🔗 Share this article

The most significant shock the movie business has experienced in 2025? The comeback of horror as a dominant force at the UK film market.

As a genre, it has remarkably surpassed earlier periods with a 22% year-on-year increase for the UK and Irish box office: over £83 million this year, compared with £68 million the previous year.

“In the past year, not a single horror movie hit £10 million in UK or Irish theaters. Now, five have achieved that,” comments a box office editor.

The major successes of the year – Weapons (£11.4 million), another hit film (£16.2m), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98 million) and 28 Years Later (£15.54 million) – have all stayed in the theaters and in the public consciousness.

Even though much of the industry commentary highlights the unique excellence of certain directors, their triumphs indicate something evolving between audiences and the genre.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Even if you don’t like horror this is a film you need to see,’” states a content buying lead.

“Films like these play with genre and structure to create something completely different, and that speaks to an audience in a different way.”

But apart from aesthetic quality, the ongoing appeal of horror movies this year indicates they are giving moviegoers something that’s much needed: catharsis.

“Right now, there’s a lot of anger, fear and division that’s being reflected in cinema,” observes a film commentator.

“Horror films are great at playing into people’s anxieties, while at the same time exaggerating them. So you forget about your day-to-day anxieties and focus on the monster on the screen,” says a prominent scholar of classic monster stories.

Against a current events featuring conflict, immigration issues, political shifts, and climate concerns, supernatural beings and undead creatures resonate a bit differently with viewers.

“Some research suggests vampire film popularity correlates with financial downturns,” comments an actress from a popular scary movie.

“It’s the idea that capitalism sucks the life out of people.”

Since the early days of cinema, social unrest has influenced the genre.

Scholars point to the surge of early cinematic styles after the WWI and the turbulent times of the 1920s Europe, with features such as early expressionist works and a pioneering fright film.

Later occurred the 1930s depression and classic monster movies.

“Consider the Dracula narrative: an outsider from the east brings a corrupting influence that permeates society and challenges its heroes,” says a academic.

“So it reflects a lot of anxieties around immigration.”

The boogeyman of migration shaped the just-premiered supernatural tale a recent film title.

The filmmaker explains: “I wanted to explore ideas around the rise of populism. Firstly, slogans like ‘Let’s Make Britain Great Again’, that harken back to some fantasy time when things were ‘better’, but only if you were a rich white man.”

“Secondly, the idea that you could be with someone you know and then suddenly they blurt out something round the dinner table or in a Facebook post and you’re like, ‘Where did that come from?’”

Maybe, the modern period of celebrated, politically engaged fright cinema commenced with a clever critique launched a year after a polarizing administration.

It introduced a fresh generation of innovative filmmakers, including a range of talented artists.

“Those years were remarkably vibrant,” says a creator whose project about a murderous foetus was one of the era’s tentpole movies.

“I believe it initiated a trend toward eccentric, high-concept horror that aimed for artistic recognition.”

The same filmmaker, who is writing a new horror original, adds: “During the past decade, viewers have become more receptive to such innovative approaches.”

Simultaneously, there has been a reappraisal of the underrated horror works.

In recent months, a nicke l venue opened in London, showing underground films such as a quirky horror title, a classic adaptation and the modern reinterpretation of the expressionist icon.

The renewed interest of this “raw and chaotic” genre is, according to the venue creator, a direct reaction to the formulaic productions produced at the cinemas.

“It counters the polished content from big producers. The industry has become blander and more foreseeable. Numerous blockbusters share the same traits,” he explains.

“Conversely, [such movies] appear raw. As if they emerged straight from the artist's mind, untouched by studio control.”

Horror films continue to upset the establishment.

“They have this strange ability to seem old fashioned and up to the minute, both at the same time,” observes an authority.

Besides the return of the mad scientist trope – with multiple versions of a classic novel on the horizon – he forecasts we will see horror films in the near future responding to our present fears: about artificial intelligence control in the near future and “monstrous metaphors in power structures”.

Meanwhile, “Jesus horror” The Carpenter’s Son – which depicts the events of biblical parent hardships after Jesus’s birth, and includes well-known actors as the sacred figures – is set for release in the coming months, and will certainly create waves through the faith-based groups in the America.</