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The largest surprise the film industry has experienced in 2025? The comeback of horror as a main player at the UK box office.

As a style, it has remarkably exceeded previous years with a 22% year-on-year increase 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,” says a box office editor.

The top performers of the year – Weapons (£11.4m), another hit film (£16.2m), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98 million) and 28 Years Later (£15.54m) – have all remained in the multiplexes and in the public consciousness.

While much of the expert analysis focuses on the standout quality of certain directors, their successes suggest something changing between moviegoers and the category.

“Viewers often remark, ‘This is a must-see regardless of your genre preferences,’” states 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 outside of aesthetic quality, the steady demand of frightening features this year suggests they are giving audiences something that’s much needed: catharsis.

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

“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 horror film history.

Against a real-world news cycle featuring geopolitical strife, enforcement actions, extremist rises, and ecological disasters, witches, zombies and vengeful spirits connect in new ways with audiences.

“I read somewhere that the success of vampire movies is linked to economically depressed times,” comments an performer from a recent horror hit.

“It’s the idea that capitalism sucks the life out of people.”

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

Scholars point to the boom of early cinematic styles after the first world war and the chaotic atmosphere of the early Weimar Republic, with movies such as classic silent horror and Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

This was followed by the economic crisis of the 30s and Universal Studios’ Frankenstein and The Wolfman.

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

“Thus, it mirrors widespread fears about migration.”

The boogeyman of immigration shaped the newly launched folk horror a recent film title.

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?’”

Maybe, the current era of praised, culturally aware scary films started with a clever critique launched a year after a divisive leadership period.

It sparked a fresh generation of horror auteurs, including various prominent figures.

“It was a hugely exciting time,” recalls a creator whose project 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 director, currently developing another scary story, continues: “During the past decade, viewers have become more receptive to such innovative approaches.”

At the same time, there has been a reappraisal of the underrated horror works.

Earlier this year, a independent theater opened in a major city, showing underground films such as The Greasy Strangler, a classic adaptation and the 1989 remake of the expressionist icon.

The fresh acclaim of this “gritty and loud” genre is, according to the theater owner, a direct reaction to the formulaic productions pumped out at the box office.

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

“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,” observes an authority.

Alongside the return of the insane researcher motif – with two adaptations of a literary masterpiece imminent – he forecasts we will see fright features in 2026 and 2027 addressing our modern concerns: about AI’s dominance in the coming decades and “monstrous metaphors in power structures”.

In the interim, “Jesus horror” a forthcoming title – which narrates the tale of Mary and Joseph’s struggles after the nativity, and includes famous performers as the sacred figures – is set for release later this year, and will definitely create waves through the Christian right in the America.</