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!

4. 28 YEARS LATER (2025)

Released on June 20, 2025, and available On Demand on Amazon Prime from Sony Pictures and Colombia Pictures!
Directed by Danny Boyle.
Written by Alex Garland.
Check out the trailer here!!

28 years ago, the Rage virus spread across the UK like wildfire, causing everyone who came into contact with it to turn into snarling, sprinting monsters spewing blood in all directions in order to spread the contagion. 28 YEARS LATER opens with a young boy named Jimmy, hidden away with other children in a small home. Soon, it is obvious the infected are at the door and rampaging through the house. Jimmy escapes and flees to a church where is father (a priest) welcomes the infected into the church, believing it is God’s plan. Jimmy witnesses his father’s demise and escapes carrying a golden rosary his father gave him. Cut to 28 years later and we are now in a small community on an island off of the coast of Northern UK. The only connection with mainland is a land bridge that only appears at low tide. The dystopian community gives everyone a role to play in keeping them protected and thriving. Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a hunter who ventures to the mainland to scavenge for supplies and thin the herd of infected who may attempt to infiltrate the community. His wife, Isla (Jodie Comer) suffers from an unknown ailment and is bedridden. Jamie decides that even though he is only twelve, his son Spike (Alfie Williams) is ready to learn to hunt, scavenge, and kill his first infected. The first half of 28 YEARS LATER deals with this learning and bonding process between a father and son. But this is only the beginning of Spike’s journey to adulthood as he encounters the landscape that has evolved with the virus for the last 28 years.

There is a lot going on with 28 YEARS LATER and I’ll try to cover as much as I can. Looking back on this series, the films were always much more than just your typical zombie film. And yes, I know many like to distinguish the threat in the 28 DAYS LATER franchise as the infected instead of zombies, but even in 28 YEARS LATER, the term zombies are used and the people these infected are no longer there, so while I understand the distinction, I will put the franchise in the zombie subgenre of horror. If you don’t, that’s cool. But I do.

This franchise has been more than just zombie survival. The first one was about hope after a time of crisis. There were absolutely horrifying things that occurred in 28 DAYS LATER, but it ended on an incredibly positive note. Jim and the crew had survived the horror and were hopeful when an airplane passes overhead. There seemed to be some kind of end in sight to the horror. If this were a 9-11 allegory, something quite a few zombie films were at the time, it was director Danny Boyle at his most optimistic, a time where hope may be on the horizon.

Then 28 MONTHS LATER came along and it was apparent that our response to the tragedy was to basically “nuke it from orbit.” The heavy attention to military, while also showing how a family, even the most loving one, can betray one another, showed a more pessimistic view. Our baser instincts took over and instead of searching for a cure, which may be out there in some that have an immunity to the virus, the preference by the higher-ups to destroy rather than investigate prevailed . Of course, despite many desperate efforts by the military to contain the virus, it still persisted, spreading to France in the decisive moments. That…was not such a chipper ending. Pretty bleak if you ask me.

That brings us to 28 YEARS LATER, and as with the previous two films, the opening moments tells a lot about the themes explored in the film. 28 DAYS opened with a well-intentioned humanitarian effort to free chimps tested on labs causing an outbreak and ended with a positive note for humanity. 28 MONTHS began with an act of betrayal to the family and ended in a failure of the military to fulfill their promise to protect. 28 YEARS begins with another family attacked and a boy witnessing its destruction with his own father, who he followed devoutly, showing some misguided beliefs. 28 YEARS opens with the boy Jimmy going against his father’s words and does not embrace the infected attack. This is basically the story we see play out through the rest of the movie with Spike as he learns from his father, then has a moment where everything he believed was true, in actuality, is a lie, forcing Spike to take action on his own and seek answers when his faith in his father is lost. Again, a powerful message.

The first half of 28 YEARS LATER is as intense as can be. We are introduced to the fragile society, marked with signs and lessons everywhere reminding the community that all the resources are everyone’s and not to waste it. Water is portioned. Food is free. Everything is shared, as long as the rules are followed. While many would look at this as some kind of socialist political statement, I don’t know if that’s what Boyle, writer Alex Garland, and this franchise are going for. There is still an anti-war message continued from 28 WEEKS, but I also think they are saying that militaristic action is necessary, as well as ugly, as represented by the inclusion of the amazing reading of the poem “Boots” by Rudyard Kipling, over a montage of society through the ages taking brutal military action in order to persevere.

Sidenote: while the “Boots” poem is amazingly edited in the trailer and through the 28 YEARS LATER film, I have to give the HORROR IN THE HIGH DESERT found footage series credit for using the poem first in a horror movie. The terrifying poem shows up in the last moments of the first film and again, evokes sheer terror.

But Boyle, Garland, and the film seems to show that in order for a society to function, both hawk (militaristic) and dove (compassionate) attitudes are necessary. Then again, I am basing all of this on my experience with American politics. Being set in the UK, Boyle might have an entirely different message about his own government across the pond. Sadly, my knowledge of politics outside of the US is limited, so I may be off with my analysis. I am.

Boyle has said in interviews that 28 YEARS LATER is about “Family” and when I heard that, I automatically thought about the kumbaya sort of family message we often get in Hollywood movies. But, sorry Vin Diesel, that’s not the kind of family 28 YEARS is about. Boyle and Garland are telling a more realistic, pessimistic message of how a child grows to be an adult and in order to do so, he has to leave his mother and father behind. Typically, one learns survival from the father and compassion from the mother. The amount of what one gets from each parent shapes the child into the adult the child becomes. At least that’s the way it was done for many, many years before we got all smart and modernized. This is true in 28 YEARS LATER as Spike learns the skills of survival from his father but still has the naïve dreams of a child encouraged by his mother. As his mother, Isla, lays sick in bed, Spike is taken, a bit too early, by his father to perform these more brutal trials to become a man. If Isla were more present, she would have told Jaimie to go fuck himself and wait until the boy is older. But she isn’t and Spike and Jaimie go out into uncharted territory.

I love the way the landscape evolved in 28 YEARS LATER. The way nature has taken over most places, covering houses and stopped trains with vines. The film definitely is more expensive than any other zombie film that has depicted the post-apocalypse before. The threats have evolved too with the infected becoming feral humans who have shed their clothes and sprint after anything that moves. Some of the more out of shape infected have become human slugs, slithering across the forest floor and eating anything that they come in contact with. They aren’t exactly slow zombies, but they are an added threat as they move silently and are just as infectious and hungry as the fast ones. But the biggest and more terrifying threat is the Alphas; giant infected man-mountains, all hair and muscle, towering over the rest of the herd and somehow leading them. These monsters have some form of higher intelligence and though they are nothing like Romero’s Bub from DAY OF THE DEAD, they are a bit more aware of their surroundings and are more intuitive to spreading the virus and their own survival.

This first half wonderfully establishes that the threat has grown and adds new life to the already treacherous landscape. Boyle takes his time, adhering action to the lessons Jamie teaches Spike as they traverse the countryside and rotten buildings in the first half. While we’ve seen the threat of the infected before, never has it been so diverse and more dangerous. While Boyle and Garner is telling us a poignant tale about a father teaching his son to be a man, this is also an intense and action-oriented way of introducing this new world to the audience.

The film makes a dramatic shift midway as Spike realizes his father’s teachings are important, but also much of it is sullied up with false bravado and outright lies. The first half is marvelously edited and filled with big-budget action sequences that really got my heart pumping. Never to the point of where it was during the “In the House In a Heartbeat” sequence in 28 DAYS, but a few scenes, like the land-bridge sprint sequence, came darn close.

This is when 28 YEARS turns into a much more somber and thoughtful piece about life and death. And while I understand why mainstream audiences might not take to that, this is where the film becomes so much more than your typical zombie survival flick. This is a bold move for filmmakers as you always risk losing the audience when there’s a tonal shift mid-movie. But like FULL METAL JACKET with its intense and most memorable first half, the second half tonal change is what completes the message Kubrick is trying to tell and I think the same goes for what Boyle and Garner are going for in 28 YEARS LATER, which doesn’t shift that tone once, but twice. It’s a wonder anyone was still with the film by the end, and I think that’s the reason many of those who dislike the film hang their hat on. . The threat is consistent with the infected, but our understanding of that threat changes. And along with it, so does the character of Spike.

In the latter half, Spike rejects his father Jamie, pulling away from him and sets out on his own. He is not quite a man, but Spike knows enough to understand he doesn’t want to be like his father and chooses to act on his own.

And this, my online friends, is where things got personal for me. And it’s also going to be very spoilery from here on out.

I lost my father at the same age as Spike does is in the film. And, yes, I know Spike’s father doesn’t necessarily die, but when he leaves the island community behind and looks to find someone to save his mother, Jamie might as well be dead. It is right here in the film where I couldn’t help but identify deeply with Spike’s magical thinking that at the end of his noble quest lays the treasure he desires—to get his mother back. But again, this mythical concept of family is not a Hollywood tale. There is no knight in shining armor rescuing the princess. This section focuses on the cold, hard fact that everyone racing around infected was once a human being with loves, losses, thoughts, wins, and loses. This message is communicated through a wonderfully soulful performance by Ralph Fiennes as the iodine-covered Dr. Kelson. Kelson has built a monument of skulls of all of the infected he has encountered—a task that has made him an outcast among the rest of the community, but one he has dedicated his life to. It is with Kelson that Spike learns that every life is precious, even the infected.

Now, Boyle and Garland do a lot to pull on the heartstrings here. You’ve got the sick mother. The wide-eyed kid you followed for more than an hour. Then there’s the amazing cinematography with a golden sunset, and an overwhelming swell of music. While the threat is still present, the film takes a moment to slow down and acknowledge one single death in one especially gracious act of letting go. Sure, it’s surrounded by the sprinting infected, rampaging Alphas, and sluggish crawlers, but the moments Boyle gives Spike to come to acceptance of his mother’s fate were some of the most touching you’re going to see in a horror movie ever. It is a bold choice for Boyle to end the film in this way, especially after a pulse pounding first hour. But in doing so, his extensive examination of death and how it affects various aspects of humanity with this series has been some of the most sophisticated ideas that are rarely broached in the genre.

Seeing this scene hit me hard, more so than I could have imagined and more so than I really like to express in such a public place as a theater or in an online review. But watching this young boy say goodbye to his mother struck a chord remarkably close to home, too close to my current situation with my own mother.

I want to go on and talk about the way the film was shot using multiple iPhones, but honestly, while the shots looked amazing, especially the way the film shifts its focus and slows down the moment, even freeze-framing it for a bit, that could be looked at as flashy bells and whistles anywhere else, but in a movie series that has never looked conventional, it is what I expected. I really know extraordinarily little about camera lenses and screen formats and the like. I’ll let other people dissect that. All I know is that everything looks unique, but that has been another constant factor through the 28 series. Boyle not only made a movie that hit me like a Mack truck but turns out it looks nifty too.

I also wanted to acknowledge the wonderful performances. Aaron Taylor Johnson has become one of the better leading men in movies right now. Here he plays a flawed man, trying to do his best to raise a son that will be able to survive in this harsh world. It is one note, as he does represent the aggro-tough guy, something that this movie and Spike doesn’t necessarily want to become, but he does the role very well and gives him much more nuance than the character deserves. Like Johnson does with fatherhood, Jodie Comer plays more of a symbolic aspect of motherhood, representing compassion and morality, as well. Half of the movie she is delirious and bedridden, but aspects of both why Jamie was drawn to her and why Spike is fighting for her come through in the latter half. It is a selfless role where she too is not put in the best of light at times, but Comer makes it her own. And again, while Ralph Fiennes is more of a representation of a lesson Spike needs to learn at this point of his journey, he always offers up a confident performance as the outcasted doctor. His sincere performance is mostly expository, but the words he speaks resonate and shine. Lastly, the performance of Alfie Williams as Spike was one that had to grow on me. At first, I was annoyed with the child actor. I thought he was the weakest part of the beginning, but then I realized that his awkwardness and reluctance was purposeful. Like his character Spike, Wiliams grows as a character and ended up growing on me too. In the final dramatic moments, the little actor really does a fantastic job, showing real change since we met him in the beginning.

Oh yeah, that ending. Another tonal shift from a meditation on mortality to a balls-out, slapstick farce with a blonde-haired, track-suited gang of thugs leaping to Spike’s rescue. I know only bits about the Jimmy Saville controversy. I know he is a despicable man who did heinous things. I also know that this resonated differently in the US, with most audiences oblivious to his crimes. But even without at first understanding it, I felt this shift in tone was mostly done to usher in the next chapter of the 28 YEARS LATER franchise. Some might feel it undercuts the tone of the film. But I needed that cathartic laugh aloud after the second half ended and can’t wait to see where this versatile series is set to go next.

I don’t want to get all preachy or anything, but in a genre where death is so common, sometimes we become jaded upon watching one person after another murdered by the slash of a serial killer or the claws of a monster. I know not every movie needs to make every character precious. I love those 80’s movies where people fell like bowling pins. But 28 YEARS LATER made me take a second and look at death a little closer. The fact that this horror genre that many look down on can make me feel such strong emotions is part of the reason I watch horror to this day. 28 YEARS LATER is the zombie movie I needed at the time I saw it. My mother allowed me to watch all of those horror movies as a kid. She helped form the lifetime horror-phile I am today. For that, I am forever in her debt. If you made it to the end of this video, thank you. I also appreciate your support of this channel. It would be nothing without my loyal followers. I’ll see you next time, folks.

Worth Noting: THE SHROUDS (2024)

Released on April 25, 2025, streaming on The Criterion Channel and available On Demand from Amazon Prime from Sideshow and Janus Films!
Directed/Written by David Cronenberg.
Check out the trailer here!!

As with most Cronenberg films, THE SHROUDS takes place in a not-so-distant future where technology is a step or two ahead and slightly askew from what we are working with today. After his wife Becca (Diane Kruger) died of a lengthy stint with cancer, industrial documentarian Karsh (played by Vincent Cassel) played part in developing the Shrouds, a new technology which envelops a recently departed loved one in a 3-D mapping cloak which allows those the deceased left behind to see the body under the ground going through the natural decaying process. Karsh then expanded this technology, offering it up to others and eventually developing his own cemetery featuring the Shrouds viewing system, specifically coded to only be seen by the departed’s loved ones. But after the cemetery is vandalized, Karsh begins to suspect there is some kind of conspiracy afoot involving mechanical implants placed inside his wife during her cancer treatment that he discovered while obsessing over his wife’s decaying body. This conspiracy is furthered by Becca’s sister Terry (also played by Diane Kruger), her ex-husband and co-creator of the Shrouds tech Maury (played by Guy Pearce) and Soo-Min (played by Sandrine Holt) who is the wife of one of the doctors who worked on Becca and the Shrouds technology. So therein lays the mystery of whether or not a conspiracy exists, who may be behind it, and whether or not Karsh should give a shit about any of it and just get on with his life.

Morbid? Yes, you betcha. THE SHROUDS is a thorough examination of death, dying, what happens after death, and the grief one goes through having buried a loved one. Cronenberg has been asked if this film was a reaction to the death of his wife by cancer and while he says that this was the inspiration for the film, it took on a life of its own and is not some kind of autobiographical piece. It also is not horror, though it does deal with the way we all face that great unknown in our own twisted ways. For Kersh, he never really gets over his wife’s death, so much so that he gazes at her rotting corpse every day, watching it succumb to the elements deep under the ground. I’m sure there are those who might think this to be a step into crazy town, I have to admit, the idea is an intriguing one.

This film hit me. I encountered death at quite an early age as my own father lost his battle with cancer when I was twelve. And while there are some moments I don’t remember since it was a considerable amount of time ago, the description Kersch gives about how he felt when his wife died resonated with me on a level I wasn’t expecting. Not only was Cronenberg able to put it into words and actor Vincent Cassel able to bring that emotion to life, but this story really touched me in the delicate way it probes into man’s greatest fear. In the end, this is one of the more uplifting films Cronenberg has ever made, coming to a very mature, yet optimistic end, despite how morbid the final images are.

As usual, Cronenberg drops this very human story in a world that is maybe a few years, but more likely is just a few months away. I could see this manner of burial actually becoming a real thing. Kersch drives around in a Tesla, which in itself has become funny in an ironic way. Kersch has an avatar on his phone that acts as his personal assistant, a His Girl Friday or a Moneypenny if you will, who digs for information, investigates these various conspiracies for him, and manages Kersch’s day-to-day business. As usual, Cronenberg identifies the absurd aspects of our technology today and takes it a half a step further. Honestly, I want one of those for my phone to help me keep all my things in order and most likely, someone is going to see THE SHROUDS and make this very thing a reality soon enough.

On top of all of that, THE SHROUDS is quite funny. Not in an overt way, but the film is filled with gallows humor, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd way Kersch bumbles through his life, rather cluelessly and following the advice of everyone around him—each of them having their own strange conspiratorial laden explanation as to what is going on. I do feel this darkly jovial tone was intended as not just a means to let loose some of the tension and darkness in this morose subject matter, but also to highlight how humans use humor as a coping mechanism when faced with dire circumstances.

THE SHROUDS leaves a lot unexplained. I feel that those looking for a complete story with all of the answers are going to feel a bit befuddled when the credits roll after the abrupt final scene. I found myself wondering, “Is that it?” by the end, but still, I am bouncing this film around my brain long after it is over. It hit me on a visceral level. Cassel’s refined and almost monotone delivery, not unlike Cronenberg’s distinct delivery itself, makes for a protagonist you can project anything onto. He is nothing but grief, preferring to gaze at his rotting wife rather than move on. Still, behind that stone, almost alien-like exterior, Cassel is able to communicate the fear and fascination death embodies so well, that you can’t help but sympathize with him.

The bulk of the heavy lifting in THE SHROUDS goes to Diane Kruger who plays three roles: that of Kersch’s dead wife Becca, her sister Terry, and finally, Hunny, the avatar on Kersch’s phone. Each role is distinct. Each role is sensual and sexy in their own way. And each role is equally tragic. Yes, even the story of the avatar has a deeper meaning that acting simply as a digital personal assistant. Kruger is unbelievable versatile in these roles and while I knew these parts were all played by the same actor going on, on sight, I doubt many will notice it’s all the same actor. And while his role is much less attractive and downright despicable at times, Guy Pearce gets a chance to show his creepier side and creepy it is.

With THE SHROUDS, Cronenberg’s still got that gift for peeking into the future that dazzled us with VIDEODROME back in the day. Thankfully, we are not seeing Cronenberg’s massive talent fade away as we sadly see with every Argento film he puts out. I love the guy, but man, I hate to say it, but Argento’s lost his touch. Happily, Cronenberg still feels on the cusp of uncomfortable subject matter, unafraid to venture into places people are afraid to talk about, and willing to look at today’s society and where we are in our intimate relationship with technology and bring forth a highly emotional story about it.

But is THE SHROUDS horror? Well, we do get to see what being in the grave does to a body. Honestly, there have been times I have wondered about that after all of this time, what my father looks like down there underneath all of that earth. That’s a pretty morbid thought that I don’t think I would have acknowledged had I not watched THE SHROUDS. So, there are some quite horrifying themes this film plays with. There also is some patented body horror in terms of how Becca’s body is being destroyed piece by piece from cancer that is downright terrible to watch. There’s an especially intimate scene between Becca and Kersch that honestly almost broke me at how visceral it was. While body horror has an elusive meaning, I feel what Cronenberg really is an expert in is how he illustrates the utter and absolute horror of having one’s body become a stranger and in one particular scene he illustrates that point perfectly in THE SHROUDS. And of course, there’s the overlying blanket of conspiracy that Kersch delves throughout the story. So, put all of that together and squint and I think you could make a horror movie out of all of THE SHROUDS, though thriller is the most accurate genre it falls into.

All that said, THE SHROUDS is more of an intriguing film delving into ideas, feelings, and societal trends. It’s a though provoker. A conversation starter. Something you discuss with others when things get quiet, intellectual, and deep. All the while, I feel the sudden ending, the answers left undealt with, and the ethereal meaning of the whole damn movie is going to turn off a lot of folks. I don’t know if I would label THE SHROUDS as entertaining as there are quite a few lulls in this morose yet beautiful story, but man, is it a film made by a filmmaker that got my brain working in ways few other movie and movie-makers can.

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 (DELICATE ARCH)
#10 – NOSFERATU (ABRAHAM’S BOYS)
#9 – FOUND FOOTAGE: THE MAKING OF THE PATTERSON PROJECT (ABOVE THE KNEE)
#8 – HERETIC (DEAD MAIL)
#7 – TRAUMATIKA (IT FEEDS)
#6 – SINNERS (PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT
#5 – THE UGLY STEPSISTER (BAMBI: THE RECKONING)
#4 – 28 YEARS LATER (THE SHROUDS)