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

1. // Sinners

Sinners is one of the surprise hit films of 2025 so far, taking around $350m in its first six weeks of box office. Not at all bad for an ambitious period Horror movie which cost approx $90m to make, proving that the Horror genre is absolutely red-hot right now. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan (Creed) in a duel role playing twin brothers Smoke and Stack, two hoodlums returning to their small rural Louisiana hometown in 1932, full of bravado and stolen cash after spending some-time away working for the Mob in Chicago. They purchase a disused saw-mill from a rascist landowner, and set about creating a juke-joint with the help of a handful of old friends..

It is a simple premise, with the narrative largely taking place over the course of one day leading up to the opening night of their music club. And when the sun goes down, the action ramps up as it transpires a local Vampire wants in on the celebrations. This is a movie which is shot beautifully with gorgeous cinematography and a unique period style and tone. Coogler has created a movie which will stand the test of time, and will likely be thought of alongside the likes of From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and The Lost Boys (1987) in terms of classic Vampire-flicks which stand out in their respective eras. The connective theme of music which runs throughout is conveyed so brilliantly, and a cast including Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee), Jack O’Connell (Eden Lake), and newcomer Miles Caton support perfectly. KZ

2. // Final Destination: Bloodlines

The Final Destination series of films is one of the most recognisable Horror franchises of the 2000s. Beginning with the James Wong (The X Files) directed Final Destination (2000) starring Devon Sawa (Idle Hands), the initial run of films rolled on until Final Destination 5 in 2011. Its original premise was a relatively unique one at the time, and was originally written to be an episode of The X Files. A young man has a premonition of a plane crash which sees him and a number of others vacate the aircraft before take-off. The plane then explodes in the sky just as he had foreseen, with the hook of the movie being that Death has now been cheated, and will come for those who escaped its grasp in weird and inventively gruesome ways.

The formula did become a little tired by the time the fourth and fifth films hit the screen, and with the release of Bloodlines from New Line Cinema some fourteen years later, it would appear that the rest has worked wonders for the concept. Directed by Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein (Freaks), the film introduces a fresh spin on the concept with Death coming for the bloodline of a character who had cheated the Grim Reaper a number of decades ago. And Bloodlines has been nothing if not a welcome surprise, as against all odds it is one of the finest entries in the franchise. The film is also forever immortalised, as it features the last scenes ever filmed by Horror legend Tony Todd (Candyman), prior to his sad passing in 2024. KZ

3. // Fear Street: Prom Queen

Fear Street returned to Netflix following its successful trilogy of movies released back in 2021. Based on the predominantly nineties written YA book series by R.L Stine (Goosebumps), the movies unashamedly paid homage to classic Horror tropes and clichés, providing a kind of easy gateway and comfort food representation of the genre. And Prom Queen – the fourth film in the series – well and truly sticks to the formula, as it revisits the classic Slasher period of the eighties placed within a familiar high-school setting in the build up to senior prom night – blending the tones of Scream and Carrie with a teen high-school drama.

Set in 1988 and based on Stine’s novel The Prom Queen (1992), the story is set in the fictional town of Shadyside, a place full of dark secrets in which the protagonist and final-girl Lori Granger (India Fowler) runs as a candidate for prom queen against a popular group of girls known as The Wolf Pack. Come prom-night, a crazed masked killer starts picking off the candidates one by one, leaving Lori in a fight for survival. The cast of characters are typically clichéd as you would expect for this kind of movie, and it unashamedly wears its influences on its sleeve – paying homage to vintage Slashers along with the eighties era itself. All in all, its a slice of harmless generic fun, elevated somewhat by a number of gory and over-the-top the kill sequences. KZ

4. // Clown In A Cornfield

Clown In A Cornfield is a hugely successful 2020 novel written by Adam Cesare (Video Night), which won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel in Horror the year of its release. It’s popularity has seen Cesare write two sequels to complete a trilogy of novels so far, as well as swiftly selling the movie rights to Temple Hill Entertainment – who have previously brought us the divisive Twilight Saga, as well as the two Smile films in recent years. Eli Craig (Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil) was brought in to direct the adaptation, and the film stars Katie Douglas (Lazareth), Aaron Abrams (Hannibal) and Kevin Durand (Abigail / The Strain).

At its heart, Clown In A Cornfield is a small town Slasher-flick, providing the now all too familiar killer-clown Horror trope which was made infamous by the character of Pennywise in Stephen King’s It (1990). That particular character was provided with a whole new lease of life for a new generation in the 2017 remake, while more recently Art The Clown has become a prominent figure in Horror, in the gruesome Grind-house Terrifier series. This movie provides perhaps a new icon in Frendo, a mascot of the town’s past linked to a murder over thirty years ago by a killer dressed as the clown. While in the present day, images of the clown begin to haunt the town once again – as it begins targeting a group of film-making teenagers. KZ

5. // Bring Her Back

In 2022, Australian film-makers Danny & Michael Philippou announced themselves with their debut movie Talk To Me – a dark and twisted take on the possession sub-genre, which added a unique main hook and gained momentum and notoriety the following year when it was picked up and distributed by A24. The renowned Horror production company soon signed the duo to make Talk 2 Me, but slotted in between comes Bring Her Back – a sophomore release from the pair who previously made their name creating videos for YouTube. And if anything, this film is even more disturbing than their debut, as it explores thoroughly bleak themes while providing some gut-wrenching Body-Horror visuals.

Bring Her Back stars Billy Barrett as Andy, a teenager who along with his visually impaired sister Piper (Sara Wong) is taken in by foster-career Laura (Sally Hawkins – The Shape Of Water) following the death of their father. Living with Laura is Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a mute and somewhat disturbed child, and we discover that Laura is suffering from an intense grief due to the loss of her daughter who had drowned in their swimming pool. From here the journey the film takes us on is certainly a disturbing one, dealing with themes of grief and anguish which never let’s up – heading down one very twisted path. But it’s a journey well worth taking, as the Phillippou brothers cement themselves as an impressive new creative force in the Horror genre. KZ

6. // Ash

An intriguing new Sci-Fi / Horror directed by musician Flying Lotus, who had previously dabbled as a film-maker in the genre with his Ozzy’s Dungeon segment for V/H/S/99 in 2022. Ash is his full length debut, and it’s certainly an ambitious project which is visually stunning and mind-bendingly stylish throughout, while taking inspiration from the likes of Event Horizon (1997) and its ilk. The movie stars Eiza Gonzàlez (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) as Riya, an astronaut who wakes up on a strange planet and finds that all of her crew have been mysteriously killed.

She suffers from amnesia and extreme paranoia as she tries to make sense of her situation, and is plagued by nightmarish visions of a past she cannot remember. She discovers that the research station she has awoken in is also inhabited by Brion (Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad), who claims he is here to rescue her after receiving a distress signal – but is he all that he appears to be? Riya continues to investigate her plight while she and Brion plan their escape from the planet. But finds her visions becoming more frequent and increasingly more horrifying, as the film hurtles towards its climax … and the strange reality of her situation becomes apparent. KZ

Words by Mark T. Bates

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