Halloween’s nearly here, so I’ve put together a brief list of 14 films covered this year that may help you plan the perfect home or theatrical experience for 2025.
Additional information for each title can be found via its original review link.
For other recommendations, head over to the 2024 Halloween list.
40 Acres
The longer one is alive, the more one learns about history, the more timeline events feel like traveling in a circle, rather than in a flat line. Communities build up, empires rise, blights come, and, eventually, the empires fall. The blight can take the form of something organic, like a virus or plague, or a matter of human intervention, such as greed or pride. It’s with this in mind that R.T. Thorne’s feature-film directorial debut, 40 Acres, co-written with first-time screenwriter Glenn Taylor with the story developed by Thorne and Lora Campbell (Yoga 101), anchors its tale of familial strife and global terror as the world teeters on the brink. Screening during The Overlook Film Festival 2025, audiences may presume 40 Acres to be a straight-forward horror-thriller in a few vs. many conflict, but there’s a rawness and layered meaning to everything within the film, catching the audience in the very razor wire that surrounds the central family until the credits roll, not even realizing how deeply the metaphor has cut them.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD, digital, Disney+, and Hulu now.
Best Wishes to All
The horror, if one could be so bold to describe it this way, can be inferred a number of different ways, which is both a boon and a hindrance. The script relies so much on the empty spaces to fill gaps that when the film gets super weird, meaning appears absent in the act, leaving only confusion in its wake. Though one can interpret how they like, between the focus on politeness, the questions of happiness, and the matter of age-related perspective, one can easily take away an interpretation in which Shimotsu and Kauta are railing against the notion of happiness as it relates to modern society. Specifically, that one is unable to achieve happiness without causing harm to someone else. The horror comes in the navigation of the notion and whether or not the characters accept or reject it by the end of the film. Frankly, in the world we exist within, not in a Simulation Theory way, but a real, physical way, it does often seem like the only ones happy are causing undue pain to others. What does it mean to live in a society like that? What does it mean to accept that this is all society is? These are hard questions and Best Wishes gets so close to a clear answer, until it decides to lean back on obfuscation instead. Mystery only goes so far in a story, the uncertainly creating lingering nodes that poke and provoke audiences well after the story is concluded. To a great degree, Best Wishes succeeds, but one has to be willing to navigate the uncertainty to get there.
Available on Shudder now.
Companion
Hancock’s script is a series of “show, not tell” moments wrapped in dialogue that works as both double entendre and straight talk. From the marketing, we know that Iris is an android and that Jack is her owner, but what the marketing doesn’t tell us is how much of a fucking cliché Jack is. Instead, it’s teased out through a variety of revelations as the script explores the different types of love on the human spectrum and the ways in which small, insecure men will do almost anything to make themselves feel better except go to therapy. The featurette “AI Horror” allows a few moments with costume designer Vanessa Porter (Brawl in Cell Block 99; The Toxic Avenger) in which they point out how, in other films, the actor would be involved in determining their character’s look and style, but, due to the nature of Thatcher’s character, Iris’s clothes would be based on Jack’s perspective. So, while one might be, at first, taken by Iris’s ‘60s retro look, it speaks more to Jack’s view of what a woman should look like and, more importantly, what a woman should act like. The 1960s were a significant piece of the sexual revolution across America, so Jack wanting Iris wearing clothes from that period creates a juxtaposition of the sexually liberated woman against the nurturing homemaker, or “lily” personality (one of gentleness, purity, and innocence). Going a step further, when we get a flashback of when Jack and Iris are connected, Jack’s listening to “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, a track off of their 1998 album Dizzy Up the Girl, but first released on the City of Angels (1998) soundtrack, a film telling the story of an angel who gives up their celestial state in order to be with a human they fall in love with. The song is, within a certain context, sweet and loving, but, within the scene as Hancock’s designed it, the song is being blared loudly and serves as the inspiration for Jack’s companion’s name. Jack is so wrapped up in heartbreak that he’s made it his entire personality and Iris is clearly a means for him to be in a relationship he can fully control. Through details overt and subtle, Hancock has created a horror show through and through.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, digital, and HBO Max now.
Coyotes
Given the task at-hand and the different tones that must be struck, Coyotes is good because it doesn’t seek perfection. It seeks to make the movie that it is, one in which it can make you laugh one moment, then squirm, and then jump. It’s a film whose use of CG effects and practical gags create disquiet and unease, as well as quite a bit of giggling (context-dependent, of course). There’s a precision in terms of the story it wants to tell and the cast understands who’s grounded, who’s elevated, and when, if necessary, to trade places. This allows for the whole of Coyotes to feel anchored whether it is at its most ridiculous and silly or at its most sincere. By eschewing perfection, it becomes a howling good time with sweet underpinning.
Available on VOD and digital now.
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers
Speaking of flavorful, audiences of a … certain age and appreciators of genre storytelling have many reasons to find themselves enamored with Daylong Brothers. Maybe they like a little Southern-style silliness, maybe tales of good vs. evil titillate, and maybe, just maybe, they enjoy when things get Supernatural. In the case of the latter, audiences will be immediately tickled to recognize that the Brothers are driving a 1958 Chevrolet Imperial (aptly nicknamed “Grace”), have it tricked out from remnants of their adventures in just about every crevasse, and that the eldest, Ishmael, is quite picky about who drives and manages it (though Grace, being amazing, has likely seen better days). There’s no argument over who picks the music, but the general vibe is going to feel familiar as the way that Bradley (Succubus), Robinson (Thunder Road), and Bolden (The Kill Room) engage each other (in both verbal and physical delivery) is with the intimacy of siblings. They speak over each other, they stand close, and they know what means the most and hurts the worst, thereby conveying that these three aren’t just bound by blood, but through countless debt collections we’ve yet to be privy to. Sharing a mission and a vehicle does create the kinds of close quarters that makes strangers into soldiers on a shared mission, even more so with sibling, yet we find ourselves immediately taken with these three characters by the way the actors make the brothers fully-realized so that small wounds (such as stealing the spotlight or blocking driving privileges) come across as the kinds of innocent needling that they are … at least until the Brothers break into song and truths come out.
Available on VOD, digital, and Tubi now.
Good Boy
Across the world, there are a few dog names you can mention that will generate a near-instant response in certain circles: Lassie and Seymour. For the former, it’ll be Boomers, Gen X, and Elder Millennials who identify the name as the finder of lost Timmys in wells; which, with the latter, it’ll be Gen Xers and all Millennials reaching for tissues as they mourn the most devout companion to one of fiction’s more beloved idiots. For this reviewer, the pup who exemplifies all the qualities is Kaylee, specifically Kaylee Pearl Rattazzi Davidson, a mutt adopted in 2010 not even three months into her life. This sweet girl would be my steadfast companion through job hunting, moving into a home, growing deathly sick, becoming a parent, and more in between and after. She was the bestest girl with her sweet disposition, love of popcorn, and desire for cuddles from friends and strangers. Saying goodbye to her in December 2021 was one of the hardest things I’ve done and Good Boy brought a lot of those emotions back, not because of anything nefarious on the part of Leonberg, but because canines are too good for humanity, too pure, too full of love for what we offer them in exchange. This film won’t surprise anyone in the sense that Indy is exactly what one expects, the bestest boy, but it will, perhaps, cause you to reconsider your perspective of a canine’s world.
In select theaters now.
Night of the Zoopocalypse
One of the weird things about today’s entertainment landscape is the move away from event-programming of the cable era to the always-available aspect that streaming provides. This means that one is less likely to be channel surfing late at night, stumbling onto something that, depending on your age, you shouldn’t be watching just yet and is more likely swiping through titles on apps without any glimpse of the content. This lack of discovery may make it harder for potential young horror heads to experience that rush of watching something you might not yet be ready for and having it change your perspective. What does this have to do with Night of the Zoopocalypse, the new film from co-directors Rodrigo Perez-Castro (Koati) and Ricardo Curtis (Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade) being distributed by Viva Kids (home of Hitpig! and Rally Road Racers)? Night of the Zoopocalypse is, essentially, baby’s first horror film, a midnight movie for young adults/kids that you’d screen ahead of their 9pm bed time, offering plenty of disquiet to get them squirming, yet executed with enough of a wink-and-a-nod to make it funny, too.
Available on VOD and digital now.
Queens of the Dead
In a time in history in which what we see online is controlled by an algorithm or produced through A.I., a facsimile of reality can take hold in our minds. The only way to break free is to touch grass, to get out into the world and connect with others. Maybe that’s going to the park, going to a meeting, going to a club, or, in this case, gathering in a theater to laugh, shout, and cry with a group of strangers-soon-to-be-friends. Online living is ephemeral with people looking for the next hot thing, creating an environment in which people are reduced to content whose perceived value is how many eyeballs get on them instead of where true value lies, in kindness, in togetherness, and in community. At the end of the world, are your followers going to save you or is it going to be that friend who remembers what you were like at your best and your worst and still wants you around? The true mind virus is the one you feed digital slop and the only cure is tangible connection.
In select theaters now.
Re-Animator
Author H.P. Lovecraft can be recognized for producing some great stories in the horror genre while acknowledging his general terribleness as a human being. Thankfully, as his works have been replicated or adapted, they’ve found ways to be true to the elements that mesmerize without including outdated social commentaries. In that vein, 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of filmmaker Stuart Gordon’s narrative feature film debut, Re-Animator, an adaptation of Lovecraft’s serial “Herbert West–Reanimator,” which starred Jeffrey Combs (The Frighteners), Bruce Abbott (The Prophecy II), Barbara Crampton (Suitable Flesh), David Gale (The Guyver), and Robert Sampson (City of the Living Dead). In celebration, Ignite Films has produced, in partnership with Eagle Rock Pictures and Re-Animator Productions, a brand-new 4K UHD restoration of the cult classic complete with nearly three hours of new materials and a host of legacy features.
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray now.
Sinners
There are few films that meet the hype they’re given. Even fewer films draw out of audiences a desire to dissect the work like its poor ole’ Robin. In recent memory, there have been many films that I’ve immediately known how I felt about them in the watch and what I thought of them post-watch, but very few that generated a rising feeling of inquisitiveness as I sat with them. More specifically, the last time I left a film feeling like it didn’t meet the hype yet I couldn’t release the film from my mind was Mad Max: Fury Road, a film most see as one of the best films of 2015 and of the new century. Such is the case with Sinners, a film that beckons viewers to experience it again and again, the first viewing doing the service of removing expectations so that one can better recognize and acknowledge the craftsmanship at work in all areas of the telling in subsequent watches. Coogler has composed a film that’s a symphony of joy and pain, of elegance and grindhouse, and of precision and chaos. It works as a straight-forward horror film, but also as a musical, a romance, a comedy, and an action film — even if it all ends in horrible tragedy. This film is a gift to all, a proper feast of art and history that inspires contemplation in near every frame. If there’s one wish, now that the film is on home video, it’s not that a sequel is cultivated (this is too strong a story to require one), but, should this feast reach the hands of those who share the beliefs of the KKK, well, I hope they choke on it.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, digital, and HBO Max now.
Re-releasing in select theaters October 31st, 2025.
The Surrender
As someone who now has begun irregular “death checks” on their mother after a health scare months ago (because Jews tend to favor gallows humor in the face of scary truths), there’s a profound truth to Max’s The Surrender and it all begins with its title. To surrender is to give way to someone or something else’s authority. In the passage of life, for those who take part in the being born, growing up, and then dying portions of existence, there comes a point where the responsibility of your life is handed off to someone else. You can make all the plans who want, but, in the scope of circle of concern/circle of control, we individuals largely have no control over when it’s our time and whether or not we’ll need someone’s help before. As Barbara and Megan poured over a tight schedule of medicine for Robert, so now does the responsibility of determining the needs of my currently-abled mother fall upon myself and older siblings. Decisions need to be made and potentially uncomfortable conversations need to be had because the ultimate surrender is coming. In this way, Max’s film is quite poignant, even if it doesn’t dig into Megan’s complex relationship with her parents enough to feel fulfilling and the ending is nothing short of interpretive, but neither of these things shatter the tight weave constructed by the performances, production design, and practical effects. Give yourself up to The Surrender and allow yourself the chance to ponder the uncomfortable inevitability of the end.
Available on Shudder now.
The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost
When people talk about stories standing the test of time, at least in America, it’s usually in a hyperbolic sense, talking about the awesome impact and influence that a specific tale has infiltrated since conception. We certainly have stories to look back on, filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, for instance, is highly influential and is celebrating 50 years, but when compared to something like author Nanboku Tsuruya’s Yotsuya kaidan, written in 1825 and adapted across multiple formats for 200 years, “standing the test of time” starts to take on new meaning. Filmmaker Tai Katō (I, Executioner; Eighteen Years in Prison) is one such adaptor, translating this onryō tale into the 1961 title The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost, now coming available on Blu-ray for the first time via boutique physical media retailer Radiance Films. Not only is the film offered in beautiful HD with uncompressed mono audio, it includes two brand-new brief featurettes and an optional introduction by established J-horror (Japanese horror) director Mari Asato (Bilocation; Ju-On: Black Ghost).
Available on Blu-ray now.
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Night
Demon Knight is likely not on the top of everyone’s horror Mt. Olympus, but it is no less a significant work with a lasting legacy. At 30 years old, it ages well, absent dialogue that trades in racial tropes or actions that demean for the pleasure of it. It’s not a mean film, even if it’s not quite as morally exploratory or as offering a dark twist as the series, but it’s still entertaining as hell. It has one of the best Zane performances in his career, delivers a simply pulpy horror tale, and breaks new ground in the process. New ground which is now carried forward by a strong line of actors and actresses who survive through the credits. That’s a proud legacy to leave behind if there ever was one.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital now.
The Toxic Avenger
The tagline for Macon Blair’s 2023 adaptation of Lloyd Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger is “The Hero We Need Now,” and this rings even more true upon its wider theatrical release in 2025. Environmental protections are down in favor of corporate profits. Private insurance denies claims to protect profit margins. Ignorance and cruelty are rewarded while the decent suffer. The circumstances described make the hero colloquially known as Toxie as relevant today to our own world as he is within the world of the fictional Tromaville. It’s a little distressing to acknowledge that those same descriptions could easily match that of 1984 when Kaufman’s original horror action comedy released in theaters. As greed continues to pump literal and figurative sludge into the general populace, frequently disguised as something nurturing, Toxie shows us just how accustomed to the ridiculous we’ve become as so much of writer/director Blair’s (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) satirical script isn’t funny because of how much truth is jam-packed into it, even if surrounded by copious gratuitous violence.
Available on VOD and digital now.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Recommendation
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