The Top Ten Films of 2025

It's that time again! Regular readers will know this isn't actually a top ten list, rather it's more a recommended viewing list of films that either played festivals and have yet to get a UK release, or films that did get a release but which you might have missed, possibly due to unfairly bad reviews. Which means you won't see titles like SINNERS, WEAPONS, THE LONG WALK, COMPANION, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, KEEPER or BRING HER BACK on here because you can already find those on a load of lists so what's the point of repeating? Especially as you likely know those are worth watching anyway. No, here are the lesser known films that are worth your viewing time. As usual the rules stay the same: each film has to have been shown in the UK for the first time during 2025, either at a festival, or as a cinema, disc or streaming release. As explained above, popular successes aren't included but flops might well be if those flops were undeserved. Also as usual, while I didn't get to see everything, hopefully there will be enough amongst these recommendations that even the most seasoned enthusiast will find something they didn't get the chance to catch up with. I'm also not doing a 'worst of' list because we all know it's Luc Besson's DRACULA, don't we? Or possibly WAR OF THE WORLDS with Ice Cube, even if it was the interminable JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH that had me bored enough to end up considering what my favourite flavour of jam sandwich might be. Anyway enough of the bad, here's the good!

10 Silent Night Deadly Night

A grindhouse slasher movie remake par excellence. Mike P. Nelson's new version of the 1984 original keeps the best elements (child traumatised by seeing his parents killed by 'Santa' grows up to become lunatic slasher wearing the same festive outfit) but adds a lot more to the mix, including why the killer is creating his own advent calendar of death, a subplot about children being abducted, and a romance with a girl into true crime documentaries. Where SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT really scores big, though, is that here there's none of the irony, smugness or post-modernism of so many of those tiresome pseudo 1980s slasher tributes, the ones so keen to keep nudging you that ' this is just like the 80s, right?'. Instead here everything is played straight, which also helps make an outrageous sequence in the middle (that appears so gob-smackingly out of left field) a thing of near genius. There are some in-jokes but they are subtle and more to be nodded at by those in the know. If you're a slasher fan this is likely to leave you with a spring in your step and plans to make this an annual Xmas watch. The kind of movie Eli Roth wished he could make but never will.

9 Him

Opening to indifferent reviews from people who really didn't get it, for those of us who live for sitting down in front of alleged claptrap only to discover it harbours many delights, the rewards in HIM are rich indeed. The film starts off with some medical daftness ("He has a terrible head injury" a doctor says while we see X-Rays and MRI scans of a perfectly normal skull). In many films I would already be grinding my teeth but not here, because we then see our patient has had clips applied to his scalp wound so his head resembles an American football. After that we quickly follow our young wannabe GOAT footballer to the isolated Jess Franco-style architectural retreat of current GOAT (they say GOAT a lot, and we all know what tends to happen to them in films like this) Marlon Wayans to be trained up to possibly take on the mantle. From there we plunge headlong into a crazy mix of allegory and symbolism that suggests nothing we have seen so far should be taken literally. The film does hit you over the head with the 'Sport As Religion' stick a few too many times but it can be forgiven for the sheer bravado and enthusiasm with which some of the sequences are executed, particularly the ending. Reminiscent of the cinema of Alain Jessua (satire and blood transfusions), Lindsay Anderson and Boots Riley, and even a couple of the choicier episodes of South Park (especially one reveal close to the all-out bonkers ending where you half expect Kyle to turn up and say "Dude, this is really f*cked up right here). Many will disagree, but HIM is actually the film with Jordan Peele's name attached that gives you the most to think about. Director Justin Tipping is definitely one to keep an eye on.

8 A Mother's Embrace

A seriously decent cosmic horror picture from Brazil. Ana is on her first day back at work as a fire rescue officer after recovering from severe psychological trauma. Rio is in the grip of terrible storms causing flood damage and she and her team are called to a house they have been told is in imminent danger of collapse. The place turns out to be a care home for the elderly, and none of the inhabitants have any intention of leaving. Exactly why they won't leave is due to something quite deliciously horrible it would be shame to spoil, suffice to say A MOTHER'S EMBRACE cultivates an admirable atmosphere of creeping strangeness for over half its runtime, during which one could argue that very little happens, but tiny incremental events and the fantastic setting of the huge old care home with cracks in its walls and water coming in everywhere combine to quickly become unnerving. Marjorie Estiano delivers an excellent central performance as Ana and, like her character, you'll be wondering, and dreading, where it's all leading.

7 Man Finds Tape

 A man in a small Texas town discovers a video recording that shows a stranger coming into his bedroom when he was a boy. Then CCTV footage turns up of people suddenly falling asleep in the town high street and a van running someone over. MAN FINDS TAPE is found footage shot (on the whole) by characters who are themselves film professionals, collated with CCTV footage and other nicely static sources that eliminate the wobble cam that plagues the worst of the genre. It's one of those films that's hard to review without spoilers and would be a shame to say any more, and indeed to suggest the horror authors whose work this film is most reminiscent of. Awaiting a UK release, try and watch it cold if you can.

6 Content

Like MAN FINDS TAPE (viewed at Mayhem), CONTENT was another festival picture, in this case from Grimmfest. It's a film that tells its tale of a mad amateur film director creating footage for his proposed movie via deceit, kidnapping, blackmail and general threats by using screenshots, zoom meetings, text messages, and mobile phone footage. Writer-director Adam Meilich's film is a delightful surprise - assured, clever and blackly funny and one that almost demands an immediate rewatch. When a film is able to quote a host of classic found footage movies and you don't find yourself wishing you were watching any of them instead you know you're onto a winner. CONTENT is also awaiting a UK release.

5 It Needs Eyes

A teenager goes to live with her aunt after a family trauma and becomes immersed in the world of extreme online videos. She becomes obsessed with a missing woman known only as Fish Tooth and a nearby island where a boy drowned. Directors Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano really know what they're doing here, priming the audience with some online horrors and then performing a perfect balancing act of hinting at what might be going on but never fully explaining it. Influences include VIDEODROME and the fiction of M R James and by the time the film is over you'll be creeped out and asking plenty of questions in the best way.

4 Together

If you'd asked me the style of cinema I never thought we'd see in a mainstream multiplex (and this one disappeared from multiplexes very quickly) one name would have leapt to mind: Frank Henenlotter. And yet here we are with TOGETHER, a film that is by turns gloopy, bloody, painful, sexy, very funny and ultimately and above all romantic. Real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in a story where the couple they play end up getting fused together by some gloopy stuff they find in the woods. Hopefully needless to say the mechanics of this are far less important than the subtext. TOGETHER is an allegory for a long term relationship filtered through a BAD BIOLOGY lens with added Screaming Mad George-style lunacy to boot. The film is quite marvellous, by the way. They should have a study where they show it to couples and then ask them individually what they thought of it afterwards.

3 Bugonia

Good old Yorgos Lanthimos (and Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons). What a wonderful piece of work you've given us yet again, and a remake (of the Korean film SAVE THE GREEN PLANET) no less. Two conspiracy theorists kidnap CEO Emma Stone because they believe her to be an alien who wants to destroy earth. They are convinced her mother ship is close and want to go there with her to talk to her people. Are they insane or is there something to what they believe? Even once Lanthimos starts placing his cards on the table this one's clever enough that you'll still find yourself wondering. The story line works on multiple levels and that, combined with the oh so sly wit we've come to expect from this director (right the way back to DOGTOOTH) makes this one a winner. And Arrow are releasing SAVE THE GREEN PLANET early next year on disc so you can compare the two. Expect a review on here.

2 The Arbiter

Swansea-born director Marc Price's latest movie asks the question: What if Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS was low budget, British, and funny? Rival gangs of pyromaniacs, roller skaters, graphic designers, ice cream salesmen and others rule the city at night, turning parts of it into no-go zones that the police have agreed to stay away from as long as no guns are used and no property is damaged. But one gang is threatening to wipe all the others out and it's the job of Verril (Craig Russell) to act as arbiter between the gang leaders and the police to reach some sort of solution. THE ARBITER starts off hard and fast, flinging as much comedy as action at the audience in its opening act such that by the time things slow down a bit it has you firmly on its side, all the way to the highly satisfying conclusion. A genuine low budget treat and destined to become a cult favourite when it gets a UK release.

1 Hallow Road

A couple (Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys) receive a 2am phone call from their daughter who has crashed the family car in a forest and believes she has run someone down. Almost all of the rest of the film is the couple's drive to find out exactly what has happened. I'm not going to say any more because that would spoil it, but I lost count of the times I applauded director Babak Anvari's (often subtle) directorial touches that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. What I will say is that HALLOW ROAD is like one of those great 1960s black and white British B movie programmers that were nothing but 80 minutes of tension. Superb use of sound and voices to make things even more excruciating is reminiscent of Nigel Kneale's During Barty's Party. Held over in the few cinemas it saw distribution to because of excellent reviews, out of all the films on this list this is the one that deserved a bigger release. 

And that's it! As usual my thanks to the organisers of the festivals we attended this year (Mayhem, Grimmfest and Abertoir), all the companies who send me films to review, everyone involved with running the three cinemas we are lucky enough to have in this area, and most of all everyone who reads, and is hopefully entertained by, these reviews. Did it point you to some films you enjoyed? I hope so. I'll be back next year with more but until then be nice to each other & I'll see you in 2026

Re-animator 4K (1985)

"Fantastic 4K Restoration of an All-Time Classic"

Second Sight have produced a gorgeous, extras-packed edition of Stuart Gordon's classic film of H P Lovecraft's story for RE-ANIMATOR's 40th anniversary, and are releasing a new 4K restoration of the film as both a limited edition UHD / Blu-ray combo and separate standard UHD and Blu-ray editions.

Medical student Herbert West, fresh from a gory fracas in Zurich, joins Miskatonic Medical School to continue his research into the reanimation of dead tissue on the sly with the assistance of his slightly unwilling colleague Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott). However his reagent doesn't work terribly well, except in the worst possible case, and soon he has to deal with his recently decapitated research rival and lecturer Dr Carl Hill (David Gale) who has designs on Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) the Dean's daughter and Dan's girlfriend. 

A frenetic, frenzied approach to adapting Lovecraft that skilfully adds generous doses of humour and sex to produce a work of manic genius on a par with Herbert West himself, Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR made deserved instant stars (at least in the exploitation world) of some of its cast. Along with George A Romero’s contemporaneous DAY OF THE DEAD it also elevated the reputation of both mad scientist and zombie movies to new levels. The nifty screenplay takes the essence of Lovecraft’s story (something Gordon and screenwriter Dennis Paoli would later do successfully with DAGON, their adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth) and deftly turns something pretty turgid (try reading it) into one of the classics of the genre. 

        Gordon works wonders with an obviously small budget (rehearsal time and Gordon’s theatre experience helped) and credit should be given to Richard Band’s score which, while derivative in places (especially that main title theme), hits just the right note of twinkle-in-the-eye ‘you won’t believe what’s coming next’ so many times that he can be forgiven the steals from Bernard Herrmann. But the film belongs to Jeffrey Combs, who in his performance as Herbert West created an icon of modern horror – one who refreshingly could talk, didn’t solve all his problems with a machete, and had actually been to university. Even if he had been thrown out for making his professor’s eyeballs explode.

REANIMATOR has always looked a little grainy (and a lot grainy on VHS transfers) but Second Sight's 4K restoration is a thing of beauty. Even if you have every other version of REANIMATOR on disc, in fact especially if you do, you're going to want this to marvel at what a terrific restoration job has been performed, with clearer image, more vivid colours and deeper blacks with no picture noise. Really excellent.

New extras kick off with a commentary track by Eddie Falvey who literally wrote a book on the film and knows his stuff, offering a fact-packed track that's well worth a listen. Mike Muncer provides a 10 minute 'primer' video essay on H P Lovecraft using THE THING, FROM BEYOND and others as illustration. Reanimator at 40 has Combs and Crampton in conversation with producer Brian Yuzna for 45 minutes, and there are new interview with editor Lee Percy (15 minutes) and actor Carolyn Purdy-Gordon (14 minutes). Legacy & Impact is 18 minutes in which film-makers Joe Lynch, Mike Mendez, Nicholas McCarthy and others talk about the impression the film made on them. 

Older extras include Barbara Crampton in Conversation - a record of her 2015 Frightfest interview with Alan Jones (37 minutes) and Nucleus Films' Guide to Lovecraftian Horror from 2016,  nearly hour long piece in which Chris Lackey guides you expertly through the sub-genre. Reanimator Resurretcus is an Anchor Bay piece with cast and crew from 2007 (69 minutes) and oldest of all are interviews from 2002 with Gordon and Yuzna (49 minutes), writer Dennis Paoli (11 minutes), composer Richard Band (15 minutes) and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone (5 minutes). Also included is the 'Integral Cut' which runs 104 minutes, 23 minutes of extended scenes, one deleted scene and the usual trailers, TV spots and still galleries. Second Sight's limited edition also comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film, six art cards and a slipcase to keep it all in.

 

Stuart Gordon's REANIMATOR in 4K is being released in a limited edition UHD / Blu-ray combo as well as standard edition UHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 15th September 2025

Whispering Smith Hits London 4K (1952)

It's time for another British movie obscurity to get the posh 4K UHD and Blu-ray treatment from Hammer studios, from the period when they specialised in B movie programmers and radio spin offs before hitting the big time with horror.

Steve 'Whispering' Smith (Richard Carlson) comes to London for a holiday and almost immediately finds himself involved in the apparent suicide of Sheila Garde. Her father (who we never see) is convinced she was murdered and it's the job of his assistant Anne (Rona Anderson) to get Smith on the case.

After some initial reticence Smith ends up interviewing Sheila's lawyer Reith (Alan Wheatley), her best friend Louise (Greta Gynt) and her fiancé Roger (Herbert Lom). Eventually he uncovers a blackmail scheme that may have led to Sheila's death. Are all, some, or any of the above involved in it? You'll have to watch the film to find out.

Who Whispering Smith is meant to be in this film isn't entirely clear. The character was originally created by Frank Spearman in the early 1900s and was a railroad detective in the Old West. Alan Ladd and Audie Murphy played him in a 1948 film and subsequent TV series. Carlson's Smith is modern day and wears a trenchcoat although he does sport a cowboy hat in one scene.

WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON is middle-grade crime for the period. If you're a fan of the genre you'll work out where it's going pretty quickly and if you're a fan of this period of British cinema you'll likely have a lot of fun getting there. There are blink and you'll miss them appearances by Stanley Baker and Laurence Naismith and longer contributions from an almost showstopping Dora Bryan at the start (so much so you assume she's going to figure in the plot but sadly no) and Reginald Beckwith. Most fun for British horror fans will be had from Herbert Lom's marionette puppeteer who feels like a dry run for the character of Byron in the 1972 Amicus ASYLUM. 

Hammer's 4K UHD and Blu-ray double disc set contains two versions of the film. The second, titled WHISPERING SMITH VS SCOTLAND YARD is shorter at just over 77 minutes, with the UK version clocking in at 84. There's a commentary track on each - Jo Botting and Dave Thomas on the UK and Richard Holliss and Gavin Collinson on the US. Best amongst the other extras are a 28 minute piece from Chris Alexander on the film and Hammer at the time, and an excellent 29 minute piece on Herbert Lom in the 1940s and 1950s, in which William Fowler, Barry Forshaw, Lucy Bolton and Vic Pratt cover his career up to and including Ealing's THE LADYKILLERS. Pratt and Fowler return to discuss the differences between the UK and US versions of Whispering Smith and why (23 minutes).

Other extras include a black and white short film about the town of Bray, a ten minute segment of an audio interview with sound editor Alfred Cox, image gallery and censor cards. Like with all these releases you also get a book featuring new essays on the making of, Hammer's early crime period, more on Whispering Smith, Greta Gynt and Richard Carlson. It's yet another very classy presentation from Hammer and invaluable for students and enthusiasts of this period of British cinema.

WHISPERING SMITH HITS LONDON is out from Hammer on Monday 15th December in a limited edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray set

Dracula (2025)

"A Unique Interpretation"

A quite bizarre melding of elements from Francis Ford Coppola's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (which this film leans on heavily), Tom Tykwer's PERFUME, and the MINIONS movie, Luc Besson's singular take on the most famous vampire tale of all is getting a digital release from Signature Entertainment, with a Blu-ray release to follow.

Besson's new film keeps the Coppola prologue, suggesting that Count Dracula (here played by Caleb Landry Jones) began life as Prince Vladimir of Wallachia, a normal human being who at 'God's request' defeated the Turks only for his beloved wife Elisabeta (Zoe Bleu) to end up dead. Vlad curses God and vampirism happens.

Then the film fast forwards 400 years, relocating events to Paris and giving us possibly the best and most interesting part of the film. A vampire-hunting priest who is never named but is played by Christoph Waltz is called to a Paris asylum to help with the case of Maria (a very vigorous Matilda De Angelis) who is Obviously a Vampire. Meanwhile in Transylvania the worst Jonathan Harker ever ends up in Dracula's castle where the Count's ability to move food without touching it earns the 400 year old vampire a 'Nice!' before Harker continues with everyday chit chat.

After that we get a lengthy backstory for the Count. The irresistibility to his bite turns out to be because of a perfume he has developed, one the remarkable effects of which are demonstrated in a number of elaborate scenes that must have used up a lot of the costume (and dance) budget, before he finally gets to Paris and Mina Murray (Bleu once more), the inevitable runaround, and a climax that involves a big gun battle with soldiers and cannons.

Is Luc Besson's DRACULA any good? Or rather, is any of Luc Besson's DRACULA any good? Well, there's a bit of visual spectacle, a show stopping decapitation near the end that's a lot of fun, and the absence of Van Helsing (replaced by Waltz's priest) is an interesting touch. Purists will likely get a headache very quickly at the liberties that have been taken with the novel, while probably everyone will be scratching their heads at why Dracula has an unexplained army of comedy gargoyle minions. Those who stick with it can play spot the filmic 'influences' because aside from the three above there are plenty more, oh yes indeed. Likely to become no-one's favourite version of the story, Luc Besson's DRACULA is still probably worth watching once, if only out of sheer curiosity value. Here's a trailer:

Luc Besson's DRACULA aka DRACULA: A LOVE TALE is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 1st December 2025, with a Blu-ray release to follow on Monday 22nd December 2025

Primitive War (2025)

"More Fun than JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH"

Signature Entertainment are giving a much-deserved cinema release to PRIMITIVE WAR, a low budget (around $7 million if reports are to be believed) affair that pits Vietnam soldiers against dinosaurs, has plenty of monster action, and even at 135 minutes won't have you zoning out the way this year's JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH did.

We're in Vietnam in 1968. After some shenanigans rescuing a couple of POWs from the Vietcong, a platoon of soldiers known as the Vulture Squad are recruited to investigate the mysterious disappearance of some Green Berets in a distant jungle valley. When they arrive they are surprised (to put it mildly) to find the place crawling with dinosaurs. It's all the result of some pesky Russian experiment with wormholes, or something, and the Russians are keen to prevent the US from discovering what they have been up to. This the stage is set for a massive smackdown between US soldiers, Russian forces, and several boatloads of dinosaurs.

What you want from a film like PRIMITIVE WAR is lots of dinosaurs and lots of action, and the film doesn't skimp on either. There's also a refreshingly large variety of dinosaurs on display, and while the explanation for what's been going on is hardly the stuff of hard science the film doesn't give you much space to ponder it. 

As a dinosaur movie PRIMITIVE WAR is faster moving and a lot more fun than JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH. As a military vs the monsters movie it's stratospherically better than Neil Marshall's THE LAIR (not difficult) but it's also more entertaining watch than Julius Avery's OVERLORD. The CGI is absolutely fine and while the characterisation is a bit thin in the first act by the climax you'll be able to list all the members of Vulture Squad and how some of them meet their ends. Of course you'll have to watch the film to see who makes it out alive. Here's the trailer:

PRIMITIVE WAR is on general cinema release in the UK through the Odeon, Vue and Showcase chains from Friday 28th November 2025

The Life of Chuck (2025)

"Moving, Uplifting, and Quite, Quite Lovely"

After a short stint in UK cinemas, Studio Canal have released writer-director Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's novella (which you can find in his collection If it Bleeds) on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

It's not the easiest film to talk about without giving away spoilers, both in terms of plot and the cast members who pop up along the way, suffice to say that this is a story in three acts, told in reverse order. Act Three begins with a world on the brink of destruction. Earthquakes have destroyed California, Florida has flooded and the rest of the world has been subjected to the same kind of disasters.

During all of this, teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decides to make his way across town to see his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan). All around him are billboards and TV adverts thanking someone called Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for 39 'great years'. But neither Marty, nor anyone he meets, has any idea who Charles Krantz is. However we will, and as the film progresses we begin to understand why he is so important to the people we have been introduced to.

THE LIFE OF CHUCK is very much the Stephen King of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION or STAND BY ME, and Mike Flanagan shows he is just as adept as Frank Darabont and Rob Reiner at telling the moving, bittersweet, ultimately uplifting tale of Chuck's life and exactly why it's so important. Flanagan fans familiar with his TV work especially will spot a number of familiar faces, and if you're fan of 1980s and 1990s cult cinema then there will be other actors you'll recognise, too.

Studio Canal's disc comes with an 18 minute making of featuring interviews with Flanagan and some of the principal actors, and there are more in depth interviews with Hiddleston (14 minutes), Ejiofor (10 minutes) and Mark Hamill (9 minutes). There's also a Mike Flanagan commentary. The presence of both his and Stephen King's name may make you prepared to be scared but instead THE LIFE OF CHUCK is, for those old enough, like a very touching episode of The Twilight Zone. No shocks, just a lovely story well told by a master craftsman, ably assisted by talented cast and crew. Excellent stuff. 

Mike Flanagan's film of Stephen King's THE LIFE OF CHUCK is out now from Studio Canal on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD