Kult-Zilla’s – Essential New Movies – Winter 2025

1. // The Monkey

Director Osgood Perkins (Gretel & Hansel) made somewhat of a splash in 2024 with the success of his bleak detective Thriller – Longlegs – starring Maika Monroe (It Follows) and Nicholas Cage (Renfield). Longlegs had a superb marketing campaign from Neon which helped it gross in the region of $126 million at the box office – a significant return on its $10 million budget. And Perkins has now swiftly followed this up with The Monkey, a movie based on a 1980 short story from Horror-master Stephen King – which featured in his Skeleton Crew (1985) collection. Perkins would adapt the story into a dark yet comedic screenplay, and has created a film in his own unique style, with a macabre dry humour and plenty of slapstick gore.

The story revolves around a cursed toy monkey that two young teenage twins inherit from their estranged father in 1999. The monkey brings death to those around them, and the twins find they are unable to destroy the toy, so instead banish it to the bottom of a deep well in the hope of containing its evil power. Fast forward 25 years and we meet the grown-up versions of the brothers – played by Theo James (The Gentlemen) – and the return of the wretched cursed toy. The tone is somewhat absurdist throughout, and the gore of the many kill sequences is gloriously over-the-top, albeit a little obviously CGI heavy at times. But The Monkey is hilariously dark, with Perkins overall nailing his second movie in quick succession. KZ

2. // Companion

Produced by New Line Cinema and Barbarian (2022) director Zach Cregger, Companion is a surprisingly strong January Sci-Fi / Thriller release starring Jack Quaid (Scream / The Boys) and Sophie Thatcher (Heretic / The Boogeyman). The film’s marketing did draw some criticism for giving away the major plot turn of the movie, with many suggesting a completely blind viewing is the way to experience the film. But much like Abigail last year, the premise of the twist is very much integral to the hook of the story – and the cat was very much out of the bag early with this one.

Quaid plays Josh who is accompanied by his new girlfriend Iris (Thatcher) to spend the weekend with some of Josh’s friends at an isolated lake house. And that is as little as you need to know if you haven’t yet seem Companion and have managed to avoid the trailers and marketing thus far. Either way this is a film which is well worth your time, a slickly written script by director Drew Hancock which develops at a good pace, flying through its swift 97 minute run-time. While the performances from the two leads are both excellent, with Thatcher especially proving herself to be an incredibly strong genre actress, who seems to be picking a succession of intriguing projects right now. KZ

3. // Heart Eyes

Released just in time for Valentines Day, Heart Eyes is a movie which blends the unlikely combination of a modern Slasher-flick, with the tropes and archetypes of a traditional rom-com. Written by a team responsible for a string of recent contemporary YA Slashers including Happy Death Day (2017), Freaky (2020) and It’s A Wonderful Knife (2023). Heart Eyes is directed by Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within) and stars Mason Gooding (Scream VI) and Olivia Holt (Totally Killer) as work colleagues who end up being stalked by a vicious serial killer … known as Heart Eyes.

The killer has been moving from city to city to murder loved up couples on Valentines night, resurfacing in Seattle where jewellery pitch designer Ally (Holt) meets with Jay (Gooding) for a business meeting over dinner. The two clash at the meal, before being mistaken for a couple by the watching murderer when Ally kisses Jay in order to make her passing ex-boyfriend jealous. A game of cat and mouse then ensues with a typical whodunnit narrative very much in the style of Scream and its ilk. There are some cool kill sequences and the twist on a typical slasher story works well enough … making Heart Eyes a solid popcorn movie. KZ

4. // Wolf Man

The Wolf Man is one of the classic Universal monsters made famous by actor Lon Chaney Jr in the 1941 movie. The werewolf character of Larry Talbot would go on to appear in a number of further Universal monster flicks, culminating in the fondly remembered crossover – Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Some years later, the notable English film studio Hammer Horrors would produce their own take on the legend with The Curse Of The Werewolf (1961) starring Oliver Reed (Gladiator). Before the sub-genre experienced a resurgence in the eighties – spearheaded by the John Landis directed An American Werewolf In London, as well as Joe Dante’s The Howling (both released in 1981).

Universal would themselves remake their original classic movie in 2010 with The Wolfman starring Benicio Del Toro, and now just fifteen years later the studio have provided yet another version of the tale – hoping to follow on from the recent success of The Invisible Man (2020). Australian director Leigh Whannell (Upgrade) had delivered that particular reimagining for the studio, and he would subsequently be invited back to direct this new version of Wolf Man, starring Christopher Abott (Possessor) and Julia Garner (Ozark). And although this film is certainly inspired by the original tale of Larry Talbot, it tells the story a completely new way. Slow-burning and atmospheric, with a fresh take on the transformation process which appears to take inspiration from David Cronenberg’s masterful 1986 Body-Horror; The Fly. KZ

5. // The Gorge

Apple TV+ are a streaming service who appear to be aiming for a quality over quantity approach with their movie output. They’re not afraid to invest heavily in the right product, as shown in the last couple of years with the production of Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (2023) starring Joaquin Phoenix. The Gorge is the latest big-budget movie from the tech-giant’s foray into television, and was produced alongside Skydance Media from a spec-script written by Zach Dean (Fast X) – which had sat on the famed Blacklist of un-produced Hollywood screenplays.

Directed by Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone), The Gorge stars Miles Teller (Whiplash) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) as two snipers – one from America and the other from Lithuania – charged with manning opposing outposts overlooking a mysterious gorge by their nation’s secret services. Their mission is shrouded in secrecy, but it is their job to contain whatever lies in the vast valley. The Gorge is a cross-genre film which blends Sci-Fi and Action with a little Horror. But at its heart it is also a Romantic-Drama, as the two leads begin the strangest of relationships, and one which develops nicely as the film progresses and they are thrust into a fight for survival. KZ

6. // Presence

Steven Soderbergh is a director with a wide and varied back catalogue, creating movies including many award winning and commercial box-office successes such as Erin Brockovich (2020), Traffic (2020) and Ocean’s Eleven (2021). And on the surface Presence seems like a departure form the norm for the film-maker, who brings to life this story by renowned screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park / Carlito’s Way) about a family spearheaded by Rebekah (Lucy Liu – Kill Bill) and Chris (Chris Sullivan – Guardians Of The Galaxy) – who are seemingly being haunted by a supernatural entity in their new home.

While the premise itself may not exactly be ground breaking – think The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982) and just about a hundred other haunted-house movies we’ve seen over the years – Presence does take somewhat of a unique approach to the concept by presenting the story from the POV of the entity itself, as it watches and observes the family. Filmed in a number of long shots, the presence in their home watches as cracks in the family’s relationship begin to form, while it becomes particularly attached to teenager Chloe (Callina Laing), as she begins to become aware of the spirit’s existence. KZ

Words by Mark Bates