Subtle, striking, and utterly commanding; these 7 actors delivered the best horror performances of 2025. Here’s how they rank.
2025 has been a rich year for horror, defined not only by bold filmmaking but by the best performances that ground it. Horror thrives on layered, captivating work, and from seasoned veterans to rising stars, these 7 actors delivered work of striking depth and nuance, pushing the genre into surprising and unsettling territory.
7. Jai Courtney in Dangerous Animals
Jai Courtney leans into the showmanship of his role in Dangerous Animals, playing a serial killer who feeds his captors to sharks. He embraces the film’s absurdity without sliding into parody, balancing intensity, menace, and dark humour with equal flair. With his gravelly voice and imposing physicality, Courtney dominates the screen—even indulging in a dance sequence that cements him as a villain equal parts sinister and ridiculous. It’s a performance that greatly understands the film’s pulpy spirit.
6. Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners
Wunmi Mosaku continues to prove herself an actress of remarkable talent, and in Sinners, she delivers one of the film’s most bewitching performances. Sinners centres on twin brothers, Smoke and Stack, who open a juke joint only to find themselves facing a darker, supernatural threat. As Smoke’s wife, Annie, Mosaku embodies a woman whose Hoodoo practices—once believed to shield her family—cannot reconcile the grief of losing her infant daughter. She brings a maternal steadiness to the chaos, balancing warmth with authority as Annie corrals the frightened group. Even amid the ensemble, Mosaku’s grounded presence and resonant, calming voice command attention, elevating every scene she inhabits.
5. Cary Christopher in Weapons
At just nine years old, Cary Christopher makes a striking impression in Weapons as Alex, the lone student left behind after his entire class of 17 vanishes overnight. While Alex first appears to carry a simple burden of survivor’s guilt, the unfolding chapters gradually reveal the deeper, disturbing roots of his sadness. Against a film defined by rapid, densely layered, and often darkly comic dialogue, Christopher stands apart, communicating volumes with little dialogue. His wide, tearful blue eyes effortlessly evoke sympathy, allowing him to hold his own alongside far more seasoned actors. It’s a quietly powerful turn that marks him as a talent to watch.
4. Billy Barratt in Bring Her Back
Billy Barratt more than holds his own opposite Sally Hawkins in Bring Her Back, a tale of orphaned siblings Andy (Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) who uncover a sinister ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother. Barratt imbues Andy with a maturity beyond his years, making the character feel fully realised before the story even reaches its central setting. His chemistry with Wong grounds the film in a believable sibling bond, while his emotionally raw, nuanced performance offers the perfect counterbalance to Hawkins’ leering presence.
3. Austin Abrams in Weapons
Austin Abrams’ role as James, a cash-strapped drug addict, often functions as the audience’s proxy within Weapons. Abrams infuses humour throughout. His constant fidgeting and expressive reactions lend credibility to the film’s more extreme flourishes while keeping us entertained. His delivery of some of the script’s most memorable lines feels effortless, injecting levity without ever puncturing the film’s taut atmosphere.
2. Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
Much like Cary Christopher in Weapons, Alfie Williams holds his own against heavyweights in 28 Years Later. As Spike, a boy navigating zombie-ravaged Scotland while seeking a cure for his sick mother, Williams shoulders a demanding role. He imbues Spike with both resilience and fragility, as we watch him mould into a confident, assured, young man over the course of the film. That evolution feels deeply human, grounding the film’s post-apocalyptic brutality. Even as the narrative races forward with its slick, high-octane style, Williams anchors the tension with a performance that never loses sight of the character’s emotional development.
1. Lea Myren in The Ugly Stepsister
The Ugly Stepsister is visually sumptuous on its own terms, but Lea Myren’s performance as Elvira makes it truly electric. Reframing the tale through the eyes of Cinderella’s stepsister, the film explores themes of competitive beauty standards, all while drenched in bodily fluids, gurgling organs, and unrelenting screams. Myren resists the caricatured mould of this traditionally one-note character, instead playing Elvira with a disarming mix of innocence and earnestness. With her striking, wide eyes and finely controlled physicality, she evokes both sympathy and revulsion, rendering Elvira’s desires and flaws at once human and unsettling.
