Heat Vision’s Top 10 Movies of 2025

Heat Visions Top 10 Movies of 2025

Logo text</span>nt</a>n</div>n ntAmid a swamp of mostly mediocre morass, Zach Creggeru2019s horror masterpiece was a like a needle shot of originality in the arm of summer movie blandness. A mosaic that slowly reveals a larger and terrifying story, the audience is always kept on its toes as we follow a series of disparate characters dealing…

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ntAmid a swamp of mostly mediocre morass, Zach Creggeru2019s horror masterpiece was a like a needle shot of originality in the arm of summer movie blandness. A mosaic that slowly reveals a larger and terrifying story, the audience is always kept on its toes as we follow a series of disparate characters dealing with the aftermath of a class of children going mysteriously missing. Spookiness and dread build slowly in some of the most memorable scenes of the year until the villain, both outrageous and creepy, is revealed. Aunt Gladys, played masterfully by Amy Madigan. But that is only half the story. The end, when it comes, is cathartic, funny and terrifying, and itu2019s only then do you realize you just got off a roller coaster designed by a master horror architect.u00a0u00a0

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From wildly original horror movies to animated movies that came out of nowhere, these were the best genre films of the year.

Weapons, Predator: Killer of Killers, Superman

Weapons, Predator: Killer of Killers, Superman

Courtesy of Warner Bros.; Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection; Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection

Welcome to one of the first “best of lists” of 2026. It’s also hopefully the last “best of list” of 2025.

Genre movies, the movies that Heat Vision celebrates, covers and reports on, had a banner year in 2025. Look no further than Thursday’s DGA nominations, which saw Ryan Coogler snag a slot for his period vampire movie Sinners and Guillermo del Toro earn one for his adaptation of Frankenstein. You could even make a case that Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a kind of ersatz action thriller — and if you’re willing to push it, argue Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet is a ghost story (although we won’t).

It was a mixed bag for the genre that had dominated movie culture for close to a decade and a half. Superhero comic book movies had four releases, but they varied wildly in quality (we still maintain that Fantastic Four: First Steps had the year’s best score) and didn’t engender the kind of fervor they once did.

Horror, on the other hand, did dominate, with some of the most original voices and indelible imagery coming from the scary movie genre. Even the stuff that didn’t work was interesting (Good Boy, a good half hour short stretched to feature length). Horror factory Blumhouse had a lot of movies, some of them were even hits, but none seemed to have left a lasting impact. And kudos to the cross-over material, such as The Long Walk, a gritty watch with excellent performance, and Companion, a fun romp with sci-fi elements that deserved a wider audience.

Action movies, however, were mostly MIA in 2025. Where was the fun, the spectacle, the body count? Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning did boast set pieces that are mini-movies unto themselves, precise time pieces that click gears into place for a satisfying tick, tock, boom. But the movie itself was bloated and expository-laden, a meh ending to a great action series (at least they say it’s the end). Sisu: The Road to Revenge made up for a lot of the genre’s lost ground, providing pulpy exploitation fun and feeling like it was being made by a ten-year old who was playing with toy soldiers.

We’ve tried to watch as much as we could. We may have missed some, maybe some of your favorites, so feel free to let us know.

Without further ado, the (hopefully, probably?) last Top 10 movies lift of 2025, Heat Vision style.

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