Why 2025 is big for horror

Lights down, armrest gripped, teeth clenched – just an average evening at the cinema for a horror film fan.

The genre is having a great year in 2025, with the top three examples – Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines and 28 Years Later – taking a total of £41.3m ($55.6m) in the UK.

That’s compared with £39.5m ($53m) for the nine biggest horrors released throughout last year, according to Box Office Mojo.

In North America, scary movies have accounted for 17% of ticket purchases this year – up from 11% in 2024 and 4% a decade ago, according to a report from the Reuters news agency.

“Right now it feels like we’re in the renaissance of horror,” Chase Sui Wonders, one of the stars of I Know What You Did Last Summer (IKWYDLS), tells BBC Newsbeat.

“Everyone’s going to theatres watching horror movies.”

The small screen’s also helping to switch us on to new releases.

According to data provided by TikTok, there’s been an rise in horror-related videos globally on the app in the past 12 months.

It said 10.7m people used the horror hashtag – an increase of 38% – while HorrorTok rose 40% to 2.6m.

The tags aren’t exclusively used on movie-related content, but TikTok said it had noticed a spike in videos using them during the Cannes Film Festival in May.

While the figures for the past year could suggest a horror explosion, long-time fans argue the popularity hasn’t crept up on us out of nowhere.

Ash Millman, a journalist and presenter who specialises in covering horror, says the genre’s success has been more of a slow-burn than a jump-scare.

Over the last 10 years, she says, it’s been gathering more critical and commercial success.

She says the success of artier efforts such as Hereditary, from studio A24, and crowd pleasers from horror specialists Blumhouse.

But Ash does admit that this year has been a particularly good one for fans.

“It’s got a bit of everything for everyone,” she says.

“We have sequels, then amazing new things like Sinners.

“I do think we’re going to be talking about 2025 for years to come.”

Ash points out that the genre has constantly been fed by producers of smaller-scale indie productions, but the number of major releases this year is notable.

“I think blockbuster horror has become a thing again,” she says.

“People want to go to the cinema, they want to see it on the big screen, they want to be scared.”

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, when streaming films at home increased, Hollywood has been struggling to get people back into cinemas.

Horror movies, which tend to be relatively cheap to make, seem to be bucking the trend, and IKWYDLS is the latest big studio release hoping to do the same.

Its director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson tells Newsbeat the feeling of watching with an audience is hard to replicate on your sofa.

“I think it’s the collective experience of being scared,” she says.

“It’s so fun. Everybody wants to go to the movies with their friends and jump and scream and have a good time.”

IKWYDLS is a retread of the cult 1997 slasher movie about a group of friends who agree to cover up a tragic accident, only to be pursued a year later by an anonymous killer known as the Fisherman.

The original came out in October – the traditional “spooky season” window for big horror releases.

But IKWYDLS cast member Jonah Hauer-King says he thinks the new version won’t feel out of place in July.

“Counter-intuitively, though it is frightening and scary, there is something feel-good about this kind of film,” he says.

“It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it is a bit of a wild ride, so it feels like a summer popcorn film with the scares and with the thrills.”

Jonah thinks there is also a deeper reason for the appeal of horror, too.

“I think at the moment people want to go to the cinema for a bit of escapism, forget about things and have a bit of fun,” he says.

Ash agrees, and says times of “chaos and uncertainty” in the wider world tend to boost the genre.

“I think that’s always a big festering ground for horror to make statements,” she says.

“I feel like horror is a reflection of society but gives us a bit of control over it.

“Usually you see people kind of battling against a great evil and overcoming it in blockbuster horror, where we get a nice wrapped-up ending.

“And I think that’s a really nice form of escapism and a way of kind of moving past these horrible things going on in the world.”

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