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The biggest shock the cinema world has experienced in 2025? The comeback of horror as a leading genre at the British cinemas.

As a style, it has notably surpassed earlier periods with a 22% rise compared to last year for the UK and Irish box office: £83.7 million in 2025, compared with £68,612,395 in 2024.

“In the past year, not a single horror movie hit £10 million in UK or Irish theaters. Now, five have achieved that,” comments a box office editor.

The big hits of the year – a recent horror title (£11.4m), Sinners (£16.2m), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98 million) and the sequel to a classic (£15.54m) – have all stayed in the cinemas and in the public consciousness.

Even though much of the professional discussion highlights the unique excellence of prominent auteurs, their triumphs point to something changing between moviegoers and the category.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Even if you don’t like horror this is a film you need to see,’” explains a head of acquisition.

“Films like these play with genre and structure to create something completely different, and that speaks to an audience in a different way.”

But apart from creative value, the consistent popularity of horror movies this year implies they are giving audiences something that’s highly necessary: therapeutic relief.

“Right now, there’s a lot of anger, fear and division that’s being reflected in cinema,” observes a film commentator.

“Horror films are great at playing into people’s anxieties, while at the same time exaggerating them. So you forget about your day-to-day anxieties and focus on the monster on the screen,” remarks a respected writer of classic monster stories.

Amid a real-world news cycle featuring geopolitical strife, enforcement actions, extremist rises, and ecological disasters, witches, zombies and vengeful spirits strike a unique chord with viewers.

“It’s been noted that vampire cinema thrives during periods of economic hardship,” says an star from a successful fright film.

“The concept reflects how economic systems can drain vitality from individuals.”

Historically, public discord has always impacted scary movies.

Experts point to the boom of German expressionism after the WWI and the turbulent times of the early Weimar Republic, with movies such as classic silent horror and a pioneering fright film.

Subsequently came the Great Depression era and iconic horror characters.

“Consider the Dracula narrative: an outsider from the east brings a corrupting influence that permeates society and challenges its heroes,” explains a academic.

“Thus, it mirrors widespread fears about migration.”

The boogeyman of immigration shaped the recently released rural fright The Severed Sun.

The filmmaker explains: “I aimed to delve into populist rhetoric. Specifically, calls to restore a mythical past that favored a privileged few.”

“Secondly, the idea that you could be with someone you know and then suddenly they blurt out something round the dinner table or in a Facebook post and you’re like, ‘Where did that come from?’”

Perhaps, the present time of praised, culturally aware scary films began with a sharp parody launched a year after a divisive leadership period.

It introduced a recent surge of horror auteurs, including several notable names.

“It was a hugely exciting time,” says a filmmaker whose project about a deadly unborn child was one of the period's key works.

“I think it was the beginning of an era when people were opening up to doing a really bonkers horror film which had arthouse aspirations.”

The same filmmaker, who is writing a new horror original, adds: “During the past decade, viewers have become more receptive to such innovative approaches.”

At the same time, there has been a reappraisal of the genre’s less celebrated output.

Earlier this year, a new cinema opened in London, showing underground films such as The Greasy Strangler, a classic adaptation and the 1989 remake of the expressionist icon.

The renewed interest of this “rough and rowdy” genre is, according to the cinema founder, a straightforward answer to the algorithmic content churned out at the box office.

“It’s a reaction to the sanitised product that’s coming out of Hollywood. You have a film scene that’s more tepid and more predictable. A lot of the mainstream films are very similar,” he states.

“Conversely, [such movies] appear raw. As if they emerged straight from the artist's mind, untouched by studio control.”

Horror films continue to disrupt conventions.

“They have this strange ability to seem old fashioned and up to the minute, both at the same time,” observes an expert.

In addition to the return of the mad scientist trope – with multiple versions of a classic novel imminent – he predicts we will see horror films in the near future reacting to our present fears: about tech supremacy in the years ahead and “supernatural elements in political spheres”.

At the same time, “Jesus horror” a forthcoming title – which depicts the events of biblical parent hardships after the messiah's arrival, and features well-known actors as the divine couple – is scheduled to debut in the coming months, and will undoubtedly cause a stir through the Christian right in the America.</