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The most significant surprise the film industry has witnessed in 2025? The return of horror as a dominant force at the British cinemas.

As a category, it has remarkably outperformed earlier periods with a annual growth of 22% for the UK and Ireland film earnings: over £83 million this year, versus £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,” notes a cinema revenue expert.

The big hits of the year – a recent horror title (£11.4m), Sinners (£16.2 million), The Conjuring Last Rites (£14.98m) and the sequel to a classic (£15.54m) – have all hung about in the cinemas and in the audience's minds.

Even though much of the industry commentary highlights the standout quality of renowned filmmakers, their successes indicate something changing between audiences and the style.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Even if you don’t like horror this is a film you need to see,’” explains a film distribution executive.

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

But beyond creative value, the ongoing appeal of horror movies this year indicates they are giving cinemagoers something that’s much needed: therapeutic relief.

“Right now, there’s a lot of anger, fear and division that’s being reflected in cinema,” says 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,” remarks a noted author of classic monster stories.

In the context of a real-world news cycle featuring geopolitical strife, enforcement actions, extremist rises, and ecological disasters, supernatural beings and undead creatures strike a unique chord with filmg oers.

“I read somewhere that the success of vampire movies is linked to economically depressed times,” comments an performer from a recent horror hit.

“The concept reflects how economic systems can drain vitality from individuals.”

From film's inception, societal turmoil has shaped horror.

Experts highlight the boom of European artistic movements after the first world war and the chaotic atmosphere of the early Weimar Republic, with movies such as classic silent horror and the iconic vampire tale.

This was followed by the economic crisis of the 30s and iconic horror characters.

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

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

The boogeyman of migration inspired the just-premiered folk horror a recent film title.

Its writer-director elaborates: “My goal was to examine populist trends. For instance, nostalgic phrases promising a return to a 'better' era that excluded many.”

“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?’”

Perhaps, the present time of acclaimed, socially switched-on horror started with a clever critique released a year after a divisive leadership period.

It sparked a new wave of horror auteurs, including various prominent figures.

“Those years were remarkably vibrant,” comments a creator whose film about a violent prenatal entity was one of the era’s tentpole movies.

“In my view, it marked the start of a phase where filmmakers embraced wildly creative horror with artistic ambitions.”

This creator, now penning a fresh horror script, notes: “Over 10 years, audiences’ minds have been opening up to much more of that.”

Concurrently, there has been a reconsideration of the genre’s less celebrated output.

Recently, a independent theater opened in a major city, showing underground films such as The Greasy Strangler, a classic adaptation and the modern reinterpretation of Dr Caligari.

The fresh acclaim of this “gritty and loud” genre is, according to the venue creator, a straightforward answer to the formulaic productions produced at the box office.

“It’s a reaction to the sanitised product that’s coming out of Hollywood. You have a film scene that’s more tepid and more predictable. A lot of the mainstream films are very similar,” he states.

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

Fright flicks continue to disrupt conventions.

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

Besides the re-emergence of the mad scientist trope – with two adaptations of a well-known story on the horizon – he anticipates we will see horror films in the near future reacting to our current anxieties: about tech supremacy in the years ahead and “supernatural elements in political spheres”.

In the interim, a religious-themed scare film The Carpenter’s Son – which narrates the tale of Mary and Joseph’s struggles after the nativity, and includes well-known actors as the divine couple – is scheduled to debut in the coming months, and will definitely send a ripple through the Christian right in the America.</