga which shows in the final result even though the first story kind of drags a bit. Three separate stories from different timelines converge in a stunning final battle and a scene that will leave Predator fans with many, many questions. Anime and animation as a whole know this all too well but for the others, don’t let the fact that this is an animated feature dissuade you as the storytelling is as hard-hitting and as powerful as any live action feature.
Synopsis: A collection of Halloween-themed videotapes unleashes a series of twisted, blood-soaked tales, turning trick-or-treat into a struggle for survival.
Review: Except for the last entry which was one of the best films of 2024, I have never been a fan of the V/H/S series. Far too often they routinely and blatantly disregard the found footage rules making me wonder: Who is filming this? How are they filming this? And…Why would anyone be filming this? Halloween does ignore common sense at times but the stories and the wrap-around are so good I can forgive the film turning a blind eye to reason.
The bookending story is “Diet Phantasma“, a documented scientific experiment in which subjects are asked to drink a new brand of soda as a team behind bullet-proof glass monitors the grotesque and entertaining results.
Don’t be put off by the first story: Coochie Coochie Coo. It is the absolute worst of the bunch. It is just another modern “Mommy” monster story in a haunted house. It isn’t scary or macabre. It is just so, so stupid.
The rest involving a Halloween scare gone wrong, a zany parallel reality that riffs on famous Halloween candies, a mystery surrounding a town’s missing children and homemade haunted house that takes on a life of its own range from kick ass to quite good. The segment having fun with Halloween candy – Fun Size – has some really imaginative special effects.
All in all, this is another step in the right direction for a franchise that has struggled to find a mainstream audience.
Synopsis: When Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.
Review: The idea may sound campy and goofy but Dangerous Animals is anything but. Jai Courtney gives a showstopping performance as the deranged serial killer Bruce Tucker who in feeding his urges also feeds the local wildlife. Hassie Harrison as Zephyr is a restless heart with a relentless spirit making her the perfect adversary. Director Sean Byrne and writer Nick Lepard didn’t a get enough credit for turning the improbable into the impressive.
Synopsis: A dysfunctional family running a renowned herbal medicine business. The owner of the company attempts to innovate by creating a new potion, which ends up triggering a zombie outbreak.
Review: This gives Last Train to Busan a run for its money. While they do spend way too much time setting up the family drama once everything goes to hell The Elixer never lets go. While the premise of nothing good can come from lowly humans playing God is nothing new as aren’t some of the old zombie movie standbys, like The Sadness, the breakneck chaos of it all and the malicious, unrestrained brutality going where North American films often won’t is exciting and refreshing.
Synopsis: A weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin turns into chaos after it’s revealed that one of the guests is not what they seem.
Review: The trailer actually doesn’t do this movie justice and whomever greenlighted, produced it should be demoted to editing nothing more than wedding videos from now on. The trailer not only reveals far too much but it makes Companion look like just another goofy, recycled AI movie but it is far, far from that. It doesn’t unwind as something written by ChatGPT. The twists and the turns are clever and the humour is fun, offbeat. It is above such trash like Afraid, Subservience and a host of other films that Hollywood is cranking out to capitalize on the AI buzz, hype and…let’s face it…fear. With The Boogeyman, MaXXXine, Heretic and now Companion under her belt Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) is becoming a modern scream queen.
Synopsis: A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.
Review: It surely is loud and at time obnoxious and not for everyone yet Flying Lotus’ take on Alien is one of those films that plays with and twists sights and sounds. You will either admire the brashness of the experience or it will turn you off completely. That is why it is one of the most controversial movies of the year.
Synopsis: As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.
Review: What do you do when you want to make a sequel to a successful horror movie but you… Doh!… killed off your villain? Easy. You borrow heavily from Wes Craven turning The Grabber into Freddy Krueger so he can terrorize siblings Finney and Gwen from beyond the grave. While the original was all about Finney, this is Gwen’s story. Her psychic powers have grown even stronger leading her to investigate their mom’s mysterious death. There aren’t any hockey masked killers at the Christian youth camp where their mom used to work but there are clues to The Grabber’s origin and their mother’s connection to him. Black Phone 2 answers the question… What would happen if Freddy haunted Camp Crystal Lake… in the winter? There is even a scene in which Gwen is flung around a room by an invisible assailant as her helpless pals look on. Whether this and the entire film is considered a Nightmare rip-off or a clever homage is in the eye of the beholder. Black Phone 2 is worth a look though for any fan of the original.
Synopsis: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Review: When the action gets going it really gets going but until then we get over an hour of family and cultural drama. Sinners badly needed an editor to amplify the pacing and the momentum. It ranks up there with some of the best vampires movies ever made if you can slog through the first meandering hour.
Synopsis: A group of teenage boys compete in an annual contest known as “The Long Walk,” in which they must maintain a certain walking speed or get shot.
Review: Finally, a decent Stephen King adaption. This is the reward for all those fans who have suffered through his recent book, most of which aren’t even horror any more, and abysmal adaptions that don’t even resemble the original stories like Firestarter or ‘Salem’s Lot. Not a fan of the ending but I understand why they chose that conclusion as it reinforces the theme. Since we are hitching a ride with boys in a marathon walk the dialogue needs to be especially sharp and here it is. The banter is funny, depressing, thoughtful and often insightful making the individual boys and their plights very memorable.
Synopsis: Left stranded in a small town with no way out, Maya must once again face a night of terror courtesy of three deadly killers whose rampage she must put to an end.
Review: I was never a fan of the original franchise. To me, it just seemed to be the same movie and same story told over and over again. Not in a good Friday 13th way either. I am the kind of slasher fan who wants to know the killer’s motivation, wants to know their origin story even if it is just never having won the prestigious “Hitchcock Award” as a student and blaming the heroine’s father for casting the deciding vote that prevented their win. If you know, you know. Chapter 2 is just one long, frantic chase scene in which the final girl from Chapter One, Madelaine Petsch as Maya, is always on the run once The Strangers find out she survived their shenanigans. There is barely time for us or Maya to take a breath as the psychopathic trio of Pin-Up Girl, Scarecrow and Dollface are swiftly in pursuit chasing her through a hospital, a forest and two or three houses.
If that isn’t enough, Maya fights off a wild boar. Yes, you read correctly. Maya runs a foul of a very hungry boar. If Maya didn’t have bad luck she wouldn’t have any luck at all.
The filmmakers do live up to their promise of revealing more about The Strangers who never seem to communicate with one another in any way. How is that even possible? We do learn though how two of them met, where their catch phrase began and a little bit more about the very secretive town of Venus, Oregon. By the end of the film and that dreaded “To Be Continued” prompt, we still have more questions than answers though.
Synopsis: When teen magician Max crosses paths with the sinister Jester on Halloween night, she must outsmart a supernatural killer whose magic is all too real and whose tricks always end up in blood.
Review: One of the biggest surprises of 2025. I thought the first entry in the series was very muddled, very obtuse when it came to The Jester himself. It is a shame this isn’t the original because is a far more compelling, focused and satisfying story. Although I am not a big fan of omnipotent villains like Freddy Krueger, who can alter reality at will, this somehow strikes a better balance than the first as The Jester has some physical and emotional weaknesses, limitations. The entire film rides on the relationship between the supernatural Jester and human magician and wallflower, Kaitlyn Trentham as the self-conscious and socially-inept Max. The way their relationship evolves draws you in to see how it all plays out. If filmmaker Colin Krawchuk continues to refine The Jester character this franchise could rise from a mid-carder to a main event franchise.
Premise: A cursed Witchboard awakens dark forces, dragging a young couple into a deadly game of possession and deception
Review:
Even though it had its world premiere at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival on July 26, 2024, it wasn’t widely released until August 15, 2025 so we are considering this a 2025 release. Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, Bless the Child) returns to the horror genre after a 25 year absence with a remake of Witchboard, which actually turns out is better than the original film. Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna in Stranger Things) plays a cult leader, occult expert, who tries to aid a young couple who come into the possession of the cursed Witchboard of the title. This isn’t your dad’s witchboard either. It works and operates in a very cool way. Witchboard goes off the rails in the third act with a few too many plot twists but it has some cool death scenes and you will find yourself rooting for the couple who want nothing more than to be rid of the curse.
Synopsis: A father and daughter accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.
Review: Who would’ve thunk that unicorns could be any kind of scary? Writer/director Alex Scharfman does the impossible in this first film. Well-meaning but perpetually perplexed dad (Paul Rudd) mows down a mystical unicorn while he and his snarky daughter (Jenna Ortega) are on their way to meet his dying billionaire boss (Richard E. Grant) and his eccentric family: Téa Leoni and Will Poulter. The unfortunate accident results in one bad decision after another setting into motion a wonderfully wild whirlwind that eventually sweeps up both the guilty and the innocent in its wake. As the ever conniving, manipulative Leopold, Poulter trumps his sensational work in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Bear. Although I may not be a fan of everything they produce I will give A24 the respect they deserve. They are rolling the dice on batshit crazy ideas that nobody else will touch.
Synopsis: After seeing his parents killed by someone dressed as Santa, a grown man later wears a Santa suit himself and seeks violent revenge.
Review: Far better and less skeevy than the original film. The plot and characterizations have much more depth to them. This version of the killer Santa borrows a lot from Dexter though in that he is guided by an inner voice and attempts to only kill people who deserve to die, however, you could make the argument that many of the victims in this film may be shitty humans but they don’t deserve to be executed. I didn’t like the supernatural element at all nor the predictable ending.
Synopsis: A fading midwestern town in which Frendo the clown, a symbol of bygone success, reemerges as a terrifying scourge.
Review: Clown is a lot brighter and smarter which is why horror fans shouldn’t be fooled into thinking this is just another release trying to capitalize on the popularity of Terrifier and Art the Clown. While I am sure that is partially why it was greenlit in the first place as Hollywood loves to play Invasion of the Body Snatchers cranking out cinematic clones when someone or something is red hot but Clown sort of like the Bad Batch’s Sergeant Hunter who thinks and acts on his own even though he owes his very existence to Jango Fett’s DNA. You can be rest assured though that unlike Jango, the Force is definitely with Frendo.
Full Review:
Their new guardian Laura (Sally Hawkins) is like Jack Nicholson from The Shining. You know she is bat-shit crazy from the moment you see her so that kind of ruins some of the suspense. Laura has a young son who has gone mute since the death of his sister. She drowned in the backyard pool and Laura is still drowning in grief.
The issue here is that despite being a compelling narrative Bring Her Back’s story is predictable from beginning to end in the sense that you know where the story is heading, you know what is and will happen even if the characters don’t. There are a few surprises along the way but mostly the story end up where you think it might. Bring Her Back is worth checking out just for Sally Hawkins’ incredibly manic and often sympathetic portrayal of Laura which deserves some kind of gold statuette.
Synopsis: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
Review: A little bloated with all the plots it has to juggle but perhaps more human and emotional than most of the other films. This is purportedly the last in the series with the main characters on one last mission of ghostbusting and it take some time before they even get their hands dirty in ectoplasm. Still, like all the other films, the main characters are what carry the film.
Synopsis: Vietnam. 1968. A recon unit known as Vulture Squad is sent to an isolated jungle valley to uncover the fate of a missing Green Beret platoon. They soon discover they are not alone.
Review: This movie only cost $7 million and you would never know it as director Luke Sparke stretches every dollar as far as he can. Primitive War is basically Jurassic Park meets Aliens. There ain’t no dumb ass kids to get in the way of the blood and bullets flying as season soldiers do battle with killer dinosaurs. There are a few places in which you can tell that Sparke is using a few cinematic slight of hands, cutting some corners but to be honest it all very seamless for the most part. If you love the darker parts of Jurassic Park, this is definitely for you.
Synopsis: At a remote island reform school, Ing faces strict obedience rules and a rigid hierarchy. As strange events occur, she questions if she’s their victim or cause.
Review: Host takes high school bullying to another level. It also tinkers with the conventions we have seen in all sorts of Asian anime and horror. Clever, dark and twisted.
Synopsis: A woman spends the night fighting for her existence as she slips down a rabbit hole contained inside a gift from a late-night visitor.
Review: The idea of sacrificing something you hate, need and love to a cursed box to avoid tragedy is original and compelling. Dakota Fanning is just phenomenal as the frenzied Polly fighting against the clock to feed the ravenous box. Director and writer Bryan Bertino (The Strangers) doesn’t know when to pull back though so the story goes off the deep end and never makes it back to dry land. Fanning’s performance alone though keep the film afloat and us invested in her plight.
Synopsis: Set in the Pacific, 1942. A Japanese soldier and a British prisoner of war are stranded on a deserted island, hunted by a deadly creature. Two mortal enemies must come together to survive the unknown.
Review: A great set-up that gets lost in the translation in the sense that the core creatures will be looked at as cool by some and cheesy by others. That is where someone’s enjoyment will hinge on. Although Godzilla and his friends are not part of Monster Island in any way it is still populated by these Creature From The Black Lagoon knock-offs who are far more savage than their fifties cousin. Whether you are excited by their ferocity or chuckle at their silliness is up to you.
Synopsis: One year after the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, Abby runs away to reconnect with her animatronic friends, uncovering dark secrets about the true origins of Freddy’s and unleashing a horror hidden for decades. woman spends the night fighting for her existence as she slips down a rabbit hole contained inside a gift from a late-night visitor.
Review: Like most Blumhouse sequels this is just…Meh! The reason why the gang gets back together is intriguing but there are no real scares at all except for a tense scene in which a young girl and her mom are threatened at knife point. The filmmakers actually start poking fun of the animatronic terrors which is usually introduced in later franchise sequels when the threats just aren’t that frightening any more. So, that was kind of surprising. The design and look of the Marionette are very creepy and an older Addy is really annoying.
Synopsis: A bright but socially awkward exchange student takes her craving for popularity to horrifying heights.
Review: An update on the mad scientist formula as a wallflower of a teenage prodigy continues her father’s experimental skin graft experiments but takes them to a whole new level. Bloody and at times grisly fun but it runs out of steam as it reaches its finale. Sasha Rainbow proves with her first feature film that she is a name to keep an eye on in the future.
Synopsis: Rosario spends the night with her grandmother’s body while she waits for the ambulance to arrive, during a severe snowfall, Rosario is attacked by otherworldly entities that have taken control of her grandmother’s body.
Review: If you can look past the fact that grandma has a hidden ceremonial chamber in her squalid apartment or that anyone would let their grannie live in such a rathole, Rosario is a good scare that has the same tone as 2017’s Terrified. The premise is creepy enough to begin with but when you add parasitic worms, evil spirits popping out of bookcases and Late Night with the Devil’s David Dastmalchian as abuela’s next door neighbor then you have something that will completely weird you out.
Synopsis: In a zombie-ravaged world, a resourceful teen and her protector fight for survival, facing relentless dangers and testing the limits of hope and loyalty.
Review: Although there is nothing really ground-breaking about this post-apocalyptic thriller that crams an entire season of The Walking Dead into one movie, the relationship between adopted father Cassius and orphaned Abigail feels genuine and reels you in as they confront both undead and very alive threats on their journey of hope.
Synopsis: After a young girl bursts into their home psychiatry practice claiming an entity is feeding on her, Jordan and her clairvoyant mother must find a way to stop the force before the girl is taken completely.
Review: Even though it relies far too heavily on jump scares and borrows far too much from 2004’s Shutter, there is something about the relationship between the psychic mom (Ashley Greene) and her maybe psychic daughter (Ellie O’Brien) that will keep you watching this supernatural drama play out.
Synopsis: Nick makes an extraterrestrial discovery that he decides will cure his wife of her terminal illness.
Review: It is all about the compassion we have for the characters. Camille Balsamo draws us in as the ill wife putting up a brave face despite all that is happening to her, around her and we sympathized with Reid Collums as the husband who is willing to do anything, include abuse a visitor from another planet, to save his wife. Where things all far apart is there is no chemistry between the two. We are never convinced that they are dating never mind husband and wife. There is no spark at all and at times the extraterrestrial looks menacing and at others like someone in a rubber suit.
Synopsis: A rag-tag team of divers attempting to salvage a sunken car from a river are thwarted by a highly aggressive bull shark.
Review: The filmmakers deserve a hearty handshake for making a different kind of shark movie. This one takes place in 1946 in the Australian outback. A small-time gangster contracts a freelance diving team to retrieve underwater booty. While all of the performances are great and the film looks far better than what it probably cost to make the human drama far outweighs the horror.
Synopsis: A pregnant woman inherits a house from her aunt and moves there with her girlfriend. Their unborn child becomes threatened by an old karmic debt linked to the town’s dark past.
Review: What is it with Millennial filmmakers and their obsession with bereavement in horror movies? In the last 15 or so years we have had a ton of movies in which a mother’s grief over the loss of a child invites the supernatural in. Why so many and why the infatuation with the emotional process? Whatever the case, we’ve had enough now. You can stop Hollywood. Maybe enroll in some therapy for your issues instead? Alice Kremelberg and Juani Feliz’s performances lift up what would otherwise be just another formulaic take on Rosemary’s Baby and The Babadook. Nothing memorable here besides those performances and a creepy dry humping scene.
Synopsis: A couple rents a countryside house for a weekend with their parents and then discover it’s inhabited by a 400-year-old poltergeist.
Review: The performances are all great. It is the tone and the comedy itself that exorcises any fun from The Parenting, unless you like silly-billy, cutesy humour with your horror. Not funny and not scary or eerie. Just lame.
Synopsis: An occult action film in which a team of several people fight against evil spirits.
Review: Dude uses martial arts on demons. You heard me right. Gilgamesh from The Eternals kicks and chops demons into submission. Normally, you would think that would be a lot of fun. There isn’t much of that though and the demons are pretty crappy looking. Just silly, boring and dumb.
Synopsis: After a near-death experience, Vanessa Shepherd faces nightmares in Abaddon. As mysterious deaths occur around her, she discovers her connection to the Abaddon Hotel, Carmichael Manor, and decades of unexplained murders.
Review:…and after 825 Forest Road, Stephen Cognetti strikes out with this incomprehensible mess that just staggers on and on. It will try your patience more than waiting in a doctor’s office. Hell House should be condemned and just bulldozed. Just move on already, dude.
Synopsis: When a city is overrun with a demonically-possessed crowd, a cop must find the source of evil to save his family.
Review: Just another run-of-the-mill zombie/demon/alien apocalypse movies that doesn’t contribute anything new or different. What we have here is a PG-13 version of The Sadness with Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are some cool effects, deaths though so it is not a complete waste.
Synopsis: When the “it” girls competing for prom queen at Shadyside High start to disappear, a gutsy outsider discovers she’s in for one hell of a prom night.
Review: Prom Queen is so formulaic that it is rumoured it was produced on the same assembly line that churned out all those regurgitated sequels to The Strangers. A bunch of one-note characters get sliced and diced in some imaginative ways but that is where the creativity reaches a dead end. Besides the kills there is nothing memorable or exceptional about Prom Queen except for the fact that besides the music the producers couldn’t even replicate the eighties setting right. This movie is totally bogus and totally lame.
Synopsis: For the past several years, the “Heart Eyes Killer” has wreaked havoc on Valentine’s Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. This Valentine’s Day, no couple is safe.
Review: A rom-com slasher movie that’s so light on horror it is perfect for soccer moms who cannot wait for the next season of that ever-so ‘edgy’ You to drop on Netflix. Heart Eyes is from the same bunglers who crapped out Scare Me (2020), Werewolves Within (2021) and other such groaners. Apparently, they have unfortunately found their Hollywood niche so expect even more horror comedies from them that are neither scary nor funny. Once again, their idea of a decent female lead is someone who is belligerent, petulant and just an absolute asshole. You cannot be a final girl when we cannot wait for you to meet your grisly demise as soon as humanly possible. By the way, the bad humour even infects and ruins the big slasher whodunit reveal. Like this entire film, it is a waste of time. This is a horror movie for soccer moms.
Synopsis: When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.
Review: Besides the toy monkey chiming doom for its victims this has very little to do with the short story by Stephen King. The Monkey just drifts from one Final Destination-like kill, set-piece to the next with barely any story to tie things together. The tone is so over-the-top, so silly and absurd you cannot take this film seriously on any level and because of that it fails as a horror movie. It is more accurately just a gross-out film.
Synopsis: A group of friends are terrorised by a stalker who knows about a gruesome incident from their past.
Review: There are a few clever nods to the original but those just remind the audience of how much better the original was especially without all the political grandstanding and toxic messaging.
This isn’t a spoiler in any way but when you end the film with the cruel and irresponsible gut punch line: “This would have never happened if men went to therapy”, your mentality is as transparent as Dr. Jack Griffin was. That one line is delivered with chuckles and smiles which makes you wonder about the thought process that went into it. It shows a genuine and shocking lack of empathy. It is also inaccurate. Recent data indicates a significant increase in men accessing mental health services more than ever before.
In a day and age in which there have been great strides in removing the stigma surrounding mental illness and normalizing those discussions, it is absolutely mind-blowing that this line was left in the film. It does however accurately represent the film’s spiteful and regressive attitude. What’s the motivation and desire of someone to belittle and disparage people which in the end just fuels even more negativity? I wish the answer to that mystery was a simple-minded and straight-forward as the one in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Full Review: https://binge-news.com/2025/07/22/from-horror-to-hostility-i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-a-reckless-remake/
Synopsis: A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
Review: A chaotic, irritating, hyper edited mess of a movie to the point of almost being unwatchable. Everything is so off the rails and not in a good way. With the massive cultural impact The Walking Dead and Last Train to Busan made on the modern zombie genre, you are going to have to do way better than this to excite or interest fans. And, like the other movies, the human drama is a big, boring flop. One of the biggest disappointments of the year. Let’s hope the planned trilogy gets the big axe right to the head.
Synopsis: A young athlete descends into a world of terror when he’s invited to train with a legendary champion whose charisma curdles into something darker.
Review: From start to finish this movie is entirely predictable. You know exactly what rising star quarterback Cam (Tyriq Withers) is getting into and how he is going to get himself out of it. You’ve seen it all before just probably part of anthology rather than a full-blown movie. This is Jordan Peele’s problem and track record as a director or in this case, a producer. He takes flimsy stories and inflates them. Him is so paint-by-numbers you can keep you finger on that Fast Forward button and not miss a thing.
Synopsis: Drag queens and club kids battle zombies craving brains during a zombie outbreak at their drag show in Brooklyn, putting personal conflicts aside to utilize their distinct abilities against the undead threat.
Review: Despite the excellent special effects it is hard to take the monstrous threats seriously when everyone is being so, yup, that phrase again, silly-billies. Lots of bad theatre school acting but the story moves along at a good clip. Still, you have seen it all before and better despite director Tina Romero calling on her experience being an extra on George Romero’s Land of the Dead. The drag artistry on display is far more memorizing and captivating than the story itself. It has more heart than you would think too.
Synopsis: Abraham Van Helsing moves his two sons to the United States in an attempt to escape their past.
Review: Incredibly boring as the idea of building tension just doesn’t work and the big conclusion falls flat. It is more of a melodramatic family drama that just happens to involve Van Helsing’s family who have uprooted and living in an episode of Little House on the Prairie.
Synopsis: A romantic anniversary trip to a secluded cabin turns sinister when a dark presence reveals itself, forcing a couple to confront the property’s haunting past.
Review: Osgood Perkins is great at creating eerie atmospheres but in my opinion, not much else. His characters are always presented as if they aren’t quite human, their dialogue and behaviour often too stilted, campy and artificial. Keeper is no different. Although the amazing Tatiana Maslany tries her best to keep all the strings together, she cannot stop this pretentious ghost story from unravelling on the way to a conclusion he might think is original or unique, making some grand statement but it isn’t. Perkins’ work is the very worst Elevated, Arthouse Horror has to offer.
Synopsis: A motivational speaker is tormented by an unrelenting itch on the back of her head.
Review: If you are looking for another The Substance, you are going to be greatly disappointed. There is very little body horror in this supposed body horror movie. It is just a lot of whining, a lot of itching and a lot of suggested terror. If you are a proud compulsive scratcher this is the film for you.
Synopsis: Wendy Darling strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from ‘the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.’ Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who will be seen taking heroin, believing that it’s pixie dust.
Review: There is nothing pleasant, nothing entertaining, nothing about intriguing about this depressing and pointless take on Peter Pan. Martin Portlock steals not just a page but entire chapters from Heath Ledger’s Joker playbook, including the lisp and other mannerisms as he kidnaps children and brutally murders their parents. What fun.
Synopsis: Modern day pirates on the hunt for sunken drugs kidnap a boat of tourists and force them to dive into shark infested waters to retrieve the contraband.
Review: A rip-off of Peter Benchley’s Jaws follow-up The Island. How in the world did they get Jaws’ Richard Dreyfuss to star in this soggy shark story is beyond me. Although his plea for shark conservation that plays during the credits is from the heart it is cheesy especially after watching a movie that portrays sharks as ravenous killers. The special effects are PlayStation 2 quality and the plot has been recycled more times than the idea that every horror movie serial killer after 2024 has to wear a mask and a hoodie.
Synopsis: A young woman lost in a series of meaningless connections falls in love with a charismatic and sensitive man, who hides a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession.
Review: Officially, it is from 2024 but that is only because it played the Fantasia festival but it got its wide-release through Shudder in February of 2025. This is nothing more than a relationship movie disguised, marketed as a horror movie. This is a fright film for corporate Hallmark gals who will gush about ‘surviving’ Midsommar while they sip their oat milk lattes or glasses of Prosecco. Nobody else need apply.
Synopsis: A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn, too late, that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.
Review: It is as if the filmmakers acquired all of their knowledge of pro-wrestling by watching 1989’s No Holds Barred with Hulk Hogan. Dark Match’s portrayal of the industry, those in it and the fans is so vapid and absurd that it turns the entire film into a clown show for anyone who is in the know. With Chris Jericho in a starring role you would expect that he would have set them right but Dark Match is such a mess only a can of gasoline and a match could have set things right. The only ones who come out of this unscathed are the leads Ayisha Issa, Steven Ogg and Sara Canning who somehow keep their heads high above this sludge. This is the dude who also made Wolf Cop? Maybe that film was a fluke after all.
Synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Review: In the last 20 years, there have been a lot of bloated feature films that would have played out better as episodes of a horror anthology either as a TV show or a movie. Many of Jordan Peele’s films, entries in the Conjuring franchise, The Monkey by Osgood Perkins which was based on Stephen King’s short story, found footage movies, all come to mind. They are stories that would have been better off in a more concise, shorter format. You can chalk up Weapons as another one of those, a story better suited to a throwaway episode of Monsters or Tales from the Darkside than a blockbuster, summer release. The grandiose hype, the overblown marketing campaign has in the end been much ado about nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. There are a lot of cheap laughs to be had with Weapons.
Full Review: https://binge-news.com/2025/08/10/weapons-wastes-its-mystery-with-absurd-plot-endless-padding/
Synopsis: A mysterious woman repeatedly appears in a family’s front yard, often delivering chilling warnings and unsettling messages, leaving them to question her identity, motives and the potential danger she might pose.
Review: If out of nowhere an old lady was sitting in my front yard in a rocking chair I would bring her some tea and cookies while we wait for the cops to arrive. Yet another horror movie in which someone’s inner trauma materializes in the physical world. No, that isn’t a spoiler. Anyone with an IQ above that of a bruised banana can puzzle that out during the story’s set-up. Peyton Jackson’s energy is the only facet of the movie that will keep you from nodding off.
Synopsis: When a city is overrun with a demonically-possessed crowd, a cop must find the source of evil to save his family.
Review: Just another run-of-the-mill zombie/demon/alien apocalypse movies that doesn’t contribute anything new or different. What we have here is a PG-13 version of The Sadness with Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are some cool effects, deaths though so it is not a complete waste.
Synopsis: On Kate’s 21st birthday camping trip, her friends encounter Piglet, a monstrous human-pig hybrid who brutally murders one of them. They uncover Piglet’s origins and Kate must confront her past to survive the relentless killer.
Review: This spin-off of the Winnie-the-Pooh movies is such a paint-by-numbers slasher film that there isn’t a thought or idea that hasn’t been hijacked from better films in the genre. The acting and the FX are bargain basement compared to the other films in the series.
Synopsis: A once lovable children’s cartoon character is transformed into a psychopath by filmmakers and producers…just because they can. Fucking idiots.
Review: Yes, I have watched them all and they are basically the same. Stupid, dull and badly made. Just because a character has entered the public domain in the United States doesn’t mean ANYONE wants to see YOUR twisted take on them, including your immediate family and friends who are secretly cringing with embarrassment. How about this idea? Spare one of the two brain cells you have and create something of your own, something original.
Synopsis: On the last ferry of the night in New York, passengers and crew are hunted by a merciless rat, and what should have been a peaceful crossing turns into a bloody massacre.
Review: There is one lesson to be learned from Screamboat. Stop turning Disney properties into horror movies. Stop it now. Stop it forever. A tiny mouse murdering full-grown human beings as a horror parody of Steamboat Willie is neither amusing nor entertaining. It is just as dumb as opening Hellraiser’s puzzle box.
Synopsis: Setting out to film their next paranormal investigation, Kris, Celina and Jay encounter a malevolent, ancient spirit that resides in an abandoned house deep in the woods.
Review: Real-life YouTubers prove that the long format is a different format and just because you are a YouTuber doesn’t mean your skills transfer well to the found footage genre or in fact motion picture filmmaking in general. Eden has all the most irritating found footage trademarks including cardboard acting, I-cannot-see-shit-shaky-camera, people filming “scenes” for no logical reason and about as much plot as a television commercial.
Synopsis: A family becomes convinced they are not alone after moving into their new home in the suburbs.
Review: Cookie cutter director supreme-o Steven Soderbergh bumbles and fumbles at his attempt to make a horror movie. An assortment of drones badly mimic the first-person perspective of ghostly presence of the title who watches over a fractured family facing various crises. It isn’t eerie. It isn’t creepy. It is contrived, gimmicky and as lifeless as the forever hovering poltergeist of the movie.
Synopsis: A colossal invasion of Earth is coming in this off-kilter take on the legendary novel of the same name, filled with present-day themes of technology, government surveillance, and privacy.
Review: One of the worst movies, never mind horror movies, ever made. It is really hard to find anything that is as boring and monotonous as Amazon’s snorefest. Production only lasted 15 days and it shows. Made during the COVID-19 pandemic, War barely touches upon H.G. Wells’ epic tale as Ice Cube sits in front of a bank of monitors watching Martians invade the Earth. Perhaps with a veteran actor with more range such as a Benedict Cumberbatch this could have amounted to so much more as Cube’s reactions to what he is witnessing ranges from ridiculous to laughable to awkward and just embarrassing. Instead of releasing this film, Amazon should have destroyed every digital copy and every hard drive it was on and then if there happened to be any hard copies, load them onto a rocket and fire that rocket into a black hole.
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