As we begin a new year, there are plenty of upcoming horror movies crawling their way toward audiences in the dark to keep us screaming through 2025.
Leigh Wannell is kicking things off with Wolf Man, whilst Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride will also be bringing the old monsters back later in the year. More original stories are coming, with Valentine’s Day-based slasher Heart Eyes, star-studded exorcism shocker The Ritual, and Osgood Perkins-directed Stephen King adaptation The Monkey. Plus, the usual stable of sequels and reboots will be drawing the cinema crowds looking for a familiar scare.
Blumhouse is back with three follow-ups to their big properties: M3GAN 2.0, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, and The Black Phone 2, with all of them boasting big returning talent in front of the camera too. Enduring franchises are back as well, with Predator: Badlands taking us to an alien planet to further explore the action-packed existence of the muscular extra-terrestrial, 28 Years Later bringing those rage-filled zombies back to our screens, and ‘90s teen slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer is getting a reboot with key members of the original cast returning for more fishy frights.
Here’s what you need to know about all the most exciting upcoming horror movies.
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Nosferatu
Release date: December 25, 2024 (US) / January 1, 2025 (UK)
We’d been teased with director Robert Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu for years and when production finally began, the film fast became one of horror fans' most anticipated new releases, with the modern master bringing his version of one of the most genuinely chilling vampire tales to the big screen. And now it’s finally almost here!
Following the 1922 classic directed by F.W. Murnau and the 1979 remake from Werner Herzog, Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) is set to deliver his take on the gothic story of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her. The chameleonic Bill Skarsgard (IT, Barbarian) will embody Count Orlok this time around, alongside an impressive ensemble cast including Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Ralph Ineson, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Wolf Man
Release date: January 17, 2025
In 2020, director Leigh Wannell delivered a bold new take on The Invisible Man, a blood-chilling adaptation of H.G. Wells' sci-fi classic following in the footsteps of the old Universal Monster movies. Now Wannell is back with Wolf Man, his take on the 1941 Universal werewolf picture, The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. Christopher Abbot (Possessor, Piercing, It Comes at Night) embodies the titular role in Wannell’s new version, alongside Julia Garner (The Assistant, Apartment 7A).
With his work on Saw alongside fellow-Aussie James Wan, and his impressive director’s chops demonstrated on both The Invisible Man and 2018’s excellent sci-fi action movie Upgrade, Wannell has established himself as a safe pair of hands for genre filmmaking and Wolf Man is another perfect project for him to sink his teeth into. We can’t wait.
Heart Eyes
Release date: February 14, 2025
Directed by Josh Ruben, best known in genre circles for his smart horror comedies Scare Me and Werewolves Within, and starring Jordana Brewster (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Random Acts of Violence), Olivia Holt (Totally Killer) and horror legend Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Idle Hands, Chucky), Heart Eyes is coming to make Valentine's Day way less romantic than it should be.
In this new addition to the recent slasher renaissance, the movie follows the events of the masked 'Heart Eyes Killer' who, for the past several years, has wreaked havoc on Valentine's Day by stalking and murdering romantic couples. In February, romance is dead and buried.
The Monkey
Release date: February 21, 2025
Horror director Osgood Perkins is not resting on his laurels following his 2024 smash-hit Longlegs, and is back in February with The Monkey, a new supernatural horror comedy based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. Theo James (the Divergent series, The Time Traveller’s Wife) stars as twin brothers Bill and Hal, who become surrounded by a series of gruesome deaths after they find their father's old monkey toy in the attic.
The brilliant Elijah Wood (The Faculty, Maniac, Come To Daddy) and Tatiana Maslany (Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Orphan Black) also star, and with Perkins in the director’s chair plus the best tagline we’ve seen in quite a while ("everybody dies, and that's fucked up"), The Monkey will be topping a lot of horror fans' watchlists for 2025.
Sinners
Release date: March 7, 2025
Director Ryan Coogler, who, after cutting his teeth with the critically acclaimed crime drama Fruitvale Station in 2013, and then turning his hand to blockbuster fare with the likes of Creed and the Black Panther movies for Marvel, is now tackling the horror genre. Coogler’s long-time collaborator Michael B. Jordan is back for Sinners, starring alongside Haylee Steinfeld (True Grit, The Edge of Seventeen, The Marvels), Jack O’Connell (Starred Up, Ferrari), Wunmi Mosaku (His House, Lovecraft Country) and Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods).
Described as ‘a new vision of fear’, Sinners is an explosive period piece that follows twin brothers who, trying to leave their troubled lives behind, return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
The Ritual
Release date: April 18, 2025
A new exorcism movie is on its way in time for Easter, boasting some impressive casting, including Al Pacino and modern-day scream king Dan Stevens (The Guest, Abigail, Cuckoo, The Rental, Apostle). The plot, which sees two priests -- one questioning his faith and one reckoning with a troubled past -- who put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms, might sound familiar, but bear in mind that it’s apparently based on a true story.
Variety has reported that the movie is “an authentic portrayal of Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms. Her case remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.” Pacino isn’t averse to tackling Satanic horror, having starred as the Devil himself in 1997’s The Devil’s Advocate, and joining him and Stevens in The Ritual are Ashley Greene (the Twilight movies) and Abigail Cowan (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). David Midell directs.
28 Years Later
Release date: June 20, 2025
Ok so it might not have been exactly 28 years since director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland revolutionized the zombie subgenre with their film 28 Days Later, but it has been 23. Already? How?! Anyway, now Boyle and Garland are back with their much-anticipated follow-up, the third film in the franchise, coming after 28 Weeks Later in 2007.
With an all-star cast including Cillian Murphy who reprises his role of Jim from the first film, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nocturnal Animals, Godzilla), Jodie Comer (The Last Duel, The End We Start From), Ralph Fiennes (The Menu, Red Dragon) and Jack O’Connell (Eden Lake, Starred Up), 28 Years Later currently has its plot tightly under wraps, but we can expect to catch up with Jim and the world as it stands following the chilling zombie apocalypse that terrified us all back in 2002.
M3GAN 2.0
Release date: June 27, 2025
Following the success of Blumhouse’s smash hit M3GAN in 2022, which starred Alison Williams as a robotics engineer, Violet McGraw as Cady, and, of course, the titular robotic AI M3GAN, director Gerard Johnstone is returning in summer 2025 with its sequel.
Along with the director, Williams and McGraw also return, as do stars Brian Jordan Alvarez and Amie Donald, and writer Akela Cooper, with Jemaine Clement (What We Do In the Shadows) joining the fray. Johnstone has said that the new M3GAN movie is very ambitious and increases the scale and scope of the original.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Release date: July 18, 2025
In the midst of the '90s slasher boom, a little film called I Know What You Did Last Summer hit our screens, lighting them up like 4th July fireworks and solidifying Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe as teen horror icons. The movie follows four young friends who, bound by a tragic accident, are reunited when they’re stalked by a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.
The following year, its sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer brought Hewitt and Prinze Jr. back to continue their ordeal, pairing them up with Brandy Norwood and Mekhi Phifer in the Bahamas. And now, 27 years later, they’re returning with a fresh look at the franchise, directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge, Someone Great). It would seem whoever ‘knows’ hasn’t forgotten, as buried secrets once again resurface. Madelyn Cline (Glass Onion) and Billy Campbell (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) will also star.
The Bride
Release date: September 26, 2025
More rebooted Universal Monster action is on its way, this time revolving around one of horror’s most iconic female characters, and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal – following her hugely successful feature debut The Lost Daughter in 2021 – who's adapting the stunning black and white classic from 1935, James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein. The new movie takes place in '30s Chicago, where Frankenstein asks Dr. Euphronius for help creating a companion, and when they bring a murdered woman back to life as the Bride (played by Men’s Jessie Buckley), they spark romance, police interest, and radical social change.
Along with its significant heritage, an impressive ensemble cast including Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Life, Velvet Buzzsaw), Christian Bale (American Psycho, The Pale Blue Eye), Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky, Murder on the Orient Express), Peter Sarsgaard (The Skeleton Key, Orphan) and Annette Bening (Mars Attacks!) makes this another hugely anticipated horror for 2025.
The Black Phone 2
Release date: October 17, 2024
We love a horror sequel that audiences are actually excited about and Scott Derrickson’s follow-up to his 2021 supernatural/child abduction hit The Black Phone is shaping up to be one such movie. There’s very little known about The Black Phone 2 currently, but it has been confirmed that original cast members Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw are all returning.
The first movie and its characters were based on a short story written by Joe son-of-Stephen-King Hill, and while he won’t back for the sequel screenplay, Derrickson has teamed up again with C. Robert Cargill who also worked on The Black Phone and the Sinister films. Here’s hoping for more fearful fun from this team that just seems to love the horror genre.
Predator: Badlands
Release date: November 7, 2025
The plot of Predator: Badlands, the upcoming new entry in the juggernaut franchise that has been pulling in audiences since 1987, is currently under wraps, but we do know a few details. Firstly, it’s directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who is back with the franchise after he stunned in 2022 with his Comanche Nation-set Predator movie Prey, and secondly, it stars Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon, The Beguiled).
However, it’s perhaps the protagonist of the new movie that has had people most excited, after Trachtenberg revealed that it’s the Predator itself that will be taking center stage. Filming has wrapped in New Zealand, whose dramatic landscapes will stand in for the alien planet where the story’s action takes place.
Five Nights At Freddy's 2
Release date: December 5, 2025
In 2023, Five Nights at Freddy’s became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing movie of all time, and the cast and crew behind the popular video game-based smash hit is coming back with its sequel at the end of 2025. The first film followed Josh Hutcherson’s Mike, a troubled security guard who gets a job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza only to find himself battling killer animatronics.
Director Emma Tammi, her co-writers Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, and stars Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio are all returning for Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, which, with the tagline ‘Anyone can survive five nights. This time, there will be no second chances', and will no doubt take the classic follow-up approach of upping the stakes, the action, and - hopefully - the horror. This is also one of our most anticipated upcoming video game movies of 2025!
For more, check out our guides to upcoming movies and new TV shows.
