The world finally appears to be recognizing everything the horror genre has to offer, from fantastic performances to clever cultural commentary.

Earlier this year, Demi Moore’s stylish body horror film, The Substance, earned the resurgent Hollywood star a Best Actress nod at the Academy Awards.

Meanwhile, the film itself was nominated for Best Picture, entering the movie into a tiny, exclusive club of just seven horror movies to ever receive nominations in the category. (The only horror film to ever actually win was The Silence of the Lambs in 1992.)

Plus, horror films Alien: Romulus, The Girl With the Needle, and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu also earned worthy nominations at the Oscars back in March, marking an exciting tide shift for horror movies receiving their long-overdue flowers — especially in the age of “elevated horror,” as divisive as the term is.

Still, these shifting cultural attitudes hardly means every horror flick is a winner. In fact, 2025 has proven otherwise with a string of disappointing, not-so-scary movies.

Some flopped spectacularly like a lifeless robotic doll at the box office; others were so boring or preposterous we had to force ourselves to finish them just to justify the pricey VOD rental fee. (Until Dawn, when I catch you ...) A few, like Popeye the Slayer Man, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare and Screamboat, were too schlocky and lowbrow to even put on the list.

The scariest thing of all, though? This list of 2025's worst horror movies is sure to get bigger by the end of the year.

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