2025 Sucks But I'm Thrilled To Share All These Movies With You
2025 is another awful year in what feels like a never-ending barrage of awful years. In addition to another season of the worst show ever, The World According to Evil Idiots, it was a personal downturn for a number of reasons.
Among those is my recent unemployment. I have no idea what the future holds for me in that regard, but I do know I’ll always be watching movies. It’s the way I best understand life. This year, we closed out the GenreVision Movie Club podcast with some noteworthy entries in the Cannon Films library, and I’m reminded of anecdotes about Menahem Golan always wanting to talk about nothing else but movies. Movies were in his blood and I can’t help but feel that same pulse in my veins.
So, thankfully, 2025 managed to give me a transfusion of cinematic plasma that rejuvenated me at every turn. Every year is a great year in film if you cast a wide enough net, but filmfish the size of Pinocchio’s Monstro were leaping onto the deck of the good ship Orca this year. Holy mackerel, there were so many great movies I saw in 2025.
For most intents and purposes, this will act as a ranking for 2025, though you can see my actual full ranking over on my Letterboxd account since I won’t cover every movie on that list for various reasons. Heck, as I write this, the year isn’t even over, so I might amend it with more movies in the future. But right now, these are the movies I want to share with you and that I need to talk about. Some aren’t going to surprise you as they are the ones lots of folks (and the Industry) are talking about, but some are flicks I want to see get more spotlight than they have. And you’ll probably hear more than a few of these pop up again in January during the GV Awards episode.
[Boring, technical list maintenance protocols listed here. X-Omega Dork Eyes Only. All Normal Readers, skip section. Entries included are ranked in ascending order. All films utilize United States theatrical/home video release date for 2025 qualification. Majority of entries are horror movies because anyone who knows Author at all should not be surprised]
Wolf Man (d. Leigh Whannell)
I want to start with a movie that doesn’t “work” but proves failures can be far more fascinating and worthwhile than assembly line successes. There is so much in Whannell’s riff on the Universal Monster that probably reads like gangbusters on the page. Unfortunately, the transference to the screen got muddled visually and kinetically.
However, that does not mean Wolf Man is worth forgetting for what it did right: some meaty character exploration and a genuine Take on the werewolf idea that was worth the gamble. I’ll never forget the cool “werewolf vision” of this movie and how it was utilized for thoughtful, emotional impact. Whannell is still a striking stylist in the world of genre filmmaking, and even though the whole of Wolf Man ends up jumbled, the pieces are still worth admiring.
Good Boy (d. Ben Leonberg)
An experiment but one that proves its hypothesis. You will believe a dog can lead a horror movie after seeing Good Boy. This has enough polish and gimmick intrigue to recommend it, but it’s also attempting a punishing level of Bad Times that most folks won’t be pleased with by the final reel. Still, Good Boy proves there are still new and exciting ways to frame and execute a familiar story in cinema.
Man Finds Tape (d. Paul Gandersman, Peter S. Hall)
I love a good faux doc and Man Finds Tape is the best one I came across from 2025. Creepy without being another haunted house walkthrough, this is a flick for those who enjoy relating Christian horror to cosmic horror (aren't they the same?) as well as criticizing our Always Filming modern world. Love the way this unravels its mystery and keeps things the right level of unknown.
Marshmallow (d. Daniel DelPurgatorio)
Though it would work better as a 23-minute episode of an anthology series, Marshmallow has still stuck in my brain thanks to effective imagery and a thought-provoking premise. More than IT: Welcome to the Machine or Stranger Things 5000, Marshmallow captures a genuine childlike perspective of fear and social oppression as filtered through a genre template. It’s not going to rewrite the Matrix’s code or anything, but it’s the kind of little movie I wish I saw more folks championing. Plus, it has what might be my favorite movie poster of the year (see above).
Mickey 17 (d. Bong Joon Ho)
Who cares if it’s buffonishly on-the-nose with its commentary and performances? Bong Joon Ho got his pile of money to burn and that warmth is always going to be welcome in this house. Yeah, Okja is the “better” riff on a lot of the same ideas/morals, but this is big and brash in the way more studio tentpole releases should risk, especially with science-fiction material that is either fully original or sourced from original works. I’d trade Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starwarser sight unseen if it meant getting another impressive swing like Mickey 17.
Megadoc (d. Mike Figgis)
Much like Hearts of Darkness, Megadoc will go down as an essential document in relation to the film production it covers. Much like the falling empire in Megalopolis, a melancholy dread lingers over narratives in Figgis’s portrayal of Francis Ford Coppola’s dream project come to life. Much like the movie Coppola ended up making, Megadoc exposes a fundamentally broken world of creators that still manage to make something personal out of such chaos.
The movie industry and its ways of operating are coming to a crashing point, its fate tied to the drowning beast of capitalism we’ve been subjected to as a species. Megadoc is a reminder of what humans are supposed to be doing: playing in the face of oblivion.
Beast of War (d. Kiah Roache-Turner)
Though it’s not quite the knockout its potential promises, Beast of War is far more approachable, polished, and enjoyable than it would appear. Another great collection of actors that get all the right highlight moments. Huge Fin Flicks points for the airhorn that gets stuck on the villainous shark.
In a year with one of the greatest Fin Flicks of all time (c’mon, mates. You don’t need to scroll down to know what’s up), Beast of War deserves commendation for providing another aquatic creature feature winner in 2025.
28 Years Later (d. Danny Boyle)
I’m sure I talked about this during Currently Consuming, but I was never the biggest booster of 28 Days Later, though it’s absolutely a deserved classic. I’m fairly certain I’ve only seen 28 Weeks Later once. This is all to say how surprised I was when 28 Years Later captured my attention. Though I’m not thrilled with it being so episodic in intention, I can’t deny that Boyle’s vision in this newest iteration of the concept has its hooks in me.
Between the visceral action, the infrared nightmares, Ralph Fiennes delivering a character he’ll forever be known for, and the overall enthusiasm you feel for the ever-expanding world of 28 Years Later, this is a rare case where the third time isn’t just the charm, it’s the diamond of the entire franchise at this point.
Primitive War (d. Luke Sparke)
Yo, Jurassic World: Rebirth isn’t only one of the worst movies of the year and in contention for the worst Jurassic movie of all time (I didn’t see the previous one, Jurassic World: Domino’s, and don’t want to for any confirmation of Worst Jurassic Movie), it’s one of the most soulless automatons ever produced at the robot factory of Studio Blockbusters ‘R Us.
Thank John Hammond’s withered spirit that Primitive War released in the same year. Pulp ridiculousness that features a moment with some Quetzalcoatlus that tops anything in any of the Jurassic World movies. Sure, Primitive War is unavoidable schlock with its direct-to-video ceiling in full view, but it makes up for it in comic book imagery and himbo heart.
Give this movie some more money and it’s giving us what the mainstream movie marketplace desperately needs: dinosaur movies that aren’t Jurassics and that go for the gore. (Hollywood, give me and/or Steven Kostanski $50 million to make the unrated Dinosaurs Attack! movie)
The Toxic Avenger (d. Macon Blair)
This won’t be for everyone (not just for extreme content reasons) but for the right sickos, The Toxic Avenger is a punk rock superhero cartoon that slushes together the legacy of its hero into a manic, modern mixture of mirth. Blair injects his distinct, off-kilter personality into the Troma landscape like he was always meant to frolic in the toxic waste fields of the Tromaville dump. Pardon me, St. Roma’s Village.
In my stronger, loving world, kids are flocking to see The Toxic Avenger instead of A Minecraft Movie. This is why I’m not a parent.
The Phoenician Scheme (d. Wes Anderson)
I’m not gonna spend tons of time here because you either fucks with Anderson or you don’t. If you don’t, I get it but I wish you a Road to Damascus moment in the not-too-distant future. If you do fucks with Anderson, The Phoenician Scheme is playing the hits but with the verve of his youthful best. My favorite feature of his since The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Shit, writing this makes me want to pop it on.
Friendship (d. Andrew DeYoung)
Admittedly, The Chair Company just blew this sucker right out of the water when it comes to Tim Robinson triumphs in 2025. Still, Friendship offers a twisted new way to define “horror comedy” as the escalating terror of this absurd social nightmare takes you into literal labyrinths and winking delusions, all while busting your guts open along the way.
“I ordered!” is cracking me up right now.
Black Phone 2 (d. Scott Derrickson)
I enjoyed The Black Phone but not nearly as much as this rip-roarin’, child-hackin’, ghost-charged follow-up. When it comes to horror franchise sequel thinking, Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill made all the right moves in turning their expansion of Joe Hill’s short story into a throwback Nightmare on Elm Street riff.
I don’t want new versions of Freddy and Jason. I want new boogeymen for new audiences, and Black Phone 2 solidifies The Grabber as one of those new nightmares.
The Life of Chuck (d. Mike Flanagan)
2025 was a banner year for Constant Readers. The first of three Stephen King adaptations I’ll talk about, The Life of Chuck was the only one I had no prior knowledge about regarding its source material. That led to utter surprise when the story revealed its premise, structure, and intentions. I won’t spoil those to anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, but I will say that The Life of Chuck is an inspiring, deliberately twee, but effectively haunted and gripping affirmation about life and death at the most intimate and cosmic levels.
Plenty of highlight performances but the fact Mark Hamill is in two Stephen King adaptations this year and is perfectly cast in both? We need to take the joys where we can find them, friends.
No Other Choice (d. Park Chan-wook)
Korean cinema has been killing it for decades with high-tension absurdist thrillers about class. Park Chan-wook is no stranger to crafting or adapting these kinds of razor-wire takedowns of the ruling class and the monstrous world they’ve created, and he riffs stupendous storytelling from pulp maestro Donald Westlake’s novel The Ax, which just shot straight to the top of my To Read list.
Brutal, ridiculous, and devastating in its portrayal of how many pieces of our souls we sacrifice to live the life we want, because we’ve been programmed to believe there is no other choice.
One Battle After Another (d. Paul Thomas Anderson)
As I write this, One Battle After Another is the awards frontrunner of the season. So, you probably don’t need another white guy seal-clapping and bobblehead-nodding “yes” about the movie’s politics. Only reason I won’t do that is because I can’t balance a ball on my nose and my neck hurts from leaning into the screen during this riveting, propulsive, gorgeous, and refreshingly goofy Western-meets-agitprop powder keg of kickass filmmaking.
This is the kind of flick where you want every character to have their own entire movie. Luckily, we spend so much rich, evocative time with everyone that it feels like you actually got that by movie’s end. If One Battle After Another does end up being the Shiny Statuette Orgy movie of the year (Benicio Del Toro as Sensei Sergio is 2025’s supporting character angel and deserves it all), it wouldn’t surprise me but it wouldn’t be undeserved. As Travis said to me when he watched it, “Sometimes, we get a real movie.”
Neighborhood Watch (d. Duncan Skiles)
As I get older, a genre I find myself more and more attracted to are down-and-dirty crime stories. Neighborhood Watch certainly delivers on that level with its amateur detectives and an unraveling mystery, but what has stuck with me from this little flick is the relationship between its two lead characters.
Portrayed by Jack Quaid and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (maybe my favorite role he’s ever played?), the movie pairs a mentally unstable young man with a gruff and authoritarian older guy. The film does an amazing job of setting up what could be two caricatures and giving them space to be fully realized as human beings, growing as individuals because they have to work together to do what is right. It’s one of the most touching, empathetic duos in film this year and I’m shocked I’m not seeing way more ink about it.
Neighborhood Watch is funny without losing grip on its darker tone, keeps you hooked with the deployment of its plot, and offers two of the best mismatched gumshoes since The Nice Guys. Don’t let this one slip by you.
The Luckiest Man in America (d. Samir Oliveros)
Okay, I’ve gone long enough that it’s time to unload a heap of Backstory for one of these. I think the kids call this Lore now.
I love game shows. Mine was a household that always caught Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! every weeknight. One of the pleasures about staying home from school (for legitimate or devious reasons) was to catch The Price Is Right and all the other game shows that played during the day. When my grandfather (Paw-Paw) moved in with us after my grandmother (Gee-Gee) died, we got Game Show Network and it played all day long as he sat in his motorized chair. I’d sit and watch plenty of shows with him, including Press Your Luck, a program I had always enjoyed.
Eventually, Game Show Network ran a documentary about Press Your Luck contestant Michael Larson, a pathetic man who realized the show’s gameboard had repeating patterns in the seemingly random light display that acted as the “wheel” for players. I never forgot that documentary or story as it seemed so perfect to tell as a movie.
The Luckiest Man in America doesn’t attempt fealty to reality in telling Larson’s unique story. Instead, this takes the concept of The American Dream and makes a dream out of this demented true story. An eclectic but often impressive ensemble of actors (anchored by Paul Walter Hauser’s career-best performance) navigate the ethereal world of the Press Your Luck stage as it becomes a garish reflection of what America is: a game show that can’t abide a con man loser pulling back the curtain.
It won’t surprise me if The Luckiest Man in America doesn’t hit for most folks the way it did for me. Just the luscious period production work that went into recreating the Press Your Luck set made me drool. Even disregarding that, this has one of my favorite scenes of the year: when Larson stumbles onto the set of a talk show straight out of the transcendental plane of a David Lynch dream (rest in piece, you inspirational weirdo). Johnny Knoxville plays the cordial, inviting host who offers a moment of heavenly grace to Larson and I can’t stop thinking about this moment. I need more people to see it and talk about it.
The Shrouds (d. David Cronenberg)
If The Shrouds isn’t the final directorial effort from David Cronenberg, it acts like it is. Though there is a surface story to engage with, the depth of The Shrouds comes from the many fears Cronenberg expresses about his life’s chosen profession and the world it’s evolved in. Oh, that’s going to play out as a conspiratorial thriller with unknowable agencies operating in the background for even shadier agendas? I think this might be a Cronenberg flick!
In all seriousness, there are phenomenal threads here about paranoia as storytelling, how the tech industry is becoming the All-Industry and infecting every facet of life (and death), the chase of the Muse, surveillance culture, the evils of AI. Look, it’s Cronenberg dumping out what might be his last bucket of brain goblins. As someone who deeply resonates with his body of work, The Shrouds screams with so many final contemplations about existence and art, but most people won’t even pick those up as whispers.
I can only recommend this to Cronenbergheads since the front-facing plot won’t sate most viewers. It’s all about what’s going on underneath. Should The Shrouds end up as Cronenberg’s cinematic chance to dig his own grave, that makes all the sense in the world to me.
Weapons (d. Zach Creggar)
No need to wax a bunch on this as it was a monster hit and properly received by pop culture. As I’ll do with Sinners in a bit, I mostly want to bask in the glow of an enormously successful horror movie based on nothing but a writer/director pulling from their own imagination and inspirations. That’s how you get something that feels viciously original like Weapons.
It’s a bummer we won’t see that lesson learned (“Say No to the Aunt Gladys Prequel” campaign headquarters right here) but who cares? It ain’t gonna stop Weapons from existing and being excellent.
The Rule of Jenny Pen (d. James Ashcroft)
It sucks John Lithgow tied his boat to the bigot wizard lady, but maybe that will make some of you hate him even more as one of 2025’s most maniacal monsters in The Rule of Jenny Pen. This is playhouse horror at its finest with Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush putting in tremendous work as rivals at a nursing home.
There is some noteworthy surreal stuff here when it comes to the obvious horror, but it’s the revealing story and deteriorating nature of the characters that makes this such a chiller. It’s Bad Times all around but one of the best Bad Times of the year.
Eddington (d. Ari Aster)
Hoo buddy.
My current word count stands at just above 3000 words for all the prior movies. I could spin double that just on Eddington. Ari Aster made his personal panicked masterpiece with Beau Is Afraid, but Eddington proves he is still a one-of-a-kind nightmare maker.
I wrote an entire review for this at a site I no longer associate with, so you can go hunt for that if you want some more. I will say that the ending shot of Eddington and the song that plays over it refuses to leave the forefront of my mind. Of all the movies I saw from 2025, the one that is haunting me like a conjoined specter is Eddington.
Deathstalker (d. Steven Kostanski)
Man, a lot of these last few entries have been real bummers. Time to shred through the gloom and doom with a quad-bladed sword while Slash shreds on the guitar.
I’m a simple man and Deathstalker simply rules. Here’s my review I wrote for GenreVision. Read that, or better yet, watch Deathstalker. Bring some ibuprofen for the headache you’ll have from constant headbanging and laughing so hard that you become deprived of oxygen. The most metal movie of 2025.
Superman (d. James Gunn)
Another movie I wrote a review for that you can hunt down if you want (“Drew Dietsch [insert appropriate movie] review” should do it). I just want to toss another two cents into the skyscraper of congratulatory pennies this movie earned.
As a DC dork, it presents a new take on that universe of characters I want to see. As a Superman fan, it’s given pop culture the best Clark Kent in a while. As a lover of superhero stories, it proved I’m not as burned out by the Marvelification of these narratives when there is a clear, singular voice at the helm with something worth saying.
Frankenstein (d. Guillermo del Toro)
A dream project for del Toro, made more beautiful by how personal and therefore messy it all is. The production elements of Frankenstein alone are some of the best things that happened in the realm of cinema this year. Every inch of this movie is dripping with del Toro’s passions, fetishes, desires, and yes, fears.
Is it the Frankenstein movie I would make? No, because I wouldn’t attempt to make Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. That’s such an integral part of this film’s majesty. In an era where more and more mainstream movies feel like there is no real voice behind the camera, Frankenstein demands you hear del Toro at every moment. That’s gonna be loud for some folks (heck, maybe most!), but all I can hear is the music it’s making.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (d. Peter Browngardt)
After being banished to the evanescent shores of Tax Write-Off Island, Ketchup Entertainment (this world is a silly place) swooped in to rescue the best dang flick of the year that does not seem to be getting that level of deserved adulation.
In a retro sci-fi plot that would make Joe Dante proud, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck reclaim their status as hilarity hierarchs with a cavalcade of hijinks. The Day the Earth Blew Up pays so much tribute to the golden era of Warner animation that the screen sparkles with radiant love and luminous lunacy.
If you ain’t laughing during this one, you’re one pickled puss.
Sinners (d. Ryan Coogler)
Another one that far more brilliant people than I are gonna spew about, so go read that while I use Sinners as proof audiences want original, vision-driven, mature, and studio-supported horror like never before. The overwhelming response to Sinners did so much to renew my faith in movie audiences this year.
Full of uncompromising perspective, Sinners is what the future of the movie theater should look like. People don’t need to show up for Event Cinema only when it’s another IP shotgun blast to the face. If studios give them movies like Sinners — handsomely budgeted original genre movies with a strong creative voice on the script and behind the camera — and back those movies up with the kind of marketing and presentation Sinners got, audiences will be more willing to show up because they want things that feel new, and more importantly, they want to share that experience with others.
Sinners is awesome, but it’s even more awesome because it’s the kind of movie that proves what GenreVision is all about: sharing the art we love with each other.
The Long Walk (d. Francis Lawrence)
My review is out there, so go a’searchin’ if’n y’all wanna. I guess I can just link to my Rotten Tomatoes page to help out a tad. All I’ll add is this: if ever a year deserved The Long Walk, it’s 2025.
If y’all wanna chat this one up in the comments (or any of these!), I’ll be happy to jaw with ya, but The Long Walk is one of those movies I’ve been sitting with and sitting with and walking with and walking with. It’s there, keeping pace in my mind, pointing my gaze at a horizon that never seems to end.
Hold your friends close. Fuck the Long Walk. Fuck the Major.
Dangerous Animals (d. Sean Byrne)
Loving killer shark movies and having a deep love of sharks is one of the best examples of the beauty of human dissonance I’ve experienced during my life. “If you love sharks, shouldn’t you be horrified at how they are depicted in pop culture?”
Along comes Dangerous Animals, a Fin Flick unlike any other that approaches this idea through its villain, a serial killer who feeds his victims to hungry sharks and films the murders. He even says that watching the sharks tear these people apart is the best show on Earth. Naturally, he comes afoul of an intended victim who is determined to be anything but.
I don’t want to give away the climactic moment when Dangerous Animals proves what it believes about sharks, but I do have to say it’s a moment that had me fighting back tears. Sharks are the most beautiful creatures on the planet in my eyes, and for a brief moment, Dangerous Animals thinks the same.
And hey, this is also a ripper of a high-concept Hannibal-esque episode with Jai Courtney delivering the performance of his life. Even if you hate sharks with a passion (what are you doing here?), you must see Dangerous Animals for Courtney’s incredible work. It’s criminal everyone isn’t raving about Bruce Tucker, tour guide from the Depths of Hell.
The Monkey (d. Osgood Perkins)
No other movie this year captured so much of what I love about movies, stories, and life than The Monkey. Perkins takes the spine of King’s short story and does exactly what adaptation should: finds something personally true to expand upon that keeps the spirit of the original work. Perkins crafts a bonkers, heartfelt Final Destination riff (in a year with a legit Final Destination movie that wasn’t bad) about the insanity of death and how we have to dance in its inevitable face.
The ever-ascending absurdity of The Monkey continuously surprises and entertains, all the way up to a final image that stands among the greatest in any adaptation of Stephen King’s work.
Art is often the best way I’m able to reaffirm my existence. Maybe that’s not something a lot of folks need to do daily, but I’ve had to since I was young and have only become more aware and accepting of that fact. Death feels close every day, waiting for the right stumble-and-fall or distracted driver or MRI result or depressive episode that makes me stare at a lake and imagine walking into it and never coming back up. It’s through art that I’m reminded how much life humans have in them, and it’s when humans are often at their most exceptional in my estimation.
You’re a weird collection of organic machinery that knows it has an expiration date, but you’ll never know that date until it’s too late. So, fuck it. Dance. Sing a song. Take a walk and blow a raspberry at a squirrel in a tree. Express yourself with the things that make you You.
What makes me Me? Loving and sharing movies. I don’t know how else to live. That’s the whole reason I had to write this. I need to share these movies with you because it reminds me I’m alive.
I hope you’re making it through this year okay, and I want to sincerely thank you if you actually read all this. Like I said, happy to chat up these and other 2025 movies in the comments, or you can reply to this post on Bluesky. Thank you for being a part of GenreVision.
