The Best Horror Films of 2025 for Halloween. In this eleventh special edition KBZ article, we’re going to review the best horror films of 2025 for your Halloween movie night. In these series of articles, we’ve been selecting the best and scariest films from the 1970’s up to the most recent horror films from 2025.
These articles will act as more detailed companion articles to our previous Halloween articles which covered some lesser-known horror films to watch on Halloween. Our article on the Top Scariest Halloween Films for Adults You Haven’t Seen covered a mix of obscure and bone chilling horror while also breaking down some recommended classic horror films by popular horror subgenres. And we also have a list of the Top Scariest Halloween Films For Kids You Haven’t Seen if you’re looking for some tamer scares for various age groups.
This eleventh article will cover the Best Horror Films of 2025 for Halloween, and you can view past articles from the list below:
- The Best 1970’s Horror Films for Halloween
- The Best 1980’s Horror Films for Halloween
- The Best 1990’s Horror Films for Halloween
- The Best 2000’s Horror Films for Halloween
- The Best 2010’s Horror Films for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2020 for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2021 for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2022 for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2023 for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2024 for Halloween
- The Best Horror Films of 2025 for Halloween
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, we’re going to rank each film by how scary it is. Though how ‘scary’ a film might be is subjective, we have a good idea of which films on our list will make for a creepy and terrifying Halloween night.
Second, due to the growing number of horror films released each year, we had to omit some films from consideration. Most of these films are Tubi originals or Hallmark and Lifetime ‘horror’ films. For Tubi, most of the films we reviewed are either barely above a 4.0/10 rating or they just aren’t worth watching unless you’ve literally seen every other horror film of 2025. And as for Hallmark and Lifetime, they have a few films tagged within the horror genre but are nothing more than tame Psychological Thrillers.
Third, we’re only going to include 2025 films on this list and use the film’s major U.S. release date for consideration.
Fourth, as Disney’s copyrights on iconic characters including Mickey Mouse, Bambi and Popeye expired over the last few years, there has been an onslaught of horror-themed films involving these characters released over the last year. This includes films such as Popeye the Slayer Man (2025), Screamboat (2025), Mouse of Horrors (2025) and others. There is even a Twisted Childhood Universe of films including some of these previously copyrighted characters and others (i.e. Winnie-the Pooh in Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)). Most of these films are low budget and barely watchable but there are a few surprisingly decent horror offerings from this stable of films. We have included our recommended films in our Honorable Mentions section below.
Fifth, we’re setting a cut-off date of October 24 for this list and only films that are currently available on streaming services (or will be by Halloween) will be included. We will make an exception for Black Phone 2 (2025) here as it’s anticipated to be available on video on demand by Halloween but a film such as Frankenstein (2025), with a limited theatrical release and no streaming date announced, won’t be on our list below. We will update this article with other horror films released shortly before and after Halloween if they’re worth checking out.
And sixth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating. We reviewed over 173+ horror films from 2025 for this list, so if we missed a film you think we should check out and/or should be listed, leave us a note in the comments or contact us.
Our complete list of Horror Films for Halloween features over 173+ films from 1931 – 2025 and this is a good staring point if you’re looking for some of the best and classic Halloween Horror recommendations. And if you’ve seen most of the films on this list, we also have various articles reviewing the best obscure films by subgenre including the Best Body Horror films, the Best Space Horror Films, the Best Films about Ghosts and Hauntings, the Top Dark Fantasy Films and so on. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release future articles on these special edition Halloween lists or future articles on recommended horror films by subgenre.
Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
The Best Horror Films of 2025 for Halloween
Films That Didn’t Make Our List (114): R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead (2025), Vicious (2025), Match (2025), Scurry (2025), Shell (2025), Stay (2025), First Moon (2025), Bitter Souls (2025), Healing Towers (2025), Manor of Darkness (2025), Mauler (2025), The Drowned (2025), The Man in the Basement (2025), Behold! (2025), The Banished (2025), The Sticks (2025), Traumatika (2025), Rabbit Trap (2025), The Jester 2 (2025), The Astronaut (2025), Your Host (2025), The Healing (2025), HIM (2025), Birthrite (2025), Die’ced: Reloaded (2025), Site (2025), Queen of Bones (2025), House on Eden (2025), A Normal Woman (2025), Bait (2025), Eddington (2025), I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), Shaman (2025), Bury Me When I’m Dead (2025), Abraham’s Boys (2025), Captain Hook: The Cursed Tides (2025), Garden of Eden (2025), The Sound (2025), Noise (2025), Tales from Black Manor (2025), The Dogs (2025), The Texas Witch (2025), Sweeney Todd: Slide & Dice (2025), Bigfoot: Blood on the Farm (2025), The Ritual (2025), Never Blink (2025), Forgive Us All (2025), The Death of Snow White (2025), Rosario (2025), Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Isolated (2025), Project MKHEXE (2025), Evil Bong-A-Thon! (2025), Crazy Texas (2025), Ed Kemper (2025), Hell of a Summer (2025), Abduct (2025), Don’t Hang Up (2025), The Woman in the Yard (2025), Shadow of God (2025), Livestream (2025), The House Was Not Hungry (2025), Invasive 2: Getaway (2025), Popeye the Slayer Man (2025), Rob1n (2025), Screamboat (2025), Shiver Me Timbers (2025), Wilting Rose (2025), Control Freak (2025), Opus (2025), The Parenting (2025), Uncontained (2025), The Surrender (2025), Bloat (2025), Silent Zone (2025), Armed (2025), Distort (2025), The Butterfly House (2025), The Night Time World (2025), Everyone is Going to Die (2025), The Baby in the Basket (2025), A Knight’s War (2025), The Death That Awaits (2025), Night of Deception (2025), The Bayou (2025), The Demon’s Bride (2025), Mouse of Horrors (2025), Dark Nuns (2025), Missing Child Videotape (2025), Into the Deep (2025), The Last 7 Days (2025), Presence (2025), Wolf Man (2025), The Intruder (2025), The Deceased (2025), Sleep Paralysis (2025), Bone Lake (2025), Glamping (2025), Helloween (2025), The Shrouds (2025), Home Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025), Singsot (2025), The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025), 1978 (2025), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (2025), The Toxic Avenger (2025), The Fetus (2025), Attack 13 (2025), The Mannequin (2025), Solvent (2025), A Desert (2025), Death of a Unicorn (2025) and Don’t Log Off (2025).
Honorable Mentions (34): Beast of War (2025), The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025), The Damned (2025), Somnium (2025), Descendent (2025), Ick (2025), Osiris (2025), The Home (2025), Saint Clare (2025), Monster Island (2025), Brick (2025), Ziam (2025), M3GAN 2.0 (2025), Alma & The Wolf (2025), Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project (2025), The Other (2025), Else (2025), Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025), The Severed Sun (2025), Clown in a Cornfield (2025), Fear Below (2025), Frewaka (2025), Drop (2025), In Vitro (2025), Ash (2025), Locked (2025), Gothic Slayers (2025), The Monkey (2025), The Dead Thing (2025), Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025), Bambi: The Reckoning (2025), Other (2025), Scared Shitless (2025) and Hallow Road (2025).
Horror films not reviewed for this article: Deathstalker (2025), Frankenstein (2025), What Happened to Dorothy Bell? (2025), In Our Blood (2025), Dream Eater (2025), Queen of the Dead (2025), Shelby Oaks (2025), Bugonia (2025), She Loved Blossoms More (2025) and Alpha (2025).
Rank 25-1:
#25 Kill Me Again (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#24 Marshmallow (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#23 Until Dawn (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#22 Coyotes (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#21 Borderline (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#20 Witchboard (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#19 The Gorge (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#18 V/H/S/Halloween (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#17 28 Years Later (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#16 The Elixir (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix
#15 The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#14 It Feeds (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#13 The Long Walk (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#12 Together (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#11 Black Phone 2 (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: A shark-obsessed serial killer holds Zephyr, a rebellious surfer, captive on his boat. Racing against time, she must figure out a way to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.
Horror Subgenre(s): Survival Horror, Animals Attack Films, Crime Films About Serial Killers
KBZ’s Take: Jai Courtney has been an underrated actor for years with his breakout performance in the Spartacus TV series and his supporting roles in films such as Terminator Genisys (2015) and Suicide Squad (2016). With Dangerous Animals, Courtney gets the lead role to show off his extreme talent as a twisted and sadistic serial killer.
Though the film doesn’t break new ground in either serial killer films or shark-based animal attack films, Courtney’s outstanding performance and a tense atmosphere filled with dread make this a perfect film for Halloween night.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Elvira dreams of the weak-kneed virgin, Prince Julian, and is willing to go to great lengths to conform to the kingdom’s ideals of beauty. A surprising and raw twist on the fairy tale `Cinderella’, seen from her stepsister’s point of view.
Horror Subgenre(s): Body Horror, Dark Fantasy
KBZ’s Take: If you’re squeamish about body horror, this might be a film you’ll want to skip. For everyone else, it’s a twisted take on the Cinderella fairy tale and how many body modification a woman will make to appear beautiful. This is a film you’ll likely watch with your eyes covered while screaming at the screen, “I can’t believe they just went there!”.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#8
Good Boy
Plot: A man moves into a new home that has supernatural forces lurking in the shadows. As dark entities start to threaten him, his brave dog comes to the rescue.
Horror Subgenre(s): Paranormal, Ghosts and Hauntings Horror
KBZ’s Take: We debated putting this film in our Top 10 as we realize people will have divided opinions about it. With its original premise and filmed perspective of a dog in a haunted house, animal lovers will likely enjoy this fresh take on a haunted house tale. However, others might find it gimmicky and not a very scary film.
We fall into the ‘love it’ category as we genuinely felt for Indy (the dog) as he navigates his new haunted home and the unknown. There are some scary moments in the film especially when taken from the perspective of man’s best friend.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#7
Heart Eyes
Plot: A masked maniac with glowing, red eyes returns every Valentine’s Day to slaughter unsuspecting couples. When a cynical ad executive and her hopelessly romantic colleague become the next target, they decide to fight back and end the reign of terror.
Horror Subgenre(s): Slasher Horror, Horror Comedy
KBZ’s Take: If you’re having a date night Halloween, there’s probably no better recent ‘romantic’ horror film to watch with your loved one than Heart Eyes, with Together (2025) and The Gorge (2025) as recommended runners-up. The film was also co-written by Christopher Landon so there’s a good amount of humor to balance the scares.
If you enjoyed the horror comedy of Landon’s previous films including Happy Death Day (2017), Happy Death Day 2U (2019) and Freaky (2020), there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy Heart Eyes as well.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#6
Companion
Plot: A weekend getaway turns bloody and violent when a subservient android that’s built for human companionship goes haywire.
Horror Subgenre(s): Survival Horror
KBZ’s Take: Companion takes often used themes of artificial intelligence such as AI becoming self-aware and memory implants for an AI and flips them on their head in a dark, comedic and horrific manner. This is one film that is hard to categorize as it is a Film About Murder Plots, Dark Comedy, Romantic Thriller, Survival Horror Film and Techno Thriller all rolled into one.
Many critics have been comparing the film to a modern day update of The Stepford Wives (1975), but we feel the films goes beyond that with its delightfully disturbing take on emotional control within a human and AI relationship.
Additional Lists: Best Recent Films About AI #1
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: College student Deena visits home and is roped into babysitting. The local sheriff is mailed a piece of evidence and is led on a scavenger hunt to reveal the killer of another babysitter.
Horror Subgenre(s): Slasher Horror
KBZ’s Take: Many tropes of slasher horror have gotten tired over the years, so we always like to feature films that innovate within the subgenre. Kill Me Again (2025), Marshmallow (2025), Totally Killer (2023), Last Night in Soho (2021) and Malignant (2020) are just a few recent films that have provided a fresh take on the slasher formula.
Night of the Reaper is the latest horror film that adds to the subgenre with some massive twists and an atmosphere right out of the classic slasher films of the 80s. Even if you’re not a fan of slasher films in general, this is also a great mystery thriller that will have you guessing until the end.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#4
Sinners
Plot: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their Mississippi hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Horror Subgenre(s): Vampire Horror, Dark Fantasy
KBZ’s Take: Vampires are often synonymous with the Halloween holiday so it’s surprising that 2025 overall was a down year for bloodsuckers. This is right after a banner roster of vampire films from just a year before with Abigail (2024), Salem’s Lot (2024), Little Bites (2024) and Nosferatu (2024).
However, despite the scarcity of fang-based horror in 2025, Sinners stood above most horror films of the year with an intriguing story filled with buckets of blood and gore. Sinners is a fresh take on vampiric legends and one of the best (and scariest) films you can watch this Halloween.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Plagued by a violent and recurring nightmare, a college student heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle of death and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.
Horror Subgenre(s): Paranormal, Ghosts and Hauntings Horror
KBZ’s Take: The Final Destination franchise has always been a crowd pleaser with it’s inventive and suspenseful kills. And with Final Destination 5 (2011) seemingly wrapping up the franchise (and going out on a high note), even members of KBZ weren’t exactly looking forward to the latest reboot of the franchise with Bloodlines. But, wow, did we get it wrong.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is not only one of the best films of the franchise, but one of the best horror films of recent years. This is a film that elevates the expected formula of death and its grisly kills with an injection of nerve-wracking suspense. Though the kills are also original, you’ll often be exasperated by the time you see them due to the tense buildup throughout the film.
Bloodlines not only rebooted the entire franchise but also performed a master class on how suspense done right can elevate horror to stratospheric levels.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Andy and Piper land in a foster home with Laura, an eccentric ex-counselor. But danger brews when Andy meets Laura’s son Oliver and uncovers the chilling past of her dead daughter.
Horror Subgenre(s): Paranormal, Ghosts and Hauntings Horror, Witches & Occult Horror
KBZ’s Take: Brothers Danny and Michael Philippou roared onto the horror scene with one of the scariest films of recent years in Talk to Me (2023). While the success of Talk to Me was due to its frightening supernatural scares, it was also a film that had a foundation in the emotional connection between its characters.
Bring Her Back leans into this emotional foundation even further with the bond between siblings Andy (Billy Baratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) set to break under the foster care of the deranged Laura (Sally Hawkins). Though this film doesn’t have the jump scares of Talk to Me, it’s even more frightening as it explores grief and the lengths a mother will go to in trying to make her family (and life) whole again.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#1
Weapons
Plot: When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Horror Subgenre(s): Witches & Occult Horror
KBZ’s Take: Like Bring Her Back, Weapons centers around familial grief and the disappearance of children. However, Weapons takes this a step further as it explores the occult in unique and frightening ways.
We had previously listed Director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian (2022) as our #4 selection for The Best Horror Films of 2022 for Halloween. With Weapons, Cregger takes what worked best in Barbarian and amplifies it for his sophomore horror effort. It’s a film that’s built on atmosphere that slowly builds to a horrific and crazy ending – perfect for a Halloween night of horror.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
