Jamie Kirsten Howard’s 5 Most Anticipated Horror Movies of 2025

The worse the state of the world, the more horror films we get – a blood-stained silver lining to the dark cloud of literally everything else. This year has already been full of phenomenal releases both wide and festival. However, the horror field gets even more crowded as we inch towards our main event of the autumn season.

5. The Ritual – June 6

Y’all know me – if it’s religious horror, I’m sat. Especially, “based on a true story” religious horror. 

The Ritual claims to be based on the true story that inspired The Exorcist. I’m excited to see how this measures up to recent spiritual horrors, especially the forthcoming Mike Flanagan entry into the original franchise. We already had The Exorcism, The First Omen, and Immaculate in 2024, what’s two more takes on women-being-demonic-by-various-defintions? 

4. M3GAN 2.0 – June 27

The bitch is back! I love everything about M3GAN and her burgeoning franchise and I live for seeing her fight people with both fists. I laugh any time a one-liner comes out of her mouth. In this house? We believe little girls should be whatever they want to be, including advanced AI robots whose mission is to protect their charge at any cost, including murder. 

3. Eddington – July 18

The teaser for this film made my skin crawl. There is no blood, guts, jumpscares, or ghosts. No cursed houses or self-propelling objects. There is a simple scroll of clips that could have been lifted directly from my 2020 social media feeds. Much like Ari Aster’s other films, I expect this to leave me trying to decide if I *enjoyed* it, even though I really liked it. 

2. 28 Years Later – June 20

The third installment in the 28 ____ Later series promises more bleak societal commentary while giving us the hope of a better world. Is there anything more fitting for a June 2025 release? I plan on this devastating me emotionally. 

1. HIM – September 19

When the logline of HIM (formerly GOAT) was announced, my phone lit up with notifications of folks tagging or texting me. Demonic rituals. Football. A Wayans. Peele as a producer. Yes.

The cultural commentary will be rich and abundant. College football is undergoing one of its most drastic changes, and a national NIL Commission is being established. Conversations around Black men used for profit, the cost of being an athlete at a higher level, CTE, and the Illuminati rumors that spring up every time someone who’s not a white guy becomes successful will give us all plenty to analyze. Someone, get me the pen they use to draw on screen during NFL games! If you thought I was stanning for Sinners, you will have to prepare yourselves for the fangirl I’m about to become for HIM.

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