Halloween 2025 is here! Which movies will you watch? Our team recommends 10+ films that would make for perfect watches this year, from new releases to beloved classics!
Which movies will you watch on the spookiest night of the year? If you haven’t decided yet, take a look at our list of our recommendations for Halloween 2025! From horror classics and recent releases to zombie and vampire flicks, beloved slashers, genre hybrids and more, there’s something for everyone on our list, picked by the Loud And Clear Reviews writers! Keep scrolling for our list of 10+ movies to watch this Halloween, in alphabetical order!
1. 28 Years Later (2025)
Danny Boyle
28 Years Later spent ages in development and the wait was totally worth it, even if the film isn’t exactly what longtime fans were expecting. What starts off as a post-apocalyptic zombie affair quickly turns into this powerful coming-of-age piece centered on young Spike (Alfie Williams). Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland strike the perfect balance between horror and emotional storytelling as Spike learns how to live in this zombie-filled world via lessons from his scavenger father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer) is currently battling a mysterious illness and against his father’s wishes, Spike takes her away from their secluded island to the mainland in search of the mysterious Dr Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).
What fascinated me most about 2002’s 28 Days Later is also present in this sequel. You have scares and gore, but Garland focuses on the themes of humanity, life, and death. I never expected going in that this film would make me cry, but Garland’s script does a great job of getting you invested in Spike, Isla, and their journey. A sensational Jodie Comer gives viewers this beautiful portrait of motherhood and showcases what it’s like to slowly lose your sense of self and try so desperately to hang on for those you care about. She creates something special here, as does Alfie Williams. Though this might not be your typical Halloween film, 28 Years Later will give you an equal amount of chills and tears. (Branyan Towe)
2. The Babadook (2014)
Jennifer Kent
The Babadook is not your traditional horror flick, and it’s all the more interesting for it. I kid you not when I say it’s one of the most uncomfortable experiences you can have with a movie, not only due to its (apparently) supernatural elements, but also because of the central relationship between a kind yet desperate mother named Amelia (Essie Davis) and her intelligent yet disturbed son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman).
Apart from gifting us with some of the most unnerving imagery a movie like this can muster, The Babadook manages to be thematically rich. Thus, the film ultimately revolves around fear: the fear a woman can feel regarding her child, her own inadequacies as a mother, and the relationships that can be broken with others. And it’s also about loss: Davis’ Amelia is a widow, and although it’s been seven years since the death of her husband by the time the film starts, she still can’t deal with it.
The titular Babadook, a supernatural and creepy entity wearing a hat that first appears in a pop-up book Amelia finds at home, represents the fears of our protagonist, her inability to deal with her own reality, and even her surprising abusive tendencies. The metaphorical nature of said antagonist, combined with the uneasy tone of the piece (helped by Samuel’s characterisation as a screamy and sometimes aggressive kid), turns The Babadook into a consistently uncomfortable experience. It’s not a regular “haunted house” picture full of jump scares, but something a bit more ambitious and personal. (Sebastian Zavala)
3. Bring Her Back (2025)
Danny and Michael Philippou
If you like your horror with emotional depth and a side of psychological torment, Bring Her Back is a must-watch this Halloween. From directors Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me), and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, the film follows siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), who, after their father’s death, are placed with a new foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins). What begins as an uneasy adjustment quickly spirals into a nightmare that blurs the line between what’s real and what’s imagined.
What makes Bring Her Back so effective is how it uses grief as both its theme and its monster. Beneath all the haunted tension lies a story about how loss can warp perception, twist love, and manifest in terrifying ways. Hawkins is mesmerizing as Laura, unnerving yet gentle, every smile feels like it’s hiding something beneath the surface. Visually, the film traps you in reflections and water-streaked glass, while the sound design hums with a steady undercurrent of dread.
There are no cheap jump scares here; just a slow, creeping sense of unease that tightens with every scene. By the end, Bring Her Back leaves you shaken, not just by what you’ve seen, but by what it says about the way grief consumes us. It’s disturbing, beautiful, and easily one of the best horror films you’ll see this year. (Roberto Tyler Ortiz)
4. Good Boy (2025)
Ben Leonberg
While Jed set the standard for dogs in horror in The Thing, his spiritual successor is definitely Indy in Ben Leonberg’s new film, Good Boy. This ghost story, told from the perspective of the titular good boy, is not only an interesting gimmick but a well-made horror movie.
When Indy and his human, Todd (Shane Jensen), move to a remote cabin, Indy senses that something is wrong. Todd is experiencing an unnamed illness that leaves him listless and at times short with Indy. One of the ways Good Boy is effective in its horror is simply how, at times, Todd is so harsh with this dog, who just wants to protect him and snuggle with him. While it never becomes full-fledged abuse, Todd allows his illness and frustration about that (or maybe a ghost?) to impact his relationship with Indy in some negative ways that put our hero through the wringer and add to the tension in the film. Whether Indy is seeing an actual spirit or simply the manifestation of the disease that is slowly attacking his owner doesn’t really matter. What we know is that Indy senses something foul, and he wants to keep Todd safe.
Some have touted this as one of the scariest films of 2025, and that feels like a stretch, particularly in a year where we have been blessed with some fantastic horror movies. But Good Boy gives us an iconic performance from an unsuspecting source and a heartfelt ending that will make you want to give your own pup some extra scritches after watching. (Alise Chaffins)
5. It (1990)
Tommy Lee Wallace
Imagine being a kid, playing in the street with a paper sailboat as it rains. When your boat sails right into a storm drain and you go to retrieve it, you come face-to-face with an Eldritch clown, who encourages you to reach in and take your boat. When you do, it exposes jagged teeth before ripping your arm off and leaving you to bleed to death. Terrifying, right? That’s the opening sequence of Stephen King’s IT, just so you know what you’re in for.
Taking place over two different time periods, the miniseries IT is about a predatory force capable of turning itself into a person’s worst nightmare before devouring them. In this case, an evil entity poses as a child-killing clown named Pennywise, who hunts a group of seven kids after they discover the clown and vow to kill it by any means necessary. We then fast-forward 30 years later, where our narrative picks up with the group reuniting to stop Pennywise when it returns to their hometown.
I’ve read the novel, and after watching this adaptation as a kid, I’ve never looked at red balloons, storm drains, or clowns the same again. If you haven’t seen this original adaptation of the famed horror author’s 1986 novel, now is the perfect time to do so. Its highly anticipated prequel series IT: Welcome to Derry arrives October 26 on HBO Max. (Keeley Brooks)
6. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Werner Herzog
While Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2025) has generated media buzz on both sides of the Atlantic in the last year or so, true genre devotees will get a lot from revisiting Werner Herzog’s version. Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) sinks its teeth into the myth first forged by F.W. Murnau’s iconic silent film from 1922.
Vampire fans will know that Nosferatu the Vampyre tells the tale of Jonathan Harker’s ill-fated journey to Transylvania and his encounter with the haunting Count Dracula played by Klaus Kinski. Embracing a more realist style than Eggers’ version, Herzog swaps gothic castles for more naturalistic and mist-shrouded green landscapes. There’s a sombre beauty to its score, which features classical music that is both serene and foreboding. Wagner’s Rheingold swells as Harker travels toward Dracula’s castle. These rich, melodic sounds cast the journey as something both transcendent and doomed.
Nosferatu the Vampyre is part horror film and part haunting elegy about death. At the heart of the film is Kinski’s performance, whose pallid, wide-eyed performance as the Count presents him as less a predator than a tragic, decaying relic from a forgotten time. (Christina Brennan)
7. Oh, Hi!
Sophie Brooks
Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) have been dating for four months, and things are going well. When we first meet them, they’re off on their first trip together as a couple, which they will spend in a remote house they’ve rented for the weekend, just outside New York City. At first, things couldn’t be better. On the first night, Iris even finds some BDSM toys in a closet that they decide to try out, which brings them closer to each other. “Who knew that our first trip as a couple would be this easy?,” Iris tells her boyfriend that night, smiling. “I’m just not looking for a relationship right now,” Isaac replies, and everything changes.
At least at first, Oh, Hi! is more of a comedy than a horror movie, but it’s also a film that depicts another kind of horror – one that most people who have been in a relationship are familiar with – extremely well. With a premise that’s only deceivingly simple, writer-director Sophie Brooks and co-writer Molly Gordon are able to capture the paradox of a society that molds women to look for prince charming in everyone, and men to have commitment issues, and how absolutely raving mad we can become when we refuse to realize that these two things are incompatible.
If you’re looking for a clever comedy with some horror elements that also has something to say, look no further than Oh, Hi! (Serena Seghedoni)
8. Possession (1981)
Andrzej Żuławski
Possession sees one of the most authentic depictions of a breakup on film. It’s an excellent example of filmmakers taking simple themes and taking them to such horrifying extremes, in a way that only this genre can offer.
Mark (Sam Neill) returns home from a business trip to learn that his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) has grown unhappy and demands a divorce. He gives in, but not without first obsessing over her reasons for separating, leading him to uncover a much more sinister motive.
It’s no surprise that Polish director Andrzej Żuławski’s meditation on divorce is one of the genre’s crowning achievements. The anxiety, desperation, depression, loneliness, and even violent thoughts that somebody can experience during the process of leaving their partner are just as terrifying as they are relatable. Neill depicts being consumed by jealousy chillingly, while Isabelle Adjani gives such a fearless performance that balances being over the top and emotionally exhausting. You can see the influence her work here has had on actors who’ve stepped into the genre since then: Toni Collette in Hereditary, Lupita Nyong’o in Us, Natalie Portman in Black Swan, and so on.
Granted, Possession might not be the most fun movie to watch during Halloween, as it’s rather upsetting. But if you’re looking for a weirdly psychosexual thriller that will get under your skin, and perhaps spark a meaningful conversation with your partner regarding one’s idea of their better half, then Possession might just be the film to watch. (Edgar Ortega)
9. Ravenous (2017)
Robin Aubert
As is the modern tradition, Ravenous never explicitly uses the z-word to refer to its hoards of infected brutes, but then one of the most refreshing elements of this low-budget indie thriller is its lack of exposition. When the characters aren’t fending off the undead, they’re too busy distrusting each other to worry about filling us in on the backstory.
The film follows a group of rural survivors in a Quebec so ravaged by les affamés that there’s little chance of rebuilding society. While it’s full of the jump scares and bloody gruesomeness one would expect, the most unsettling element of Ravenous is the images of piled up furniture seen dotted around the grasslands. Having presumably created these monoliths themselves, the otherwise relentless zombies stop to gaze in silence at them with a sort of religious veneration. Aubert smartly chooses not to explain the literal or symbolic significance of the structures, but there are hints towards the colonisation and assimilation that has characterised Quebec’s history, and perhaps also the province’s contemporary wrestling with multiculturalism and a rapidly changing society.
The undead displaying something resembling their own culture is a subtly chilling idea that lingers in the mind, as do the stunning shots of the Canadian countryside, itself an quietly oppressive character in the closest thing the zombie apocalypse has ever come to slow cinema. (Louis Roberts)
10. Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler
As entertaining as mindless slashers and creepy ghost stories can be, the most effective horror movies are always the ones that have something timely and important to say about the world around us – because real life is often more frightening than fiction. Sinners pulls this off excellently, using its pulpy story of vampires and demons to shine a light on the lingering weight of Black suffering in America. With a dense, thrilling screenplay from Ryan Coogler and several captivating performances from its talented cast, you’d be hard pressed to find a more engaging watch for this Halloween.
Sinners has been discussed beyond belief since its release earlier this year, but there’s a good reason behind the film’s immense popularity. With his latest outing, Ryan Coogler perfectly balances the line between thrilling, expertly constructed horror that anybody can enjoy and a richer, more challenging social commentary that elevates the surface-level plot even further. Whether you’re just looking to get lost in a creepy story about blood-sucking demons or deconstruct a more weighted narrative of racial oppression and the burden of American history, Sinners offers something for all viewers. (Jack Walters)
11. Suspiria (2018)
Luca Guadagnino
1977’s Suspiria, a film about a dance academy secretly run by witches, is often whipped out around Halloween. But in 2018, Luca Guadagnino helmed a new, spooky, twisted spin on the story, with Dakota Johnson in the lead role as an American student at the Berlin academy. Suspiria shows the witches’ evil intentions early on, which gives us a fiendish look at how they weave their manipulation tactics into their teachings. What should be beautiful, magnificent dance sequences are made terrifying as you see them being twisted and contorted into something ugly right under everyone’s noses.
A lot of supernatural mechanics are left deliberately unclear, leaving you to fill in many blanks to make sense of it all. Some may dislike that, but as someone who believes the unknown is often the scariest part of any horror story, I find the film even more unsettling as a result. These scares are enhanced by a bleak, wintery setting and relentlessly dynamic cinematography from Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. The film looks as sharp, graceful, dizzying, yet disciplined as the dancers themselves, and the school’s imposing presence makes you feel like a prisoner within its lavish walls.
2018’s Suspiria is darkly dazzling, horrific on multiple levels, and criminally overlooked. Give it a watch, and it will leave you with a surreal, ghastly chill that’s perfect for the holiday. (Joseph Tomastik)
More Movies to Watch for Halloween 2025:
- Black Phone 2
- Companion
- Dangerous Animals
- Final Destination Bloodlines
- Ghost Killer
- The Host
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
- The Long Walk
- The Man in the White Van
- The Monkey
- Presence
- Strange Harvest
- The Ugly Stepsister
- Weapons
- Wolf Man
- The Woman in the Yard
