The New Horrors – Derek Barton, 2025
Back in 2019 & 2023, I wrote blogs focusing on some of my favorite new horror films at that time. Hard to believe but two years have already passed, and it’s time to once again to review some of the latest film releases.
Here are five of the latest horror films I did enjoy:
5. Saw X
Yes, it is an old running series that has almost covered every angle possible… except this one. What happens when you offer a dying man a possible life-saving treatment, but in secret, you are only attempting to con him out of thousands of dollars? What happens when that same old man is a mass serial killer… and he finds out what you did?!
Not the best of the series, but I enjoyed the premise of this one, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t wish terrible things on con artists when prey on the elderly and dying?
Again, this is another installment in a long-running series. This was another interesting idea, and it also gave you a bigger picture look at why all these tragedies were occurring. In other words, it attempts to give you background reasons for the first five films. This is also the last film of horror legend Tony Todd (famous for his Candyman role), which made this a must-see for me.
3. The Conjuring: Devil Made Me Do It
This sequel delves deeper into the lives and investigative methods of the famous Warren couple. I enjoyed this one more than the original. I’m also looking forward to the next installment, The Conjuring: The Last Rites, which covers their “last case”.
2. Alive#
A spin-off film in the Train To Busan universe. In this Korean horror film, a man soon finds himself trapped and isolated in his high-rise apartment building while hordes of zombies ravage the rest of the city. I love this new take on a zombie survival film.
1. Talk To Me
Easily the scariest film released in quite some time. A teen struggling with the grief of her mother’s passing takes a daring challenge at a party: hold the severed hand of a now dead psychic who claimed to talk with the dead. Intense horror sequences and frightening imagery of Hell. Take note: This is in Australia so the accents take a bit to get adjusted to.
Honorable mentions (entertaining, just dumb fun films):
I’m arachnophobic so this one got under my skin!
Not as good as the first but had some cool frightening moments (like when her entire dance troupe stalks her in her apartment!).
Silly but kept my interests. Creepy atmosphere.
Russell Crowe gives a great performance and carries this one. Not too complicated a story but you could easily see how this could happen in real life.
Great effort and intense psychological horror mixed with sci-fi horror. Didn’t feel the ending paid off but overall a fun time for a couple hours.
Unfortunately, there are a ton more films that I WOULD NOT recommend. These had potential but fail due to bad scripts or poor plots!
Good acting from Hugh Grant as the killer, but they didn’t do anything with this story. Two hours waiting for something interesting.
Another disappointing edition to this poorly written franchise. There is so much they could do but they fail to really capture the essence and treasure that the first two films were.
Ugh! What a waste of two hours! Nick Cage could’ve saved this film as its menacing psycho but he’s in it for maybe twenty minutes. Just dumb! And they didn’t even address why the film was called Longlegs!
Overdone gore and no real story. This franchise has turned into just another cash cow.
A very poor adaption of Stephen King’s original novel. More than half of the film doesn’t even follow the book. They should’ve left this story alone. The 1979 film version isn’t perfect but at least it had heart and tried to be faithful to the novel.
I hope that the trend for horror films gets better and we see more original stories versus sequel after sequel. I’m always available Hollywood should you want some help! 
