Coming Soon… And These Pickings Are Getting SLIM

2025’s New Horror Movies – Part 3

Do I dare to approach the topic of upcoming horror movies in 2025 yet again?  Why, of course I do! There has to be a trailer that gets me excited enough to smash my money down for a ticket, aside of course from The Black Phone 2.  Last week I saw a lot of originality in the upcoming fare, but also some apprehension that will require more-word-of-mouth to generate excitement.  Let’s see if these offerings can change that!

Brute 1976

In case the title throws you off: no, Brute 1976 is NOT from 1976, but it is set in that year.  The story involves a crew showing up in a desolate settlement for a photo-shoot, only to discover that the abandoned town, Savage, has been colonized by a family of psychopaths determined to make sure the town lives up to its name.

The trailer gives off a vibe similar to films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes, but the psychopathic-mutant cannibals have been replaced with mask-wearing maniacs who prey upon the interlopers in what feels like typical slasher fodder.  Just don’t think about it all too hard and it could be fun.

 

My Verdict: It looks like it could be an entertaining watch, particularly with the 70’s nostalgia, but the self-aware angle gets pretty tedious and leans toward slasher comedy, which is pretty hit or miss.  I’m open to seeing it in theaters, but will certainly look for it on streaming if I miss it.

House of Abraham

What do you get when you mix a palliative care home with a cult?  Apparently, you get House of Abraham, a film starring Natasha Henstridge as an inquisitive woman seeking to end her pain, and Lin Shaye as a disciple of the aforementioned Abraham.

And just who is Abraham, this enigmatic man who seems to style himself a Messiah?  Are his motives really so altruistic?

The trailer strongly suggests that the people who enter Abraham’s home develop a cult-like adoration for him. Even so, he executes end-of-life decisions when he feels it’s appropriate, rather than when patients express readiness for their end.  In my book, that would make him a serial murderer, but you be the judge.

The association between cults and horror is well established; indeed I’d argue that long before films like Mandy, Midsommar or The Wicker Man, cults were essentially depicted in the original Dracula films.  And of course, with the chilling examples of real life cults, along with the bureaucratic interpretation of euthanasia laws in jurisdictions where it has been legalized, this idea is not as farfetched as you might think.

My Verdict: I think this one looks more like a thriller than an actual horror film, so I’m going to pass on seeing it in theaters, though I may catch it on streaming later.  I have some real horror stories of my own that have left me disinterested in this type of film.

Alma and the Wolf

For fans of werewolf films comes Alma and the Wolf, starring Ethan Embry as a troubled police officer investigating a mysterious wolf attack. When his son disappears and the town is gripped by a strange illness, he begins to be haunted by visions of strange rituals and frightening beasts. And all he has to go on are the bizarre and cryptic insights from the woman he’s just begun dating.

This one is due to be released on June 20^th according to the trailer, so it may already have hit theaters before this review is posted.  That said, it doesn’t seem as ground breaking as An American Werewolf in London, or as entertaining as Ginger Snaps. Those Twilight films have ruined werewolves and vampires for me!

My Verdict: I’ll pass on seeing it in theaters, but will watch it later on streaming!

The Stranger In My Home

I don’t really have anything notable to say about trailer for The Stranger In My Home because it struck me as more of an ‘Afterschool Special’ kind of film than an interesting horror movie.  Basically, one day a man shows up to the home of a happy family with an overachieving teenage daughter, claiming that the hospital where the girl was born had mixed up the babies, giving them his daughter by mistake.

As the young woman and the only parents she’s ever known deal with the situation, she disappears, and high school drama ensues.  Has she been kidnapped?  Is she rebelling in a very promiscuous and provocative way?  Did her alleged real father really touch her thigh in the trailer?  WTF???  Did the family give their daughter away to an actual creep?  Lots of innuendo in this trailer, but not really anything that I found even remotely engaging.

 

My Verdict: Hard pass on this one!  Maybe I’m wrong and it will be brilliant, but to be honest I’m not even interested in watching it on streaming!

Dirty Boy

This offering involves a young man named Isaac, growing up within a cult, who is battling his own crumbling sanity as he is being implicated in a series of disappearances and gruesome ritualistic murders of young women, possibly by members of his own family.  When the consort of the cult/family patriarch warns him he’s no longer safe, he realizes that saving the next victim is the only way to save himself, even if he has to destroy the cult to do it.

Dirty Boy has already been released, but flew so far under the radar that streaming may be your first chance of seeing it.  It seems to be very well written, with a meshing of a 60s-style aesthetic and a cult that seems  inspired by the way people lived in an earlier time.

My Verdict: The opportunity to see it in theaters has passed, but that’s okay as it seems like a slow-burn, full-themed type of movie that I will definitely look for on streaming.

Don’t Log Off

If anyone remembers the film Unfriended from 2014, or saw the movie Host from 2020, the concept of Don’t Log Off will not be a surprise.  According to the trailer, Sam is having a birthday celebration with her friends on video chat.  When she disappears, one by one her friends drop by to find her, only to disappear themselves.  Some friends! They’re close enough to check on her, but chose not to get together to celebrate her birthday?

My Verdict: I know this will come as a major surprise, but as this one is being given a direct-to-streaming release, I couldn’t see it in the theater even if I wanted to.  Alas, I don’t even want to: the first Unfriended was more than enough!

The Tally So Far…

So for those keeping score, we had two cult related films, a werewolf themed film, an afterschool special, a campy slasher, and a retread direct-to-streaming film that looks pretty low budget.  Not a stellar assortment of upcoming horror movies, but you never know! If you missed them, here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of the new horror movies coming in 2025!

Coming up next: David Gordon Green projects we missed out on… because I haven’t suffered enough!

Until next time…

JK away!