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The most significant surprise the cinema world has experienced in 2025? The comeback of horror as a main player at the UK box office.

As a genre, it has impressively outperformed earlier periods with a 22% year-on-year increase for the UK and Ireland film earnings: over £83 million this year, compared with £68 million the previous year.

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

The top performers of the year – a recent horror title (£11.4 million), another hit film (£16.2 million), the latest Conjuring installment (£14.98 million) and 28 Years Later (£15.54m) – have all stayed in the cinemas and in the public consciousness.

While much of the industry commentary focuses on the singular brilliance of prominent auteurs, their successes suggest something shifting between viewers and the style.

“Many have expressed, ‘You should watch this even if horror isn’t your thing,’” explains a content buying lead.

“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 consistent popularity of horror movies this year indicates they are giving moviegoers something that’s much needed: catharsis.

“These days, movies echo the prevalent emotions of rage, anxiety, and polarization,” 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 respected writer of classic monster stories.

Against a current events featuring war, border tensions, far-right movements, and environmental crises, supernatural beings and undead creatures strike a unique chord with audiences.

“Some research suggests vampire film popularity correlates with financial downturns,” says an performer from a popular scary movie.

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

Since the early days of cinema, social unrest has influenced the genre.

Experts highlight the boom of early cinematic styles after the WWI and the unstable environment of the 1920s Europe, with films such as classic silent horror and a pioneering fright film.

Later occurred the 1930s depression 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,” says a commentator.

“So it reflects a lot of anxieties around immigration.”

The specter of immigration influenced the just-premiered folk horror The Severed Sun.

Its writer-director clarifies: “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 celebrated, politically engaged fright cinema began with a clever critique debuted a year after a polarizing administration.

It ushered in a recent surge of visionary directors, including several notable names.

“It was a hugely exciting time,” says a creator whose film about a violent prenatal entity was one of the era’s tentpole movies.

“In my view, it marked the start of a phase where filmmakers embraced wildly creative horror with artistic ambitions.”

This creator, now penning a fresh horror script, notes: “Over 10 years, audiences’ minds have been opening up to much more of that.”

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

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

The renewed interest of this “gritty and loud” genre is, according to the theater owner, a straightforward answer to the calculated releases pumped out at the theaters.

“It’s a reaction to the sanitised product that’s coming out of Hollywood. You have a film scene that’s more tepid and more predictable. A lot of the mainstream films are very similar,” he says.

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

Horror films continue to challenge the norm.

“These movies uniquely blend vintage vibes with contemporary relevance,” observes an expert.

Alongside the return of the insane researcher motif – with multiple versions of a well-known story imminent – he forecasts we will see scary movies in 2026 and 2027 responding to our current anxieties: about tech supremacy in the years ahead and “vampires living in the Trump tower”.

Meanwhile, “Jesus horror” a forthcoming title – which narrates the tale of Mary and Joseph’s struggles after the messiah's arrival, and includes well-known actors as the divine couple – is set for release later this year, and will undoubtedly cause a stir through the Christian right in the United States.</