The 7 Best Horror Movie Moments of 2025 [Dread Central Selects]

We’ve been really lucky this year. I say that every year, but the horror genre just keeps getting better and better. There are more voices, (luckily) a larger audience, and more inventive ways to tug at our hearts and scare us silly than ever before. Here at Dread Central, we gathered the core staff to ask what their favorite moment in horror was for 2025. These aren’t necessarily representative of their favorite 2025 horror movies, but these are the moments poised to linger the longest.

Sinners — Ancestral Dance

“Crafted by visionary filmmaker Ryan Coogler, Sinners is the prestige vampire period-piece action musical romance that has become so culturally ubiquitous and critically acclaimed that its detractors may never be able to truly outrun it. With numerous instances of its use of music that are miraculous and highly effective, the most critical and jaw-dropping of all is its interdimensional ancestral dance sequence.

Context-wise, when the Smokestack twins, both played by Michael B. Jordan, open a juke joint in rural Mississippi for their homegrown community of (recent) post-slavery Black Americans, the second half of Sinners is set up as a party—a momentarily joyous release of stress as a mostly Black ensemble gathers to dance, drink, gamble and f— the night away. When young Sammie, played by Miles Caton, burns down the barn with his savant-level musical genius while playing the best film song of the year, “I Lied to You,” he rips the roof off of reality.

The literal barn setting is immediately flooded with spirits and visions from the past and future—West African tribal dancers, 1920s swing kids, alongside modern-day breakdancers, freestylers, and everything in between. It’s a collapse of space and time where characters are suddenly woven into a timeline with their ancestors, their descendants, and the loves of their lives all at once: a blazing celebration of culture, endurance, and art. Yet, tragically and ironically, it also acts as the vampire dinner bell for the film’s catastrophic final act of blistering violence and revival. There is no better scene to hit screens this year, horror or otherwise.

The scene shatters a previously unseen fifth wall that stood invisible between screen and soul. As presented, a veil between generations of Black Americans falls dramatically aside like a heavy red velvet drape, allowing the past, present, and future to dance and breathe together through the supernatural power of music, culture, and movement.”

– Josh Korngut, Editorial Director

Dangerous Animals – Tucker’s Jive

“I expected to enjoy Dangerous Animals going in, but I had no idea I’d like it as much as I did. In fact, it ranks among my favorite horror films of 2025. The picture features a dynamite lead in Hassie Harrison. She hits all the right notes as a laid-back surfer who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. She’s a layered leading lady whose tough exterior masks her inner pain, making her a compelling, textured final girl. And that’s to say nothing of Jai Courtney, who absolutely steals the show as the shark-obsessed serial killer, Tucker.

Tucker is vicious, sadistic, arrogant, and utterly reprehensible. But I found myself inexplicably captivated while watching his iconic dance moment. The way he struts around in an open robe in all his hirsute glory, gyrating to Stevie Wright’s “Evie” with unwavering confidence and a seductive swagger, almost made me forget what a creep he is. It was a little confusing to go from a place of utter repulsion toward Tucker to feeling magnetically drawn into his orbit. But what can I say? He puts on a good show. And it’s one I won’t soon forget.”

– Tyler Doupe, Associate Editor

Presence – Ending

“Spoilers to follow. Presence both is and isn’t a ghost story. This isn’t me invalidating genre classification; Steven Soderbergh’s technical prowess instead invites the audience to witness a fractured family crumble even further from the POV of an unknown spirit. By the film’s end, we know precisely who that presence was. Tyler (Eddy Maday), the cad of an older brother who ultimately stepped up to save his sister from a predator. That resulted in his death as he fell from a second-story window, taking his sister’s attacker with him.

Beginning to end, end to beginning—Tyler was there all along. The temporal distortions can be disorienting, but they culminate in the year’s most gut-wrenching horror moment. Lucy Liu, as the film ends, stares into Chekov’s mirror. Earlier, it was shared that mirrors are often gateways to worlds beyond. We never see what she sees (though it’s presumably Tyler), though Liu’s absolute breakdown is so startling, so upsetting, it’ll haunt me forever, much like the titular presence itself.”

– Chad Collins, Associate Editor

The Ugly Stepsister – The Tapeworm

“I’ve been watching horror movies since I was three (no, really). I’ve written essays for Blu-ray releases of some of the nastiest New French Extremity films there are. I wouldn’t say I have an iron stomach, but it’s no squishy pushover, either. That’s why I must hand it to writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt for putting to screen the most nauseating moment in the genre that I saw all year…with her debut feature, no less.

If you’ve seen The Ugly Stepsister, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The body-horror twist on Cinderella follows “evil” stepsister Elvira (Lea Myren), trapped in a patriarchal society where beauty is everything. Existing in a world that holds her to impossible standards, the young woman resorts to grisly methods to meet them. The film features numerous cringeworthy scenes of body modification, yet the most stomach-churning comes in the form of the tapeworm Elvira swallows to make herself thin. That ultimately leads to a final encounter with said worm that nearly had me reaching for the barf bag.

I’m listing this moment here not just because it’s gross or frightening, but because it so effectively captures the pain and torment of women told by men that they’re not good enough. Not pretty enough. Not thin enough. Not tall enough or short enough. That they’re goddamned feet aren’t even the right size. It’s the ultimate reflection of the horror and frustration with the above, as well as a cathartic purging of that nonsense. The scene simultaneously demonstrates outright terror while reminding women of all ages that they are good enough, and screw anyone else who says differently.”

– Matt Konopka, Staff Writer

Weapons – Runners

“Even before I saw Weapons, that run had me in its grip. There are more frightening things in Zach Cregger’s sophomore directorial effort, to be sure, but something about that weird, arms-out run you see from all the children, and then some of the adults, still lives in the darkest part of my brain.

Why is it so striking? I think it has something to do with the freedom the movement implies, set against the absolute lack of freedom those kids are running toward. When you see a child running with their arms out in the daytime, they’re free, they’re flying, living their best life. When you see a child doing the exact same run out their front door, on a dim doorbell camera video, in the dead of night, something else entirely happens. There’s no freedom in it, no life. Instead, these kids have become part of a larger machine, cogs in a bigger game, losing not just control but that sense of boundless flight that comes from, well, just being a normal kid. The effect is instantly disarming, and the perfect visual signifier of the kind of loss-of-control lurking at the heart of Weapons. I’ll be thinking about it for years.”

– Matthew Jackson, Staff Writer

Together – Stalled Out

“I’m obsessed with movies about dysfunctional relationships or relationships in crisis, which is why my Letterboxd Favorites all feature stories about couples who would either benefit from a break, couples counseling, or finding a third. Together is a fun, nasty little movie about a codependent couple who move to the countryside for a new beginning, only to encounter something that might fuse them together forever. When people talk about Together, they tend to speak around the nastiest scene in the film, which, surprisingly, isn’t the one involving a mechanical saw or the one where they crawl into each other’s skin. It’s the bathroom stall scene.

When Tim (James Franco) realizes he can’t…uh…detach from Milie (Allison Brie) after a passionate hook-up in a bathroom stall (at the school where she teaches, no less!), I remember the whole theater gasping in unison. This scene is physically painful to watch, but it’s made even more distressing by the fact that one of Millie’s students might have caught them. It’s the kind of scene that makes you squirm in your seat. And think of swearing off sex, at least for a little while.”

– Ashliene McMenamy, Staff Writer

Bring Her Back – Kitchen Scene

“Bring Her Back holds a special place in the 2025 slate of releases. Even outside of the gore whore community, it managed to garner broad cinephile appeal — all while being an oozy, inflamed freakshow.

As if being in foster care isn’t tough enough, siblings Andy and Piper get a foster mom who is both cloyingly sweet (to Piper) and unflinchingly brusque (to Andy). They also have to live with Oliver, a silent, birdlike boy who inspires both empathy and dread. When it comes to visceral moments in this film from the Philippou brothers, take your pick. A standout is when Andy felt sorry for the little guy and offered him a chunk of cantaloupe on a knife. He turns his back for a second and, next thing he knows, Oliver is shoving the blade into his mouth. OK, that’s bad, but we can move past this, right?

But the one moment I’ll truly never get over is when Oliver, fully possessed by the impatient demon summoned to bring the foster mom’s dead daughter back, decides to munch on the damn kitchen table. It’s the calm determination with which he presses his mouth to the glossy grains of wood, as if it’s nothing more than after-school pizza or a particularly large sandwich, and successfully takes a bite. If you’re like me and you suffer from dental dreams, the sight of Oliver’s teeth tumbling out of his mouth like Chiclets is burned into your brain (and gums) forever.”

– Caroline Colvin, Staff Writer

Let Us Know Yours

What do you think? What was your favorite horror movie moment of 2025? Which scene is going to haunt you forever? Connect with any of us on social media to share your thoughts, and be certain to follow Dread Central for more year-end coverage coming your way!

Tags: 2025 horror End of year Featured Post

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