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The most significant surprise the film industry has witnessed in 2025? The comeback of horror as a main player at the British cinemas.

As a category, it has remarkably exceeded previous years with a 22% rise compared to last year for the UK and Ireland film earnings: over £83 million this year, versus £68,612,395 in 2024.

“Last year, no horror film reached £10m at the UK or Irish box office. This year, five films have,” notes a cinema revenue expert.

The big hits of the year – Weapons (£11.4m), another hit film (£16.2 million), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98m) and the sequel to a classic (£15.54m) – have all hung about in the multiplexes and in the public consciousness.

Although much of the professional discussion focuses on the unique excellence of prominent auteurs, their achievements suggest something evolving between audiences 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.

“Such movies experiment with style and format to produce entirely fresh content, connecting with viewers on a new level.”

But outside of creative value, the steady demand of spooky films this year suggests they are giving audiences something that’s highly necessary: catharsis.

“Currently, cinema mirrors the widespread anger, fear, and societal splits,” notes a horror podcast host.

“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 prominent scholar of vampire and monster cinema.

Amid a real-world news cycle featuring geopolitical strife, enforcement actions, extremist rises, and ecological disasters, supernatural beings and undead creatures resonate a bit differently with filmg oers.

“Some research suggests vampire film popularity correlates with financial downturns,” states an actress from a recent horror hit.

“This symbolizes the way modern economies can exhaust human spirit.”

From film's inception, societal turmoil has shaped horror.

Analysts point to the boom of European artistic movements after the WWI and the chaotic atmosphere of the 1920s Europe, with features such as classic silent horror and Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

Subsequently came the 1930s depression and Universal Studios’ Frankenstein and The Wolfman.

“Take Dracula: it depicts an Eastern European figure invading Britain, spreading a metaphorical infection that endangers local protagonists,” says a historian.

“Therefore, it embodies concerns related to foreign influx.”

The boogeyman of border issues inspired the newly launched folk horror a recent film title.

The filmmaker explains: “I wanted to explore ideas around the rise of populism. Firstly, slogans like ‘Let’s Make Britain Great Again’, that harken back to some fantasy time when things were ‘better’, but only if you were a rich white man.”

“Also, the concept of familiar individuals revealing surprising prejudices in casual settings.”

Arguably, the modern period of acclaimed, socially switched-on horror started with a sharp parody debuted a year after a contentious political era.

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

“It was a hugely exciting time,” says a director whose film about a deadly unborn child was one of the time's landmark films.

“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: “Over 10 years, audiences’ minds have been opening up to much more of that.”

Simultaneously, there has been a reconsideration of the overlooked scary films.

Earlier this year, a new cinema opened in the capital, showing underground films such as a quirky horror title, The Fall of the House of Usher and the 1989 remake of Dr Caligari.

The re-appreciation of this “raw and chaotic” genre is, according to the venue creator, a straightforward answer to the formulaic productions churned out at the theaters.

“This responds to the sterile output from major studios. Today's cinema is safer and more repetitive. Many popular movies feel identical,” he explains.

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

Fright flicks continue to disrupt conventions.

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

In addition to the re-emergence of the insane researcher motif – with multiple versions of a literary masterpiece upcoming – he anticipates we will see fright features in the near future responding to our present fears: about AI’s dominance in the years ahead and “supernatural elements in political spheres”.

In the interim, a religious-themed scare film a forthcoming title – which narrates the tale of biblical parent hardships after the nativity, and includes well-known actors as the sacred figures – is set for release later this year, and will certainly send a ripple through the religious conservatives in the United States.</