All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

12. COMPANION (2025)

Released on June 31, 2025, and streaming on HBO MAX from New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers!
Directed/Written by Drew Hancock.
Check out the trailer here!!

Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and her new boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) decide to spend a weekend with Jack’s friends at an extravagant mansion in the woods owned by a billionaire. Iris feels uncomfortable around Jack’s friends as she feels they look down on her and she would rather stay home and simply be with the one she loves. But the death of the billionaire sparks a series of events that will turn everything Iris knows completely upside down.

I’m intentionally vague about COMPANION, but all you have to do is watch the trailer of the film and the big twist is revealed there, which I feel was a huge mistake. One of the best things about this film is that I saw the ambiguous first trailer and while I was inundated with various intriguing and perplexing imagery that made me want to see the movie, I still found myself not really knowing what it was about. Well, I guess with this newest and final trailer, the producers believed that the audiences needed to be spoon-fed the plot, but I don’t really want to get into specifics in this review and leave the surprises for the movie to tell you. The film is good enough to be recommended on its own without treating the audience as if they were idiots.

COMPANION is a wonderfully complex examination of love, relationships, and free will and how all of those concepts can be perverted in this modern day and age. Iris’ relationship with Jack is not that uncommon right now. While the twist definitely makes it a sci fi slash horror concept, the meat and bones of COMPANION really has more to do with blind love we all find ourselves stricken with at some point in our lives. It’s about those moments of clarity, where the blinders come off and the world concept, we believe in being ripped away, in this case, with violent and bloody force. Jack is older than Iris, who herself is presented as quite naïve and uncomfortable with anyone other than Jack. How many times, in the preliminary stages of a relationship, have you found yourself in that vulnerable state where your partner holds all of the cards and those rushes of excitement wave over you simply by being with that person? This film does a wonderful job of showing the horror of that feeling. Being in love is great, but it also can be terrifying, over-powering, and torturous by giving away one’s heart to someone else. Anyone who has felt heartbreak or just had a notion of fear that your partner will betray or leave you is going to relate to Iris’ plight in this film. It’s that emotional core that makes COMPANION such an effective film. Iris is vulnerable and open with Jack and that is a scary place to be.

COMPANION is filled with delightfully clever and witty dialog spoken by a supremely talented cast. Jack Quaid, in his short career as an actor, has played a really nice variety of roles; ranging from the weak shelled but strong-willed Huey from THE BOYS to the deceptive and dangerous Richie from 2022’s SCREAM. He embodies the everyman but uses that visage to really lure the audience in to show he’s got some teeth under that awkward smile. Here he plays a complex character. One who loves Iris, but also, unconsciously, takes advantage of her, with these feelings expanding to toxic levels by the end of this film. On the other hand, Sophie Thatcher is newer to me. I loved her in HERETIC and have just started watching YELLOWJACKETS where she kicks ass as a younger version of Juliette Lewis’ character. She has the vulnerability and lack of confidence down pat as Iris, but it’s when she gains a little confidence and the upper hand, it’s satisfying watching that metamorphosis occur with her character.

Yes, COMPANION has twists and turns galore. But while avoiding outright spoiling that, I can still say it’s quite the rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. The strength of the cast, including the amazing Harvey Guillen from WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, the up-and-coming electricity from SMILE 2’s Lucas Gage, and the sublimely funny performance from Rupert Friend as the Russian billionaire Sergey, make these twists believable and worth following. The gore is a plenty and the blood does floweth, for sure. But what truly makes this movie stand out is that it deal with a collection of feelings that many are uncomfortable addressing in their own relationships.

COMPANION is a wonderfully crafted little horror/sci fi film that definitely deals with some issues one day we all will be faced with as technology continues to advance at such a rapid rate. But that’s all outer coating. Because it addresses the blind spots we all have when giving up a part of yourself to be in a relationship with another, it shows us a less than attractive aspect of how that vulnerability can result in the exploitation and in some cases, utter devastation of what makes us human.

Worth Noting: THE DEAD THING (2024)

Released on February 14, 2025, and streaming on Shudder!
Directed by Elric Kane.
Written by Elric Kane, Webb Wilcoxen.
Check out the trailer here!!

After a never-ending series of swiping through dating apps and going on meaningless dates with random guys, Alex (played by Blu Hunt) finally meets a keeper in Kyle (played by Ben Smith-Petersen). But after a night of soulful and physical connection, i.e. scrogging, Kyle disappears, leaving Alex crushed. But when Alex runs into Kyle at the same restaurant a week later on another date, Kyle doesn’t remember their encounter. Is Kyle just a flake or is there something supernatural going on? Hint: there’s something supernatural going on.

There’s has been an awful lot of dating horror going on these days. I get it. Horror is often geared toward the young and dating is a major aspect of the youngsters. I’ve talked before about how I never used online apps and don’t think I ever will as I feel it’s pretty creepy and shallow to choose a date depending on one’s mood and doctored online pic. Still, I understand why people who are more compelled to live one’s life online would use that very outlet to find their significant other. And horror’s go to is taking something relatable and making it grotesque, and unsettling. So a horror film about a great date turning into being ghosted by a real ghost is a good enough premise for a movie.

THE DEAD THING centers around an Aubrey Plaza type that seems to be all the rage with gals today. The thing is, Aubrey Plaza is Aubrey Plaza and seeing a group of modern gals act all apathetic, disinterested, and “completely over” whatever topic the discussion leads in their both professional and personal lives really isn’t original or appealing. It only works for Aubrey Plaza and maybe a select few others. The rest are just assholes. Sorry, I’m getting a bit too worked up about this. Anyway, Blu Hunt is that type of gal as Alex in THE DEAD THING. She seems to be in a romantic rut as well as a professional standstill. Yet there is a perseverance to her as she keeps on going to work and yes, keeps on choosing guys to date on apps. This is quite the comment on how the dating scene has devolved into a series of rejections and hookups, as shown in the cliched montage that occurs at the beginning of THE DEAD THING, a scene used in relationship horrors and romance films so much that there needs to be a moratorium on it.

But things start looking up when Alex meets Kyle. Immediately, they spark and it is interesting seeing this girl who was so guarded and protected by her own apathy melt and we get to see the softer side of Alex as she really seems to want to get to know Kyle and take it to the next level. This change in attitude takes place over one glorious night, showing how right under the surface all of these feelings Alex felt she was above really were.

The thing is, what makes this film focusing on the horrors of dating so watchable is Blu Hunt herself. She is enchanting in THE DEAD THING. She really leans in to the goods and bads of her character. We later learn that Alex is not without sin herself and much of this steely, too cool for school exterior is a result of some horrible things she’s done. Still, the young actress really makes every moment of this movie worth watching. I’m looking forward to seeing her grow as an actress in future endeavors.

Hunt makes this ‘ghosted by a ghost’ story interesting as it seems Alex tosses herself towards this guy and hits a wall of enigmatic behavior from Kyle. When they were together they were close and seemed to have something special, but when she runs into him again at the same bar on a date with another woman, Alex is confused. The ironic thing is that she has probably left quite a few guys in the same way, but none of that matters as it’s happening to her right now.

This is a horror story, so of course, something spooky is going on. The film evolves into a comment on the minefield one must walk while dating. The horror does eventually come and of course, Kyle is not the perfect dude he says he is. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a horror movie.

It’s obvious filmmaker Elric Kane and his co-writer Webb Wilcoxen know about the rollercoaster ride modern dating is, and they chose a great cast to convey these complex emotions. Again, Blu Hunt is a true find and Ben Smith-Petersen makes it understandable why she would fall for him, though he does have kind of a dumb meathead sort of way to him that comes out in a very disturbing scene. THE DEAD THING has the patience though to really get into the complex minutia of forming a relationship, patience that few other films have to offer.

There are minimal but effective effects, both for Kyle as he transforms from Biff Hunkley to appear as he was when he died and during the sex scenes which seem to be otherworldly for Alex, and pretty nice to watch as well, hubba to the mother grabbin’ hubba. I ended up really warming to Blu Hunt’s distant Aubrey Plaza-ness and understanding both why she was that way and why she would fall so hard. It’s her performance that is probably 75% of my recommendation. THE DEAD THINGS tells a very human tale about that need for connectedness and how that need can make one do some horrible things. This is a slow film, taking its time to lay out a lot of character groundwork and relationship drama before really revealing it’s ghostly antagonist for what exactly he is. So those who are less patient and need a body count with their horror, will be disappointed with THE DEAD THING. But I stuck with this film and am glad I did.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)
#27 – FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (V/H/S/BEYOND)
#26 – ALMA AND THE WOLF (CUSTOM)
#25 – LOOKY-LOO (THE CREEP TAPES)
#24 – DANGEROUS ANIMALS (THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN)
#23 – THE MONKEY (THE DAMNED)
#22 – THE DEVIL AND THE DAYLONG BROTHERS (THE SEVERED SUN)
#21 – TERRIFIER 3 (CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD)
#20 – PRESENCE (HOUSE ON EDEN)
#19 – THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (GRAFTED)
#18 – PARVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE (AZRAEL)
#17 – MADS (A MOTHER’S EMBRACE)
#16 – STRANGE HARVEST (THE ASMA JOURNALS)
#15 – DEUS IRAE (SHADOW OF GOD)
#14 – TOGETHER (CANNIBAL MUCKBANG)
#13 – SMILE 2 (THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 2)
#12 – COMPANION (THE DEAD THING)