2025 films of the year

It has been a bit of a year for me, and I haven't had the opportunity to see nearly as many new films as I'd have liked, let alone write up the ones I have seen. I've decided to run down through my top ten for the year, but there are plenty more films to catch that could shift the line-up, especially given the number of high-profile and acclaimed releases in late November and December. I may revisit this in another twelve months and see if it's changed. I'm going to appraoch these in order of lowest to highest rated, according to my own flawed opinions.

Honorable mention: Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)

Strictly speaking, Nosferatu is a 2024 film, but as it went on general release with only a week left of 2024, most of its run was in '25. A bleak and beautiful film, this updates the original Symphony of Horror into a vampiric epic. Lily-Rose Depp gives the star performance of a powerful cast, in a truly haunting production that's exquisitely realised. It loses momentum halfway and runs too long, and it's not nearly as strange as either the original or Eggers's best work, but it's still an exceptional film. If it had come out a week later it'd have sat at number three on this list. Full review here.

10) The Running Man (Edgar Wright)

I'm pretty sure this one wouldn't have made it into the top ten if I'd caught more films this year. This isn't a great film, but it is an entertaining one. The second film of the year based on a Stephen King novel with a title based on perambulation, The Running Man is the least stylish of all Wright's films, but still way more stylish than most action movies. The general consensus is that Glen Powell is miscast as the lead, and that's probably fair, but he's watchable enough to carry the adventure. There are occasional glimpses of Wright's unique style, and it's sure as hell better than the shitty 80s version starring Arnie. The film has a strong message against corporate greed and the rich's exploitation of the poor, but it's hard to swallow in a film that cost $110 million where the catering budget doubtless cost more than most people's annual salary.

9) Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg)

Amazingly, the second Predator film from Trachtenberg this year. Killer of Killers was better than I expected, but it was Badlands that I really enjoyed. We've had the popcorn movie approach with Predator before, with varying results, but Trachtenberg really has nailed three different takes on the concept in short order. This is Predator as a full-on comicbook-style action movie, with legions of CGI monsters. This should be crap, but it tremendously entertaining and surprisingly heartwarming film. Showing the film from the Predator's point of view was a bold move, but making him such a likeable goof makes the film. It's hard to say how much of Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi's performance actually makes it through the CGI, but let's give him the benefit. Elle Fanning's the star, though, as both Weyland-Yutani androids Thea and Tessa. Tying the film so heavily to the Alien series without actually including the monster works brilliantly, as well.

8) Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)

The third film in the Knives Out/Benoit Blanc series is not, sadly, the hoped for Muppet version, but a stylish and highly personal crime story from Johnson. Although he was raised as an Evangelical Protestant, he chose Catholicism for its potent imagery. It's just as appallingly hypocrytical an institution, after all. There's a potent story here about the conflict between the comfort that faith brings and the damage done by indoctrination, with excellent performances from Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and, of course, Daniel Craig. The rest of the cast don't get the chance to show how good they are, sadly, and the actual mystery at the heart of the story isn't original or confounding enough to live up to the rest of it. Compels me, though.

7) 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)

The follow-up that 28 Days Later deserved, with Boyle returning to the post-apocalyptic Britain he created, (frustratingly only 22 years later). The exploration of how society has adapted to a world infected by the Rage, both the isolated community on Lindisfarne, and to a lesser extent, the rest of Europe on the other side of the quarantine line. I can't quite decide who gives the best performance: 14-year-old Alfie Williams as the courageous young Spike, who's never known any other world but this; or Jodie Comer as his dying, mentally-distressed mother Isla. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is also very good as dad Jamie, pushed to understandable extremes by the stresses of his life, as is the great Ralph Fiennes as the isolated Dr. Kelson. Also fascinating is gradual revelation that the infected remain, if not intelligent in a human sense, then clearly sentient, with the sport-like hunting of them even more disturbing as a result. Judging by the final scene, the second part, The Bone Temple, is going to be bizarre.

6) The Penguin Lessons (Peter Cattaneo)

Although this premiered in 2024, it didn't go on general release until '25, so it definitely belongs on this list. Based on the memoir of Tom Michell, this is the story of how he arrives to teach English in a school in Argentina, in the middle of the 1976 military junta. Steve Coogan is funny, sympathetic, and surprisingly hot as Michell, who ends up rescuing a penguin from an oil slick, in a desperate attempt to get laid on a break in Uruguay. Adopting the penguin - Juan Salvador - and smuggling him into the school, he is able to inspire his students and find some purpose, but the military's abuse of power soon comes out of the background and begins to impact him and those he has become close to. The comedy is gentle, but not the drama. Disturbingly more topical each day in its exploration of life under fascism, this is an undersung success.

5) Superman (James Gunn)

Gunn's relaunch of the Superman movie franchise and reboot of the DC Universe is quite unlike any Superman film that's come before, and yet is the most satisfying film for the character since Superman II over forty years ago. This doesn't feel much like a Superman film, but it does feel like a Superman comic, which makes a huge difference. Skipping the origin story is standard now, but this feels deep into its universe even as a first instalment. Clark is just one of many powerful beings working as heroes, yet stands apart from the metahumans, something that works far better than I would ever have thought. Having him and Lois already deeply in love and managing their relationship is another plus. Yes, this takes a few hints from the CW but in a vastly more cinematic way. Clark is the giant Boy Scout he always truly was, with David Corenswet giving a wonderful performance, while Rachel Brosnahan is actually perfect as Lois. Nicholas Hoult is remarkable as Lex Luthor, and a special shout-out goes to Edi Gathegi for stealing his every scene as Mr. Terrific. Amazingly, this film manages to both be a bold statement on today's genocide-steeped world, while still being a wholesome live-action cartoon featuring Krypto the Superdog.

4) Thunderbolts* (Jake Schreier)

The second of three MCU films out this year, and while Brave New World was better than I expected, and Fantastic Four: First Steps was decent if unremarkable, Thunderbolts* was a genuine surprise. I did not expect Marvel's answer to The Suicide Squad to be a powerful examination of depression and mental illness. Florence Pugh is the standout as Yelena Belova, dealing with the unbelievable trauma of death and resurrection as well as a truly horrific upbringing. While superhero films can get too serious for their own good sometimes dealing with trauma in a realistic way, in the right setting it works. It's an ensemble by its nature, but the other dominant performance is Lewis Pullman as Bob Reynolds, whose journey through mental illness is powerfully expressed through the allegory of his good and evil superhuman personae. It'll be interesting to see how Bob/Sentry will be used in the future, being essentially Marvel's deliberate Superman ripoff; based on Thunderbolts* alone, his character is one of the best things introduced to the MCU in a good while. 

3) Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

Vampire films are such well-trodden ground, it's incredibly refreshing when one as original and unique as Sinners appears. It's unsurprising that Coogler took some inspiration from From Dusk Till Dawn, but this is far and away the superior work in every way. The direction, music and visual effects are impeccable throughout, but what sets Sinners apart from so many vamp-fests is that it's actually about something. The indelibly racist history of America, the ongoing abuse of Black people and other minorities in the West, the cultural and binding power of music, the strengths and weaknesses of Christian belief, the kinship between Black and Irish... this is a dense film worthy of serious analysis. Michael B. Jordan is predictably excellent as gangster twins Smoke and Stack, with Hailee Steinfeld and Miles Caton (the latter, astonishingly, in his film debut) also giving powerful performances. The fact that half the costuming and period material was bought from Disney after Marvel stopped production on Blade is the icing on the cake. This is how you make a modern vampire film when you know what you're doing.

2) Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)

The film del Toro was surely born to make, the latest adaptation of Frankenstein blows so many others out of the water. While far from being a faithful interpretation, del Toro's script captures much of the spirit of Shelley's novel, with a strong focus on Frankenstein's selfishness and abandonment of his responsbilities. Oscar Isaac, one of today's great character actors, gives a riveting performance as Frankenstein, with able support from Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. However, the real star of the film is Jacob Elordi as the Creature, giving a nuanced and powerful performance that is both deeply sympathetic and frequently terrifying. Del Toro remembers the oft-forgotten detail that the Creature was intended as a perfect example of human form, with the design and Elordi's performance elevating the monster to a thing of twisted beauty. Achingly sad in places and quite beautiful throughout, in its own gruesome way, this makes a perfect companion piece for Nosferatu as classic horror bookends for the year. It deserves a proper theatrical release, but at least having it on Netflix means plenty of people will watch it.

1) The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence)

In October I said this would be my film of the year, and I stand by it. I'll also likely never watch it again. The other Stephen King adaptation in this list, The Long Walk shares some notable themes with The Running Man, each story essentially being about the way the powerful exploit the masses through scraps of generosity, the promise of opportunity, and ever more twisted entertainment. It's a far more serious, brutal and emotionally honest story, though. Cooper Hoffman gives a strong lead performance as Ray, but it's David Jonsson, rapidly becoming my one of my favourite young actors, who is the heart of the film as Ray's friend Pete. A brutal production in both filming and presentation, The Long Walk is harrowing but a must-see. Full review here.

Hallowe'en at Television Heaven

It's spooky season, so it's time to review some classic chillers (because the rest of the year I don't watch monsters and ghosts and things, not at all).

Pop along to Television Heaven for new reviews on the ingenious horror spoof Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, the most terrifying part of which is that it's somehow now twenty years old; the Frankensteinian hammy horror of 1970s Doctor Who serial The Brain of Morbius; and, the Hammer movie Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth), featuring perhaps the very best version of the good Professor. 

Plus, Mark Turner-Box reviews the 1979 miniseries of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, while Malcolm Alexander examines the more recent horror series The Enfield Haunting.

Enjoy an array of Martians, monsters, vampires, ghosts, apemen and invasive broccoli.

REVIEW: Renfield

 (I'm not going to get to see many films in the old kinematic theatre this year, what with the baby and all, so when I do get to see one I'm going to try to review it, at least within the first month of seeing it.)

The first thing to say is that Renfield is trash. Absolute schlock, orgy of gore trash. It's basically a Troma film, but with a budget. It's absurd, over-the-top, and almost offensively gruesome. Pure gornography.

This is, of course, entirely the point. Had he been able to get away with it, you can bet Tod Browning would have made his Dracula more graphic. Not as graphic as this, obviously, but he pushed the envelope as much as he could in 1931. I'm still baffled by the ratings system these days; this is the goriest film I've seen in a while and it's only a 15 certificate. That's the nature of it, though. Although this is a sequel to the 1931 Dracula, it's also a horror film designed for the sensibilities of an audience watching almost a century later. Plus, it's an outright comedy (unlike the 1931 film, which, although inarguably a hugely important production in cinema history, was often inadvertently laughable). The gore and violence reach levels that are so utterly over-the-top that they become cartoonishly ridiculous.

The two Nicks, Hoult and Cage, are perfectly cast as Renfield and Dracula respectively. Explicitly the same versions of the characters played by Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi in 1931, thanks to some beautifully reacreated and digitally altered scenes from the original, they don't play them in the same way. After all, this would be hard to make work in 2023. Hoult has the harder job, making the insane Renfield of the original a three-dimensional character who we can believe as a hero, and he does an excellent job. It's Cage who steals the show, as he always does, with a performance that I can best describe as Nic Cage playing Mike Myers playing Bela Lugosi playing Dracula. He's a perfect balance of true horror and uninhibited camp.

Awkwafina is great as Rebecca, the one honest cop in New Orleans. (This film is savagely anti-cop; the entire NOPD/PDNO is corrupt except her, working for the mob. Apparently, it really is one of the worst police forces in America, which is saying something.) She plays the same character she generally plays, but that makes for a great foil for the uptight, Victorian Renfield. There's a pseudo-romantic storyline there as well, which doesn't really come off. They don't have the right chemistry. The odd couple crime-fighting partnership angle works better. 

Having Dracula team up with the most brutal crime family in New Orleans is a weird idea that works remarkably well, largely thanks to the classy performance of Shohreh Aghdashloo as the family's terrifying matriarch, someone who can genuinely stand up to the Count as an equal. They both have their stooges, with Ben "Jean-Ralphio" Schwartz giving a great turn as her perpetually out-of-depth son Tedward. 

The surprising part is how well the heavily-trailed angle of the support group works. Positioning Renfield's servitude to Dracula as an abusive relationship with an uneven power dynamic. The support group scenes are some of the funniest and most affecting of the film, with some great performances by Brandon Scott Jones (as the group leader) and the underutilised Jenna Kanell and Bess Rous. Renfield's taking ownership of his life is the spine of the film, and is the smartest element of what is, ultimately, a very stupid rip-em-up.

I disagree with critics who are calling this a one-joke film. It's at least a three-joke film, but it's true that it would wear thin at full length, which is presumably why it clocks in at a, for today, very short runtime of 93 minutes. Having repeatedly attempted to launch a Monsterverse of movies, Universal have finally allowed writers and directors to do their own thing with their properties. Renfield is a very modern take on Dracula, but still works as part of the same universe as the monochrome oldie. It works as its own thing while also celebrating the long and storied past of these characters, which is exactly the approach this studio should be taking.

Spooky Season

This October and into early November I cranked up the spookiness and wrote a bunch of reviews and a little fiction to celebrate Hallowe'en and the drawing in of the winter nights.

I've submitted a new, very short story to Vocal's Foggy Waters competition. You can read "Ginny" here. I also reposted my old story "Don't Drink the Water" as part of the contest since it coincidentally fit the criteria. 

Review-wise, I've written a bunch of new pieces for Television Heaven. As well as my regular installment of The X-Files (now onto the underrated eighth season) I've got Nigel Kneale's Beasts, What We Do in the Shadows (already a little out-of-date since season three has just been released in the UK) and children's classic The Trap Door. Plus we have two vampiric 1980s Doctor Who serials, State of Decay and The Curse of Fenric.

Please go an check them out, and I hope you enjoy. Spooky season isn't over, of course, as the new Ghostbusters film is out very soon and this has led to a surge in psychokinetic activity, so look out for more 'busters stuff soon too. Plus more Buffy, Doctor Who and a little bit of Trek.

WHO REVIEW: All Flesh is Grass (Time Lord Victorious)

Well, this is the big one. It's the epicentre of the Time Lord Victorious storyline, the return to full length prose by the Eighth Doctor, the unprecedented team-up of the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors and a right royal monster mash to boot.

In the the cliffhanging final scene of The Knight, the Fool and the Dead, the Tenth Doctor, beginning his crusade against the Kotturuh and death itself, is confronted by the Eighth Doctor on a Dalek warship, and the Ninth Doctor on a vampire coffin-ship. This ties in with the DWM comic strip and with the Big Finish audios, the latter of which I haven't got round to yet, but it's all easily pieced together with the brief exposition from the Eighth Doctor and Brian the Ood. You could enjoy this plenty as a prose-only event, but grabbing the other formats builds a bigger picture. I'm less clear from the story here how the Tenth Doctor comics and the Dalek cartoon fit in, but I think they're knock-on effects of the Tenth Doctor's disastrous alteration of history here, which has brought his earlier selves back to fight him.

Una McCormack is one of the most prolific modern Who writers. With this novel, she's written for eight incarnations of the Doctor, I think (plus a ton of Star Trek novels and some Blake's 7 material). She gets the Doctor down to a tee, notably the differences and similarities between his incarnations. It's fun having Eight, Nine and Ten together since, while being successive (well, almost) they have wildly different ways of approaching things. The Eighth Doctor here is still fundamentally optimistic but sarcastic as hell, the Ninth Doctor is tending his war wounds and the Tenth is so fundamentally full of himself he knows he's his own worst enemy. I mean, he's literally his own worst enemy in this one, but you know what I'm saying. Yet they also work so brilliantly together. It isn't long before Ten stands down and the three Doctors try to work out a way to get out of this mess without making things worse (and just possibly making things better), and they work tremendously well as a team.

There's a lot of colour in this novel. The Ninth Doctor gets a short-term companion in the form of Ikalla, a vampiress who develops considerably throughout the novel (or perhaps the Doctor just learns to see her differently). Eight doesn't have a companion really, but is accompanied for a good portion by Brian, and also Hector, a spider plant (so that's where he came from! Monstrus Beauty now makes perfect sense). He has some great interplay with the Daleks, particularly the Prime Strategist who's become such a persistent character in Time Lord Victorious. Ten saddles himself with some galactic mercenaries but can't help feeling sorry for them and overpaying. It's like he's trying to prove he's the big bad God of Time but can't help feeling a bit bad about it all the time.

It's a rattling good read, anyway. I mean, it's got a vampire Dalek in it. How can you not love that? 

Placement:

For the Eighth Doctor, uncertain. It's straight after the BF Time Lord Victorious audios, but while they and this show him in his Time War costume, he reads as much younger and more positive here. He's perturbed by the idea of a universe without Gallifrey, but not distraught, so this is surely before the first destruction of Gallifrey in The Ancestor Cell (most new series books would ignore this but given the cross-pollination of ranges going on here I can't believe McCormack didn't at least consider this). I could happily see this placed during the earlier EDAs, especially as he mentions Romana and K9, tying back to the Shada webcast, which is very early on. 

For the Ninth Doctor, in between the penultimate and closing scenes of the DWM comic strip Monstrous Beauty, while Rose is recovering. Some time between "The Long Game" and "The Empty Child," most likely (could be either side of "Father's Day").

For the Tenth Doctor, immediately after The Knight, the Fool and the Dead, itself immediately after "The Waters of Mars."

WHO REVIEW: Time Lord Victorious comics

The massive, multimedia crossover event Time Lord Victorious is already a bit of an overstretch for most of us fans. I'm torn between the excitement and intrigue of such an expansive storyline, and the money-grabbing enormity of it all. I never like the huge crossover events that Marvel an DC periodically do, where you have to buy three dozen comics to understand what's going on and it costs you a fortune. On the other hand, this is new ground for Doctor Who and it is my number one fandom, so the excitement is there. So I'm going to pick and choose and and where I can.

Some people are questioning why they're focusing on the Tenth Doctor and an event from his era of the series, and apart from the obvious popularity of the incarnation, there's the fact that the BBC can't make it appear, intentionally or otherwise, that any purchase is necessary to follow one of their broadcasts. So tying into the current series with the Thirteenth Doctor is a no-go. Even then, she's not entirely absent from the proceedings.

 DEFENDER OF THE DALEKS (Titan Comics: Time Lord Victorious)

The first of two comic strips opening the event is this, Titan's latest miniseries, released as two monthly issues. In it, the Tenth Doctor is pulled into a divergent timestream whereupon he is forced to aid the Daleks in their fight against a terrible power from the dawn of time. 

This is Jody Houser's story, following on from her work on the Thirteenth Doctor comics, where last we saw the Tenth Doctor involved in his own future (but I've not read that one yet). It's well-written enough, but for all the shouting about it, it's not all that much of an event. The Doctor reluctantly teaming up with the Daleks has been done before, and better, although at least the Dalek Prime Strategist, a new character, adds an air of sophistication. The Golden Emperor appears as well, harking back to the early "Dalek Chronicles" days of the tie-in comics. He's had a bit of an updated design but he's still iconic, and this sets up the Daleks! animated series nicely.

My main problem is the villains, the Hond. Although there's an interesting concept behind them - the sort of metaphysical idea that used to show up in the New Adventures days - design-wise they're just mud monsters, and that's really not all that interesting. Also, while I understand this crossover is designed to be expansive, we're already expecting another terrible threat from the Dark Times, the Kotturuh to threaten the universe. Do we need to introduce another? Still, there is a similarity with the Ancestor Cell, from the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel lie, which suggests the Hond as another potential identity of the Enemy. With Faction Paradox suddenly being mentioned in other prose stories lately, this might not be entirely trivial. 

Altogether, the adventure is fine, but underwhelming. Nice artwork by Roberta Ingranata.

MONSTROUS BEAUTY (DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE #556-558)

Doctor Who Magazine jumps in on Time Lord Victorious with a three-part comic story featuring the Ninth Doctor. DWM has skipped the comic strip for a few months to save money - the impact of COVID on sales - and makes an event out of bringing it back. We haven't had a past Doctor comic in DWM since the nineties, I believe, and while it's back to business with the Thirteenth Doctor next month, this does make it rather stand out. Like Defender of the Daleks, this features a threat from the Dark Times, but this is something we know and expect. Nine and Rose find themselves back at the dawn of time in the middle of the Eternal Wars, when the Time Lords fought the Vampires. 

It's a clever way of having the Ninth Doctor meet the Time Lords - although according to this, it's so early in their history that it's before they were time travellers. They're the Space Lords of Gallifrey, led by an angry female general who we learn is an early incarnation of Rassilon. It seems that every Time Lord must have a new regeneration with a different ethnicity or gender these days - and I'm all for it. Better than all those endless old white blokes in big hats.

I'd had an idea to write about a Vampire ship years, ago, and never used it, but in my mind it was something organic and far more like a perverted form of TARDIS. I love what Scott Gray and John Ross have done though - flying castles and crypts! The vampires themselves are disappointingly traditional, with only a brief appearance of a Great Vampire storming through the black, but it works pretty well. I particularly like the use of Cucurbites - blood-drinking space weapons - that first appeared back in the Eighth Doctor comic "Tooth and Claw." (The story also reference the episode "Tooth and Claw," just to mix things up.)

It's a pretty solid adventure with some vampire tropes being exercised, but it's the glimpse of the ancient Gallifreyans that's the most interesting. 

Victorian Nightmares

From late to 2019 to the beginning of 2020, the BBC aired three high budget, prestige television adaptations of classics of Victorian literature: A Christmas Carol, The War of the Worlds and Dracula. I had... mixed opinions on all three of them.

You can read my reviews of the Victorian telefantasies at Television Heaven by following these links:

The War of the Worlds

A Christmas Carol

Dracula