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The largest shock the movie business has experienced in 2025? The comeback of horror as a dominant force at the UK box office.

As a genre, it has remarkably exceeded previous years with a 22% rise compared to last year for the UK and Irish box office: over £83 million this year, against £68.6 million last year.

“Previously, zero horror films made £10 million in the UK or Ireland. Currently, five have surpassed that mark,” says a cinema revenue expert.

The major successes of the year – Weapons (£11.4 million), Sinners (£16.2m), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98m) and the sequel to a classic (£15.54 million) – have all hung about in the cinemas and in the public consciousness.

Even though much of the industry commentary centers on the singular brilliance of prominent auteurs, their triumphs point to something shifting between moviegoers and the category.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘Even if you don’t like horror this is a film you need to see,’” states a content buying lead.

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

But outside of aesthetic quality, the steady demand of frightening features this year indicates they are giving cinemagoers 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 film commentator.

“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,” says a noted author of horror film history.

Amid a real-world news cycle featuring geopolitical strife, enforcement actions, extremist rises, and ecological disasters, witches, zombies and vengeful spirits strike a unique chord with filmg oers.

“I read somewhere that the success of vampire movies is linked to economically depressed times,” says an actress from a popular scary movie.

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

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

Experts point to the surge of European artistic movements after the the Great War and the turbulent times of the post-war Germany, with films such as classic silent horror and a pioneering fright film.

This was followed by the Great Depression era and classic monster movies.

“The classic example is Dracula: you get this invasion of Britain by someone from eastern Europe who then causes this infection that gets spread in all sorts of ways and threatens the Anglo-Saxon heroes,” notes a commentator.

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

The boogeyman of border issues inspired the just-premiered folk horror The Severed Sun.

Its writer-director 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?’”

Arguably, the current era of praised, culturally aware scary films began with a brilliant satire released a year after a divisive leadership period.

It introduced a new wave of innovative filmmakers, including a range of talented artists.

“That period was incredibly stimulating,” says a filmmaker whose project about a murderous foetus was one of the period's key works.

“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: “In the last ten years, public taste has evolved to welcome bolder horror concepts.”

Concurrently, there has been a revival of the genre’s less celebrated output.

Earlier this year, a new cinema opened in London, showing obscure movies such as a quirky horror title, The Fall of the House of Usher and the modern reinterpretation of Dr Caligari.

The fresh acclaim of this “gritty and loud” genre is, according to the cinema founder, a clear response to the calculated releases produced 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 explains.

“On the other hand, [these indie works] feel imperfect. They seem to burst forth from deep creativity, free from commercial constraints.”

Fright flicks continue to upset the establishment.

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

In addition to the re-emergence of the deranged genius archetype – with two adaptations of a well-known story imminent – he forecasts we will see horror films in the near future addressing our current anxieties: about tech supremacy in the coming decades and “monstrous metaphors in power structures”.

Meanwhile, “Jesus horror” a forthcoming title – which depicts the events of biblical parent hardships after the messiah's arrival, and features celebrated stars as the sacred figures – is set for release in the coming months, and will certainly create waves through the religious conservatives in the US.</