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!

11. BEST WISHES TO ALL (aka BEST REGARDS FOR ALL, MINA NI KO ARE, 2022)

Released on June 13, 2025, and streaming exclusively on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Yuta Shimotsu
Check out the trailer here!!

Upon arriving at her grandparents’ home in the country, a young unnamed nursing student (Kotone Furukawa) notices something is off. Her grandparents are acting strangely, freezing in place, speaking in riddles, being unnaturally chipper, and then there’s the guy bound to a mattress in the attic. Before going to her grandparents. the young girl’s view of life was optimistic and hopeful but the longer she stays with them, the more she realizes that this happiness is a by-product of something surreal and terrifying.

BEST WISHES TO ALL is about looking behind the curtain of well the well to do and successful and seeing what skeletons they have in their closet to achieve this happiness. Much is done with the disconnect our nameless lead has with her grandparents who seem to have changed greatly since she used to see them when she was a child. Director Yuta Shimotsu has taken the short film this film is based on and filled it with moments of the uncanny, when normal looking things cause an unnatural effect that manages to terrify the viewer, at least, that’s what happened to me. There’s something about older people that have always skeeved me out and Shimotsu knows how to ramp up that uncomfortable feeling to the max.

While I understand the allegory Shimotsu is playing with, things get pretty nuts by the end of BEST WISHES TO ALL. I’m not sure I understand all of the stuff regarding the family and a birth that occurs, but up until that last act, I was following along nicely, marveling at the clever way BEST WISHES TO ALL communicates this pessimistic message that no one is without sin, at least no one who has achieved anything in life. Surreal moments like when the lead’s brother starts bleeding from the eyes are viscerally uncomfortable to see, but it’s nothing compared to what happens with the grandparents in the last act.

Kotone Furukawa is fascinating as the lead. She is a nurse, so she is compelled to help and believes her grandparents are in turmoil. But as sweet as Furukawa is, she is far from naïve. In fact, when she realizes what is going on, she fights her hardest to do what she believes is good, making her a character worth rooting for—even though this is a situation a positive outlook simply can’t beat.

I left BEST WISHES TO ALL intrigued, a bit confused, and eager to share this oddball little horror gem from Japan with others. In a dog-eat-dog world where you have to cut a few corners and dot a few eyeballs in order to get ahead, BEST WISHES TO ALL rings truer than ever, despite how batshit crazy it is. Dive into the surreal world of BEST WISHES TO ALL, it’s a relevant, sometimes touching, and sometimes nauseating look at the twisted world we unfortunately live in.

Worth Noting: DELICATE ARCH (2024)

Released on February 11, 2025, and streaming on Tubi and Screambox!
Directed/Written by Matthew Warren.
Check out the trailer here!!

A group of “friends” (note the air quotes) head to the California desert for a little R&R. But after secrets are revealed and mind-altering drugs are taken, thing start getting screwy. One of the kids Grant (played by William Leon) is a blossoming filmmaker and spouts movie ideas to the rest of the group. Soon enough, the ideas he produces start becoming real and the group realize that they are living in a movie.

The easiest thing to do in California is grab some film equipment and a few friends and decide to make a movie in the desert. There have been tons of low-fi movies lately proving this like HORROR IN THE HIGH DESERT series, and THE OUTWATERS. The scenery is surreal, moody, and untouched by man. The perfect setting for a horror film. The thing is, you have to have ideas to match that setting or it’s just going to be kids in the desert with cameras. Thankfully, DELICATE ARCH has a compelling concept, a talented cast, and a clever, yet meta script going for it.

The cast does a fantastic job of making things interesting the whole way through DELICATE ARCH. There really is no real reason these friends should be hanging together. They are longtime friends who have become estranged from one another. Grant used to date Wilda (played by Kelley Mack). Wilda might be in a new relationship. Grant and Cody (played by Kevin Bohleber) are antagonistic towards one another the whole time. And stoner Ferg (played by Rene Leech) just wants everyone to get along. Not only do the actors keep the plot rolling, but they also play off of stereotypes you see in most horror movies. There is always a stoner, but here, Leech makes Ferg more three dimensional and integral in keeping the group together. Out of all of the fighting so-called friends, Ferg by far, is the most likable and my favorite of the bunch. The final girl-esque Wilda turns out to be not so virtuous. The smartass Cody is indeed an asshole, but there are reasons for this. Each character feels like an important column keeping the story aloft, supported and moving. This type of advanced characterization is rarely found in films like this.

Yes, things get meta. And usually, I find that to be annoying. There is a bit of pretension present. The conversation in the car about how each represent the stereotypical slasher characters is a little too on the nose and could have been communicated in a smoother way. But the movie within a movie angle works really well. I like how each of these people are living their own nightmare of their own design. While the budget here is pretty low, a lot is achieved with forced and limited perspectives and quick cuts. There is a creepy alien that shows up and some zombies scattered about, but it’s the desert around them that is the main character and provides the most atmosphere.

Like THE OUTWATERS, DELICATE ARCH utilizes the lonely desert atmosphere well. Unlike THE OUTWATERS, DELICATE ARCH has a cohesive story and by the end, there’s a whiff of an idea as to what the hell is going on. While THE OUTWATERS went for the mood of the analog trend, at least I could understand a sense of story in DELICATE ARCH, which to me, makes this film scores more likable and rewatchable. That said, things are kept vague as to the cause of it all, instead simply diving into meta-textual stuff of the film becoming a movie within a movie. I’m starting to confuse myself, so I’m going to end this review, but if you don’t mind a heavy dose of meta and some nightmarish desert atmosphere, DELICATE ARCH is the desert meta-movie for you.

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)
#11 – BEST WISHES TO ALL (DELECATE ARCH)