Pretty much what it says on the tin - I'm Gavin (or at least that's what I'm calling myself), I watch a lot of (mostly horror) movies, and I figured I'd make a thread to talk about the ones I've seen so far this year and possibly the ones I see in the future, because I wanna try my hand at posting something here. So without further adieu, here's where my addiction to eating popcorn in a dark room has brought me throughout the first half of 2025! Tried to list them in roughly the order I watched them, but my memory is hazy on some of them, so some might be out of order or forgotten entirely.
Presence
The very first movie I saw this year, and definitely an odd one. Much like last year's In a Violent Nature, it uses the unique gimmick of being filmed primarily from the perspective of the movie's supernatural entity of choice - in this case, a mysterious ghostly presence haunting the house that our main characters have just moved into. Unfortunately, the titular presence is a lot more passive than In a Violent Nature's Jason-esque slasher, so instead of the lengthy tracking shots and slow-paced voyeuristic dialogue scenes being broken up by Johnny doing things to a human body that would make Art the Clown sit up and take notes, here they're broken up by shelves occasionally rattling really hard. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even call this one a horror movie - it's more a thriller/drama that just happens to have a ghost in it.
That said, I didn't exactly hate it - it's definitely a completely different experience than the ads I saw made it out to be, but judged on the merits of what it actually is, the narrative is fairly compelling throughout and the final twist was so cleverly executed that it made up for a lot of my issues with the glacial pacing. And let's be honest, speaking as someone who sat through Night Swim last year, you can do a lot worse when it comes to horror movies with January releases. As long as you know going in that it's not going to be a standard haunted house movie and you're okay with that, it's probably worth a watch.
Companion
And on the subject of good horror movies with January releases, apparently this was one of them! Saw it in February myself, but looked it up and Google says it came out January 31st, so it just squeaks in under the deadline. Anyway, like last year's Abigail, this is one of those movies with a big central twist that happens so early in the movie and is so integral to the plot that it's nigh-impossible to discuss without spoiling it - which, much like with Abigail, is presumably why the trailers didn't even try not to spoil it. Still, in the interest of preserving the experience for anyone who somehow avoided all info about the movie but still wants to see it, I've put my full thoughts under a spoiler tag below.
Okay, spoilers over. Tl;dr: awesome movie with a solid message, Sophie Thatcher slays, would highly recommend even to non-horror fans.
Heart Eyes
Look, highbrow arthouse horror and meaningful social commentary has its place and all, but sometimes you just want some shameless, glorious schlock, and Heart Eyes delivers on all counts. While obviously nowhere near the first Valentine's Day-themed slasher flick, Heart Eyes takes the innovative approach of attempting to be both a ridiculous campy slasher movie and a ridiculous campy Hallmark romance at the same time, and against all odds it pulls it off. Turns out you can in fact convince me to watch a shamelessly cliched romcom if you open it with four people getting killed in the first five minutes and promise there's going to be plenty more where that came from.
Admittedly, the writing didn't always hold up for me, but I think that was more of a personal taste issue - despite my best efforts to be open-minded, I just do not enjoy the style of humor a lot of romcoms employ, so the first third of the film leading up to the slasher part was a genuine trial of endurance for me as I tried not to cringe myself to death through every embarrassing social mishap. Once the plot kicked off in earnest, though, I really did find myself enjoying the chemistry between the leads and rooting for them to get together, so I guess that's another point in favor of it being my personal distaste for romcom tropes rather than actual bad writing or acting. All in all, had a blast with this one, so if you like a good slasher and also don't feel the urge to smash your head into a wall whenever a character spontaneously fakes a relationship to make their ex jealous, you'll probably enjoy this one even more than I did.
The Monkey
Longlegs was always going to be a hard act for Osgood Perkins to follow, but damned if he didn't surpass all my expectations. As opposed to the tense supernatural-thriller police drama of his previous hit, The Monkey is more of an absurdist horror-comedy - which is fitting, since the inherent absurdity and spontaneity of death is one of the core themes of the movie. I've heard some comparisons to Final Destination, but I'd personally argue the core appeal is very different - Final Destination deaths are more about seeing all the little dominoes of the Rube Goldberg machine line themselves up one by one until the payoff finally hits in one glorious catastrophe, while The Monkey is more about just picking a ridiculous cause of death out of a hat and making it happen, logic and physics be damned. If anything, I think the stronger Final Destination comparison is to the themes of survivor's guilt that the original movie was built around, albeit with The Monkey ultimately offering a more hopeful message about learning to move on from tragedy instead of letting it define your life. A bit offbeat in the usual Stephen King way, but a solid and memorable watch - and of course, a lot of top-tier deaths if you're a gorehound like me.
A Working Man
...Welp, guess the streak of good movies had to end somewhere. A Working Man is a Jason Statham movie, and the presence of Jason Statham is the only interesting thing about it. I literally didn't even remember the main character's name until the final act, and that was only because the bad guys did a big computer-hacking background check on him where they flashed his name on screen in huge letters. If it wasn't for that, it never would have even crossed my mind to call him anything except Jason Statham. I mean, I know I can't really complain - I went to this movie because I wanted to watch Jason Statham punch people for an hour and a half, and that's exactly what I got - but it doesn't even have the over-the-top ridiculousness I like to see from a Statham movie. There's no Transporter-style physics-breaking car stunts, no giant sharks being skewered on helicopter blades, no Beekeeper-esque invincible 90s action hero shenanigans, just a generic and predictable Taken knock-off. Even if you're a die-hard Statham fan, this one's probably not worth the price of admission.
Hell of a Summer
Another one on the less good end of the scale, but still a lot more enjoyable than Working Man. A pretty lighthearted slasher parody about a well-meaning but immature and socially inept camp counselor who finds himself the primary suspect when a masked murderer begins picking off the younger counselors one by one. The writing's good and there's some decent laughs throughout, but it skimps way too much on the violence for the kind of movie it's clearly trying to be. It genuinely feels like no one told the directors they were going for an R rating and not a PG-13, because like 75% of the death scenes cut away before the kill and even the ones that don't are pretty damn tame. I feel like there was some definite potential with the premise, but still a ton of missed opportunities throughout.
Sinners
I feel like it's way too early to be decisively calling something the best movie of 2025, but maybe this year I should make an exception, because how the hell do you top Sinners? An absolute god-tier soundtrack, damn near flawless writing and cinematography, a main cast who all feel likable and intelligent in a way far too few horror movies accomplish, a villain who perfectly treads the line of being sympathetic and charismatic while still being undeniably the bad guy... do I even need to keep talking about this one? I love it, everyone I've seen with any taste loves it, not really anything to discuss that hasn't already been said by a thousand other people more eloquent than me. If you haven't seen it, go see it, end of discussion.
And apparently there's a character limit, so continuing this in a second post!
Presence
The very first movie I saw this year, and definitely an odd one. Much like last year's In a Violent Nature, it uses the unique gimmick of being filmed primarily from the perspective of the movie's supernatural entity of choice - in this case, a mysterious ghostly presence haunting the house that our main characters have just moved into. Unfortunately, the titular presence is a lot more passive than In a Violent Nature's Jason-esque slasher, so instead of the lengthy tracking shots and slow-paced voyeuristic dialogue scenes being broken up by Johnny doing things to a human body that would make Art the Clown sit up and take notes, here they're broken up by shelves occasionally rattling really hard. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd even call this one a horror movie - it's more a thriller/drama that just happens to have a ghost in it.
That said, I didn't exactly hate it - it's definitely a completely different experience than the ads I saw made it out to be, but judged on the merits of what it actually is, the narrative is fairly compelling throughout and the final twist was so cleverly executed that it made up for a lot of my issues with the glacial pacing. And let's be honest, speaking as someone who sat through Night Swim last year, you can do a lot worse when it comes to horror movies with January releases. As long as you know going in that it's not going to be a standard haunted house movie and you're okay with that, it's probably worth a watch.
Companion
And on the subject of good horror movies with January releases, apparently this was one of them! Saw it in February myself, but looked it up and Google says it came out January 31st, so it just squeaks in under the deadline. Anyway, like last year's Abigail, this is one of those movies with a big central twist that happens so early in the movie and is so integral to the plot that it's nigh-impossible to discuss without spoiling it - which, much like with Abigail, is presumably why the trailers didn't even try not to spoil it. Still, in the interest of preserving the experience for anyone who somehow avoided all info about the movie but still wants to see it, I've put my full thoughts under a spoiler tag below.
Continuing her streak of starring in peak horror movies, Sophie Thatcher puts on an amazing performance as Iris, a robot girlfriend who discovers her true nature and finds herself fleeing for her life after her owner modifies her programming for his own sinister goals - and picking up his father's streak of playing a totally disgusting and pathetic antagonist in peak horror movies, Jack Quaid absolutely nails his role as Iris's incompetent self-absorbed incel of an owner. Seriously, they set out to make this guy the absolute most insufferably entitled manbaby loser possible, and by god did they knock it out of the park. Needless to say, there's some pretty obvious feminist themes in play here, what with Iris being treated by everyone around her as an object existing solely for the pleasure of an aggressively mediocre white man, as well as some subtexts about being trapped in an abusive relationship, as Iris struggles throughout the film with her programmed (but still entirely real to her) feelings for Josh even as he actively attempts to harm her and force her back under his control.
Okay, spoilers over. Tl;dr: awesome movie with a solid message, Sophie Thatcher slays, would highly recommend even to non-horror fans.
Heart Eyes
Look, highbrow arthouse horror and meaningful social commentary has its place and all, but sometimes you just want some shameless, glorious schlock, and Heart Eyes delivers on all counts. While obviously nowhere near the first Valentine's Day-themed slasher flick, Heart Eyes takes the innovative approach of attempting to be both a ridiculous campy slasher movie and a ridiculous campy Hallmark romance at the same time, and against all odds it pulls it off. Turns out you can in fact convince me to watch a shamelessly cliched romcom if you open it with four people getting killed in the first five minutes and promise there's going to be plenty more where that came from.
Admittedly, the writing didn't always hold up for me, but I think that was more of a personal taste issue - despite my best efforts to be open-minded, I just do not enjoy the style of humor a lot of romcoms employ, so the first third of the film leading up to the slasher part was a genuine trial of endurance for me as I tried not to cringe myself to death through every embarrassing social mishap. Once the plot kicked off in earnest, though, I really did find myself enjoying the chemistry between the leads and rooting for them to get together, so I guess that's another point in favor of it being my personal distaste for romcom tropes rather than actual bad writing or acting. All in all, had a blast with this one, so if you like a good slasher and also don't feel the urge to smash your head into a wall whenever a character spontaneously fakes a relationship to make their ex jealous, you'll probably enjoy this one even more than I did.
The Monkey
Longlegs was always going to be a hard act for Osgood Perkins to follow, but damned if he didn't surpass all my expectations. As opposed to the tense supernatural-thriller police drama of his previous hit, The Monkey is more of an absurdist horror-comedy - which is fitting, since the inherent absurdity and spontaneity of death is one of the core themes of the movie. I've heard some comparisons to Final Destination, but I'd personally argue the core appeal is very different - Final Destination deaths are more about seeing all the little dominoes of the Rube Goldberg machine line themselves up one by one until the payoff finally hits in one glorious catastrophe, while The Monkey is more about just picking a ridiculous cause of death out of a hat and making it happen, logic and physics be damned. If anything, I think the stronger Final Destination comparison is to the themes of survivor's guilt that the original movie was built around, albeit with The Monkey ultimately offering a more hopeful message about learning to move on from tragedy instead of letting it define your life. A bit offbeat in the usual Stephen King way, but a solid and memorable watch - and of course, a lot of top-tier deaths if you're a gorehound like me.
A Working Man
...Welp, guess the streak of good movies had to end somewhere. A Working Man is a Jason Statham movie, and the presence of Jason Statham is the only interesting thing about it. I literally didn't even remember the main character's name until the final act, and that was only because the bad guys did a big computer-hacking background check on him where they flashed his name on screen in huge letters. If it wasn't for that, it never would have even crossed my mind to call him anything except Jason Statham. I mean, I know I can't really complain - I went to this movie because I wanted to watch Jason Statham punch people for an hour and a half, and that's exactly what I got - but it doesn't even have the over-the-top ridiculousness I like to see from a Statham movie. There's no Transporter-style physics-breaking car stunts, no giant sharks being skewered on helicopter blades, no Beekeeper-esque invincible 90s action hero shenanigans, just a generic and predictable Taken knock-off. Even if you're a die-hard Statham fan, this one's probably not worth the price of admission.
Hell of a Summer
Another one on the less good end of the scale, but still a lot more enjoyable than Working Man. A pretty lighthearted slasher parody about a well-meaning but immature and socially inept camp counselor who finds himself the primary suspect when a masked murderer begins picking off the younger counselors one by one. The writing's good and there's some decent laughs throughout, but it skimps way too much on the violence for the kind of movie it's clearly trying to be. It genuinely feels like no one told the directors they were going for an R rating and not a PG-13, because like 75% of the death scenes cut away before the kill and even the ones that don't are pretty damn tame. I feel like there was some definite potential with the premise, but still a ton of missed opportunities throughout.
Sinners
I feel like it's way too early to be decisively calling something the best movie of 2025, but maybe this year I should make an exception, because how the hell do you top Sinners? An absolute god-tier soundtrack, damn near flawless writing and cinematography, a main cast who all feel likable and intelligent in a way far too few horror movies accomplish, a villain who perfectly treads the line of being sympathetic and charismatic while still being undeniably the bad guy... do I even need to keep talking about this one? I love it, everyone I've seen with any taste loves it, not really anything to discuss that hasn't already been said by a thousand other people more eloquent than me. If you haven't seen it, go see it, end of discussion.
And apparently there's a character limit, so continuing this in a second post!
