Irish Vampires and Demons. The Best Horror Movies of 2025

Irish vampires, demons, possessed toys, and new interpretations of the stories of Nosferatu and Frankenstein’s monster — 2025 was packed with more or less interesting horror films. From this rich selection, I’ve chosen a few of the best (in my opinion).

Weapons

Horror? Comedy? Psychological drama? Zach Cregger effortlessly combines a number of radically different conventions in Weapons, skillfully juggling points of view along the way. On the one hand, the film is a tense, unsettling thriller; on the other, it’s an empathetic story about a community struck by tragedy and the different ways people do — or don’t — cope with grief. Reviews frequently compared Weapons both to the work of Stephen King and to Magnolia or The Leftovers — all of them well deserved.

Bring Her Back

Already with their theatrical debut Talk to Me, the Philippou brothers — creators of the YouTube channel RackaRacka — proved that even the most worn-out genre clichés can be turned into something fresh. With Bring Her Back, they show they are currently among the most interesting voices in horror cinema. The film genuinely frightens (the knife-biting scene still haunts my dreams), but the filmmakers are interested in more than just playful genre tricks. Beneath the layers of horror and repulsion lies a deeply affecting sense of sadness and pain. Add to that an excellent performance by Sally Hawkins, who will most likely join the long list of outstanding horror performances overlooked by the Academy.

28 Years Later

This may only be the first chapter of a planned trilogy, but Danny Boyle’s film already whets the appetite for what comes next. Returning to the cult franchise, 28 Years Later honors the legacy of 28 Days Later while confidently forging its own path. Wild formal experiments, bloody survival horror (at my screening, some viewers left the theater after the very first encounter with the infected), pitch-black humor, and a coming-of-age story about mother–son love — it’s hard not to feel excited about what’s to come.

Sinners

I won’t hide the fact that Ryan Coogler’s film interested me most as a blend of musical and drama about racial tensions. When vampires entered the picture in the second half, my engagement with the story and characters weakened somewhat. Still, I won’t pretend I don’t understand the widespread enthusiasm for Sinners. Coogler’s film remains original, brilliantly staged, and unmistakably its own — working both as genre entertainment and as a film with several thoughtful, important things to say.

Nosferatu

Expectations were high, yet after the premiere it felt as though many viewers believed Robert Eggers’s new film failed to clear that lofty bar. It’s true that, when viewed alongside the films of F. W. Murnau and Werner Herzog, Eggers may not offer a particularly fresh interpretation of the Dracula story. What he does deliver, however, is everything we’ve come to expect from his previous work: a dense, oppressive atmosphere, a strong anthropological and cultural foundation, and individual scenes that linger in the memory. For me, that’s more than enough to consider Nosferatu one of the most interesting films of the year.

The Monkey

Oz Perkins has already established himself as a modern master of horror. With The Monkey, a loose adaptation of a short story by Stephen King, he proves he can do more than craft chilling, somber tales of ghosts and possession — he can also deliver a wildly unhinged horror comedy in the spirit of Braindead. While the film quickly turns into a series of loosely connected bloody gags, it also showcases Perkins’s strong sense of staging and his willingness to take creative risks.

Good Boy

It’s easy to joke that Ben Leonberg’s debut relies entirely on a single, simple concept stretched to feature length. Still, the film deserves recognition — for doing justice to all the dogs relegated to victim roles in horror films; for its empathetic approach that allows us to fully identify with the animal protagonist; and finally, for the Oscar-worthy performance of Indy the dog in the lead role. A cinematic curiosity, but an intriguing one.

The Carpenter’s Son

It looked like it would be pure schlock, but Lotfy Nathan presents a surprisingly compelling story about a teenage Jesus (never named outright, but instantly recognizable). Drawing inspiration from the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the film focuses on temptation and the slow discovery of one’s calling. And while it occasionally teeters dangerously close to metaphysical kitsch, The Carpenter’s Son holds up both as a festival of grotesque imagery and as a quasi-biblical coming-of-age story.