Fall 2025 Horror Movie Preview: All the movies we can’t wait to see!

The spooky season is once again upon us and there is still plenty of horror left for us to watch as this year wraps up. So genre fans can start planning what they’re going to see over the next few months, we have put together a Fall 2025 Horror Movie Preview, which can be seen below. Sure, it starts a little earlier than the official beginning of fall, but bear with us. And, of course, there will be more titles announced and more release dates revealed as time goes on, and we’ll update this article when that happens. For now, here’s what we have:

THE TOXIC AVENGER – Theatrical, August 29

Fans have been waiting a long time to see writer/director Macon Blair’s remake of the Troma cult classic The Toxic Avenger (watch it HERE), which wrapped filming way back in 2021 and unveiled a teaser trailer near the end of 2023, around the time it had its world premiere screening – but we won’t have to wait much longer. At the start of the year, it was announced that Cineverse had acquired the distribution rights with the intention of giving the film a wide unrated release on August 29th. Peter Dinklage plays Winston Gooze, the janitor who becomes the titular hideously deformed mutant hero. JoBlo’s own Mike Conway recently had the chance to see the film and gave it an 8/10 review that can be read HERE. Conway said, “For fans of the original, for gorehounds, and for anyone who’s ever shouted ‘they don’t make movies like they used to’—look no further. This is the return of a cult icon in the most gloriously disgusting way possible.“

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES – Theatrical, September 5

Michael Chaves, who previously directed The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II, and the Conjuring Universe-adjacent The Curse of La Llorona, is at the helm of The Conjuring: Last Rites, working from a screenplay written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who also wrote The Conjuring 2 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. James Wan, the director of the first two films, remains on board as producer. Franchise stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise the roles of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Wilson and are joined in the cast by Ben Hardy and Mia Tomlinson for what is meant to be the final Conjuring movie. The story is set in 1986, five years after the events of The Devil Made Me Do It. The Warrens have retired from the exorcist business, largely due to Ed’s heart attack, the one sustained during the demonic happenings of the third film. They still hit the university circuit, presenting talks at various schools, but even those opportunities are drying up. Of course, certain events force them back into the fold one last time.

THE LONG WALK – Theatrical, September 12

An adaptation of the Stephen King / Richard Bachman novel The Long Walk has been trudging through development hell for decades. At one point, the rights were in the hands of Frank Darabont, who made the King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Then the rights passed over to New Line Cinema, where Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal was hired to direct the film from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, whose credits include the two most recent Scream movies. While doing the press rounds for his film The Last Voyage of the Demeter last year, Øvredal revealed that he was no longer involved with The Long Walk, and said not making that movie is one of the big regrets of his life. Strange Darling writer JT Mollner has written the screenplay for the version of The Long Walk that has been made with Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) at the helm. The novel is set in a future dystopian America ruled over by a militaristic dictator, and the titular event is an annual contest in which 100 teenagers must keep a steady pace of at least four miles an hour under strict rules until only one of them is left alive.

RABBIT TRAP – Theatrical, September 12

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch this movie at Sundance earlier this year and gave it a 7/10 review that can be read HERE. Starring Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire, Monkey Man, and The Green Knight, this is the latest horror film from Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah’s production company SpectreVision, and happens to mark the feature directorial debut of Bryn Chainey. Set in 1973, Rabbit Trap charts the story of married musicians Daphne and Darcy Davenport, who have relocated from London to an isolated cabin in Wales in order to complete their new record. When they accidentally make a field recording of a mystical sound never before heard by human ears, a strange child enters their lives who gradually untethers them from reality, and the couple soon find themselves caught between the ancient spirits of the natural world and the lives they once knew. 

THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT – Theatrical, September 12

Corey Hawkins plays Charles Blakey, a man living in the African American neighborhood of Sag Harbor, who is out of work, out of luck and on the verge of foreclosure on his ancestral home. A knock on the door from a mysterious white businessman, Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), brings a bizarre and lucrative proposition; rent his dusty stand-up basement out and receive enough money to clear his debts for good. Once Charles accepts, he finds himself led down a terrifying path that confronts his family’s ghosts and locks the men in a terrifying puzzle, at the heart of it race, the source of their traumas, and the root of all evil. As mentioned there, Dafoe is the title character. Diop’s character is Narciss Gully, a local academic and antiques expert who is passionate about having African American histories told – particularly the history of African American women. When she meets Charles Blakey and is introduced to what he pulls out of his basement, she realizes his family history may be what she’s always been looking for. The feature debut of writer/director Nadia Latif, this film is based on the Walter Mosley novel of the same name (pick up a copy HERE) and has our attention because “creepy Willem Dafoe in the basement” sounds like the makings of a great thriller.

HIM – Theatrical, September 19

Justin Tipping directed Him, a Jordan Peele production that was formerly known as GOAT, with lead roles going to Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, and Julia Fox. Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie’s script centers on a promising young athlete who is invited to train with a team’s retiring star. How exactly horror enters the picture is being kept under wraps. ComicBook.com has heard that the script centers on a rookie QB who goes to train with a retiring star QB who may hold a secret about how he has played so long at such a high level. So it seems the GOAT has been using unusual methods to achieve his success, and finding out about them are going to cause the rookie some trouble. Wayans plays the greatest-of-all-time athlete, while Withers plays the promising young athlete/rookie QB.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 – Theatrical, September 26

Director Renny Harlin shot an entire trilogy of Strangers movies at the same time, and while there was a point when it looked like Lionsgate might be releasing all three of the movies within 2024, that idea was pushed aside. The Strangers: Chapter 1 (read our review HERE) reached theatres back in May, and the second isn’t coming along until this September. Here’s hoping it won’t be another sixteen month wait for the third one. Madelaine Petsch has the lead role in this trilogy and is joined in the cast of the films by Froy Gutierrez, Rachel Shenton, Gabriel Basso, and Ema Horvath. The Strangers: Chapter 1 centered on Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expanding the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels. Harlin has said The Strangers: Chapter 1 “is close to the original movie in its set-up of a young couple in an isolated environment in a house and a home invasion happening for random reasons.” Then Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?“

GOOD BOY – Theatrical, October 3

Directed by Ben Leonberg, who wrote the screenplay with Alex Cannon, Good Boy stars Leonberg’s own dog, Indy, who finds himself on a new adventure with his human owner — and best friend — Todd, leaving city life for a long-vacant family home in the country. From the start, two things are abundantly clear: Indy is wary of the creepy old house, and his affection for Todd is unwavering. Indy’s new world is immediately filled with unease: he senses invisible presences, follows phantom tracks, receives chilling warnings from a ghostly dog, and is haunted by glimpses of the previous resident’s gruesome demise. When a dark influence begins to grip Todd, Indy must fight a malevolence intent on pulling him into the afterlife. Yep, it’s a haunted house story with a unique approach: it’s told from the perspective of the family dog! That instantly makes it much more appealing than the average haunted house movie.

BONE LAKE – Theatrical, October 3

Because how could an “erotic horror thriller” with the word “bone” in its title not have our attention? A couple’s romantic vacation at a secluded lakeside estate is upended when they are forced to share the mansion with a mysterious and attractive couple. In this darkly hilarious and seductive horror story, a dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, bringing terrifying secrets to light and triggering a bloody battle for survival. Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan, the film stars Maddie Hasson, who was great in James Wan’s Malignant and on the too-short-lived YouTube Red series Impulse, alongside Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita, Eliane Reis and Clayton Spencer. 

SHELBY OAKS – Theatrical, October 3

This one is getting a lot of attention because it happens to be directed by Chris Stuckmann, a movie critic and author with a channel on YouTube that has over 2 million subscribers. Three years ago, the project became the most-funded horror film project in Kickstarter history, with its crowdfunding campaign pulling in over $1 million. (The initial goal was $250,000.) Filming took place in the Cleveland, Ohio area back in 2022, genre regular Mike Flanagan came on board as an executive producer last year, and Neon not only picked up the distribution rights, they also dropped more money into the budget for reshoots that included adding more “gore and violence.” Combining documentary, found footage, and traditional film styles, Shelby Oaks centers on Mia’s frantic search for her sister Riley, after Riley ominously disappeared in the last tape of a group of paranormal investigators called the Paranormal Paranoids. As Mia’s obsession grows, she begins to suspect that the imaginary demon from Riley’s childhood may have been real. The project has been inspired by, and accompanied by, a long-lead online marketing campaign around the subject. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch the movie a while back and gave it a 5/10 review, concluding, “…it’s far from the brilliant debut one might expect, given that Neon is giving it a major release it doesn’t really deserve…” But he saw the movie before the reshoots happened, so maybe those have helped it out.

BEAST OF WAR – Theatrical and VOD, October 10

A warship carries hundreds of Australian soldiers across the Timor Sea to the frontline of WW2. Suddenly, Japanese fighter jets scream out of the sky, and within minutes the ocean becomes a hell of steel, fire, oil, and blood. With the vessel destroyed, a handful of soldiers build a makeshift raft from floating debris as they cling to their lives. Tensions run high between the hot-headed and terrified young men, as they band together in an effort to survive. But their biggest battle is yet to come. In the dark below, a great white shark hunts in the wreckage and is drawn to the smell of fresh blood in the water. From Wyrmwood Road of the Dead, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, and Sting director Kiah Roache-Turner comes a shark thriller that was loosely based on actual historical events and was made with the intention of being “unashamedly fun.”

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S FRANKENSTEIN – Theatrical, October 17 / Netflix, November 7

Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited passion project, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale Frankenstein. The film might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein. Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, and Charles Dance star, with Ralph Ineson showing up for a pivotal cameo. At one point, Andrew Garfield was in the cast, but he had to drop out and was replaced by Elordi… and the role Garfield passed over to Elordi was the Monster.

BLACK PHONE 2 – Theatrical, October 17

Back in 2021, Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and director Scott Derrickson brought us an adaptation of the Joe Hill short story The Black Phone (check out our review HERE) that appeared to tell a complete story that would stand on its own… but the film was made on a budget of around $16 million and earned over $160 million at the global box office. So in 2025, we’re getting a sequel, with Derrickson back at the helm. Based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone centered on Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney. If you’d like to read the short story that The Black Phone is based on, it can be found in Hill’s collection 20th Century Ghosts, which you can buy HERE. Derrickson wrote the screenplay for the first film with C. Robert Cargill, and Derrickson and Cargill have written the screenplay for Black Phone 2 as well. The sequel sees the return of Mason Thames as Finney Shaw, Madeleine McGraw as Finney’s sister Gwen, Jeremy Davies as their dad Terrence, and Miguel Mora as Robin, a friend of Finney’s who was killed in the first movie. Ethan Hawke reprises the role of the child-killer known as The Grabber, who has gained supernatural abilities in the afterlife. New additions to the cast are Demián Bichir, Anna Lore, and Arianna Rivas.

PREDATOR: BADLANDS – Theatrical, November 7th

With the release of the animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers, Prey director Dan Trachtenberg became the first filmmaker to take the helm of two entries in the Predator franchise – and he already has a third one on the way! Unless Trachtenberg’s other two Predator movies, this one will get theatrical play. According to a casting call, Predator: Badlands has the following synopsis: A groundbreaking film in which one of the two main storylines delves into the intricate bond of two very different sisters, their familial ties are put to the ultimate test as they pursue divergent paths and missions. We’ve previously heard that the story is set sometime in the future. The casting call was searching for a lead actress who could take on the dual role of twin sisters Thia and Tessa: This casting is for a dual character, and describes both characters. Character identifies as female or non-binary, open ethnicity, mid 20s – mid 40s. Thia has spent most of her life in a laboratory and is now embarking on her first big adventure in the world. She is incredibly smart, witty, enthusiastic, and unflappable. She has an innate disregard for danger, not because she’s fearless, but simply because she’s naive. Strong comedy chops required. // The other sister, Tessa, has a militant intensity when it comes to achieving her family’s goals and mission objectives. She will not let anything get in her way, not even her twin sister. These roles are being played by Elle Fanning. Speaking with Empire, Trachtenberg revealed, “The creature is front and center, leading the charge. He’s still badass, but there’s something there that touches you emotionally, too. Creating a character you connect with, but are also super-intimidated by, has been challenging. But exciting.” The idea for Predator: Badlands came from Trachtenberg’s desire to “find another essential piece of cinema that does what Prey did spiritually — pushing the franchise’s boundaries, letting us root for a hero we rarely get to root for — but in a different way. And that transformed into this big idea of rooting for the Predator.“

THE RUNNING MAN – Theatrical, November 14

Yes, the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man was awesome – but it was almost nothing like the source material, a novel written by Stephen King under his Richard Bachman pen name. So we’re looking forward to seeing what director Edgar Wright will do with his new, more faithful adaptation (written with Michael Bacall) of the novel. The film stars Glen Powell, Katy O’Brian, Daniel Ezra, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, William H. Macy, and more. King’s novel has the following description: It was the ultimate death game in a nightmare future America. The year is 2025 and reality TV has grown to the point where people are willing to wager their lives for a chance at a billion-dollar jackpot. Ben Richards is desperate – he needs money to treat his daughter’s illness. His last chance is entering a game show called The Running Man where the goal is to avoid capture by Hunters who are employed to kill him. Surviving this month-long chase is another issue when everyone else on the planet is watching – and willing to turn him in for the reward.

KEEPER – Theatrical, November 14

Osgood Perkins directs Keeper from a script by Nick Lepard (Dangerous Animals), with Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) and Rossif Sutherland (Possessor) in starring roles. The story follows a couple as they escape for a romantic anniversary weekend at a secluded cabin. When Malcolm (Sutherland) suddenly returns to the city, Liz (Maslany) finds herself isolated and in the presence of an unspeakable evil that unveils the cabin’s horrifying secrets. It’s from the director of The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs, and The Monkey, so yeah, we’ll be paying close attention to this one.

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S 2 – Theatrical, December 5

The video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s (read our review HERE) quickly became Blumhouse Productions’ highest-grossing movie when it reached theatres and the Peacock streaming service back in October, surpassing the likes of Split, The Invisible Man, The Black Phone, M3GAN, the recent Halloween sequel trilogy, and the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge franchises with its haul of $295 million. So, yeah, it’s sequel time. The first film followed a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through. Stars Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, and Matthew Lillard are back for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and fans are speculating that killer animatronic characters called Toy Chica and Mangle might be in the sequel.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT – Theatrical, December 12

Writer/director Mike P. Nelson reimagines the classic Christmas slasher movie Silent Night, Deadly Night, with Rohan Campbell of Halloween Ends taking on the role of Billy Chapman, who dons a Santa Claus costume and goes on a killing spree in the film. Here’s the remake’s synopsis: A reimagining of the controversial 1984 cult horror classic – When Billy witnesses his parents’ grisly murder on Christmas Eve at the hands of Santa, it ignites a lifelong mission to spread holiday fear. Every Christmas, he dons the jolly red suit and delivers a blood-soaked massacre to feed his twisted sense of justice. This Christmas Eve, Billy wants to know: “Have you been naughty?”

And that’s our Fall 2025 Horror Preview… so far. What do you think of this fall’s line-up of horror movies? Which ones are you most looking forward to? Let us know by leaving a comment below.