This week on #LocalSearchTuesdays, I’m taking a break from local SEO to dive into something truly terrifying... My top ten best horror films of 2025! 

Check out my favorite spine-chilling releases from this year, discussing what made these films stand out in the horror genre. Whether you're a horror aficionado or just looking for your next scary movie night pick, I’ve got just the picks for you!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to our annual spooky episode of Local Search Tuesdays. It’s Halloween this weekend, so that means it’s time for this year’s list of best horror movies!

Unless this is the first episode you’ve ever seen of Local Search Tuesdays, you probably already know how obsessed with movies I am. I now have 30 different movies tattooed on my body, and I’m working on sleeving up my left leg with horror films. I’m actually getting more work done on my leg this Thursday.

Every year at Halloween, I take a week off of talking about SEO and digital marketing to share my list of the best horror movies of the year. So, here’s the 2025 list of the best horror films of the year.

At number ten: Wolf Man

This one was a big part of the reason that Blumhouse has had such a tough year. It bombed in the theater, got dropped to streaming quickly, and bombed there too. In the vein of the Invisible Man remake, they tried to modernize the Wolf Man. I’m gonna be honest - it’s not very good. But also being honest, I still enjoyed it.

Number nine: Presence. 

This one came in under the radar. Hardly anyone I know has even heard of it, but I kinda liked it. It’s a slow burn, but it’s a cool twist to shoot a haunted house movie from the perspective of the ghost that’s haunting the house. Even though you can see the final twist coming about halfway through the movie, it’s still awesome.

Number eight: 28 Years Later

I debated about even including this on the list. 28 Days Later is one of the all time great zombie movies, and 28 Weeks Later was a stellar sequel. It was a gamble to come back 25 years later with a sequel, and it only partially pays off. There wasn’t enough zombie action and the alpha concept needed fleshing out. BUT - the final sequence at the Bone Temple was cool, and Ralph Fiennes is a total badass. I left it in the list because even though it was just meh, it got me really excited for the Bone Temple sequel coming out next year.

Number seven: Clown in a Cornfield

This one didn’t hit big, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. It’s way better than you’d expect with a title like that. It’s a cool take on the creepy clown killer trope, and the twist is really unique and clever.

Number six: Bring Her Back

This one was slow. It took me a few attempts to even make it through, since the beginning is supremely slow. But it’s creepy and has a really cool ending, so definitely check it out. 

Number five: Nosferatu

My wife hated this one and never even finished it. It’s definitely a Robert Eggers film - slow and incredibly atmospheric. I thought it was stellar, and Bill Skarsgard was ridiculously awesome as Count Orlok. And come on, anything that lets Willem Dafoe go full nutjob is always worth watching.

Number four: Companion

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it’s not really what you expect it to be. It starts off in the standard direction of robot goes psycho and kills everyone, but then it switches things up and makes the killer robot the protagonist simply protecting herself from her evil POS boyfriend and his crazy entourage.

Number three: The Monkey

I didn’t have high expectations for this one, since it was based off of a Stephen King short story. I was pleasantly surprised - they made a really kickass movie out of just a few pages of story. Theo James pulls double duty playing twin brothers trying to protect everyone from the evil toy monkey from their childhood. It’s full of ridiculous Final Destination-style kills, only with a lot more explicit gore. It’s definitely the most fun I had in a horror movie this year.

Number two: Weapons

It was really hard not to put this at number one. It’s absolutely stellar all the way around. Retelling the story from multiple points of view is a cool experience, and the ending is absolutely nuts. Julia Garner redeems herself from Wolf Man, Josh Brolin is stellar, and Amy Madigan is a blast to watch. They’re already working on a prequel, which I’m sure will be just as awesome.

And that brings us to number one. For the first time since 2020, my Halloween episode doesn’t list a Terrifier movie. I would obviously put Terrifier 3 at the top of this list, but since it came out last year, I can’t sully the integrity of this list by breaking the rules just to include it.

So instead, the best horror film of 2025 is Sinners. And really, you shouldn’t be surprised that this is the top of the list. It’s one of the best horror movies that’s come out in a decade. Michael B. Jordan kills it as the twin brothers who come back to the south with stolen mob money and a plan to open a juke joint. Then it goes all Dusk Til Dawn with vampires and mayhem and gore and general badassery. The movie utterly rules, but the final scene really takes it up another few notches. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out.

And that’s all the time we have left for this week’s episode and this year’s list of the best horror movies, so you know what that means. Put your hand on the screen right here: We totally just high-fived ‘cause you learned something awesome. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week for another episode of Local Search Tuesdays.