As has been the custom in recent years, the horror films of 2025 has once again demonstrated its good results with critics and the public, with great box office successes like Weapons And The sinnersas well as award-winning films such as Frewaka And together.
At CINEMANÍA, we have made a selection of 20 best horror films of this yearwhere you can’t miss the new titles of Zach Cregger, Ryan Coogler or Steven Soderbergh. Killer sharks, scary witches or singing vampires have played in our worst nightmares.
With a huge Julia Garner (Ozarks) And Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame) like its protagonists, the new film by Zach Cregger (barbarous) presented the disappearance of 17 students from the same class at dawn, as well as their relationship with the strange character of Gladys (Amy Madigan). A moving and wild film which has been aptly compared to titles of the caliber of Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999). Weapons First there was Pedro Pascal, who withdrew from the casting at the last moment and who would end up regretting it.
With Michael B.Jordan in the dual role of brothers Smoke and Stack, linked to the North American mafia of the 1930s, this ode to vampires and the fight against xenophobia won over audiences in the United States. Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) offered us numerous sequences from the film (shot in IMAX 15 perforations 70 mm and Ultra Panavision 70 mm) which will pass into the future, like that of a leech Jack O’Connell (28 years later) dance and sing Rocky road to Dublin.
At only seven years old, Guillermo del Toro (The shape of water, Pan’s Labyrinth) became obsessed with the figure of Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein. Since then, the Mexican has continued a constant homage to the literary classic of Mary Shelley. Today, the Oscar-winning filmmaker has managed to leave his very personal mark in his version for Netflix, with Jacob Elordi (Euphoria) like the creature and Oscar Isaac (Dune) like its creator. A visual gem that exudes everywhere his love for this emblematic figure of horror cinema.
In the middle of folk horrorrthe title of the Irish filmmaker Aislinn Clarke (The Devil’s Door) landed in Filmin, after crossing the Sitges Festival 2024where it received the award for best soundtrack. A story of myths, superstitions and demons, linked to an old woman and her new caregiver, who surprised and enchanted thanks to the careful photography of Narayan Van Maélé (The dream experience) and surround music from The Hexens (You are not my mother).
First horror film Steven Soderbergh (Contagion, Disturbed), with a script David Koep (war of the worlds, The panic room). Slow-cooked, this ghost story with Lucy Liu (Kill Bill), Chris Sullivan (It’s us) And Julia Fox (rough diamonds) was close to the emotionality of films like A ghost story (David Lowery, 2017). What was initially presented as a detective film quickly turned into a film heartbreaking plot in which the family trauma They focused attention on its most sensitive storyline.
Amputated limbs, self-centered princesses and a beautiful story of heartbreak are the keys to this gory adaptation of the film Cinderella from the filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt. Prize winner for best film in Sitges 2025, The ugly stepsister recounts the tortures that Elvira, played by a sublime Léa Myren (children in crime), He suffers to reach the prince’s heart. A violent beginning which surprises with its obvious criticism of the cult of the body and the constant need to reaffirm the canon of beauty.
Jaume Collet-SerraSpanish filmmaker behind international horror films of the caliber of Iat home wax (2005), The orphan (2009) or blue hell (2016), once again made our hair stand on end through a solitary and spectral woman, entirely shrouded in black, who appeared in a family’s garden without giving an explanation. From the hand of Blumhouse, Danielle Deadwyler (Station eleven, Till: The crime that changed everything) leads the star cast of this film.
From the director of Happy death day And This body looks like death, Christopher Landonthe film starring Meghan Fahy (The White Lotus) And Brandon Sklenar (Break the circle) collected the creepy story of a first date between two strangers. The encounter quickly turned creepy when the boy started sending her personal memes, which went from annoying to deadly. And few things are as scary as a first romantic encounter with someone we don’t know.
Sixth installment of the franchise which has traumatized several generations. With Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Monsters) as directors, this title delves into the violent recurring nightmare of Stefanie, a student, who returns home to speak to the only person capable of breaking the deadly cycle. The film starred the recently deceased Tony Todd (who has already appeared in four of the installments of final destination), Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The lightning) And Brec Bassinger (At 47 meters 2).
The French filmmaker David Moreau (They, The eye), a regular on festival circuits like Sitges, presented his new and lysergic film. After trying a new drug, Romain (played by actor Milton Rich) decides to go out to party and this is how his worst nightmare begins, in which a woman commits suicide right under his nose and a series of hallucinations, blurring the real from the fictional.
In the footsteps of 28 days later And 28 weeks later, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland They brought back the most emblematic zombies of science fiction and horror cinema with the first part of this new triptych, where we also find a dream photograph (in a United Kingdom isolated from the world) and a broken family (made up of brilliant Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Alfie Williams). With Cillian Murphy as producer and star of the upcoming third film, this universe rises from the ashes.
brothers Danny and Michael Philippouknown as the famous YouTubers Racka RacKa and directors of the highly acclaimed horror film talk to me, give it back to me has been one of the biggest hits of the year A24. With the nominee for two Oscars Sally Hawkins (The shape of water), this title tells the story of a brother and sister who discover a horrible ritual in their adoptive mother’s house. The beginning of a discovery that will take them to the extreme.
In a cross between the deadliest sharks and the the scariest serial killers of genre cinema, the Australian director Sean Byrne (Devil’s candy, blood quote) managed to sneak into one of the most unexpected and acclaimed films of Cannes 2025. A real bloodbath which had Hassie Harrison (Yellow stone), Jay Courtney (Terminator: Genesis) And Josh Heuston (Dune: Prophecy).
Let’s move on to the most 80s nostalgia, present both in the photography of Nico Aguilar and in the music of Edo Van Breemen, the filmmaker Osgood Perkins (Long legs) revisited The monkeythe famous story written by Stephen King in 1980. A film that manages to hold the audience’s attention with drumbeats and unexpected deaths, featuring Theo James (Divergent) in the dual role of two brothers, as happened that same year with The sinners.
As producers and protagonists of this project body horror, Dave Franco (The disaster artist) And Alison Brie (A promising young woman) literally blend into a title that rethinks the limits of love. A forest, an ancient sect and an amorphous dog do the rest. Michael Shanks debuts with this first elevated horror feature film distributed by Neonwhich contains some of the most beastly, funniest and disgusting scenes of 2025.
Directed by François Laurent (I am a legend) and written by JT Mollner (Strange darling), this adaptation of Stephen King’s novel takes us into a dystopian future in which a competition of a hundred teenagers must march tirelessly to survive. If they stop or slow down, they die. Only one can survive. The actor Cooper Hoffman (Licorice pizza) shone in a heartbreaking and terrifying story that touched the hearts of many people, indulging in the greatest tension and suspense.
Between romance and terror, the death of a billionaire and the weekend of Iris and her friends at a lakeside estate became the basis of this black comedy, where technology and artificial intelligence gave us a taste of reality. And for this, the filmmaker Drew Hancock (My dead ex) featured in lead roles Sophie Thatcher (Heretic) And Jack Quaid (Shout), a perfect tandem.
Despite initial doubts about a possible sequel to Black phone –the film that introduced us to the figure of the masked Captor, played by a scary Ethan Hawke–, after having gone beyond the original material written by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King) to The black phonethe duo Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (behind modern horror gems like Sinister) once again made us cling to the seat of fear, with certain situations that made the viewer’s pulse quicken.
Osgood Perkins repeat the position on this list. If the director has demonstrated anything, it is the power of enigmatic and strange images, presented with sudden impact and inserted into a story told slowlyas already demonstrated with Long legs either The Monkey. Through a cabin in the woods, a cake and a very close cousin, Guardian features a couple played by Tatiana Maslany (Black Orphan) And Rossif Sutherland (The Handmaid’s Tale), whose relationship will go from idyllic to hell. And it’s a short step from love to hate, and even more so if there are terrifying creatures involved.
“A good video game is fun to play, but it’s also fun to watch someone play.” With these words, Shigeru Miyamoto – famous Nintendo employee and creator of video games like Super Mario, donkey kong either The Legend of Zelda– marked the late multi-faceted artist Genki Kawamura (producer of Your name), who received these words as advice in creating his film adaptation of exit 8the video game about time loops Kotake Create that the emblematic studio toho (behind Studio Ghibli films) It was screened in cinemas with great success.
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