Editorials
2025 Was a Banner Year for Women in Horror
*Keep up with our ongoing end of the year coverage here*
Women have always provided the heartbeat of horror. From damsels in distress and long-suffering wives to monstrous mothers and femme fatales, they are inextricable from genre stories, though they’re often reduced to caricatures.
Thankfully, with each passing year, women have won more empowerment both on and off the screen. As feminism continues to evolve, so does our representation in stories of horror that increasingly revolve around the female experience. Though 2025 has felt regressive in many ways, the year has seen a plethora of captivating and diverse female characters filling the screen in horror films.
We’ve gone back to the female source of science fiction while exploring the implications of subservient AI and a host of roles in between. We’ve celebrated the swan songs of beloved characters and explored the bounds of dangerous love while embracing different sources of feminine magic.
In short, it’s been a banner year for women in the horror genre.
Sophie Thatcher – Companion
The year kicked off with an oddly prescient tale of female autonomy and survival. Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is nervous to spend a couple’s weekend at a remote cabin with her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid), especially since his friend Kat (Megan Suri) doesn’t seem to like her much. When Kat’s wealthy boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend) attempts an act of sexual assault, Iris is forced to slit his throat.
Only in the aftermath of this horrific attack does she learn that she’s not human at all, but a robotic companion programmed to fulfill Josh’s every need. What follows is a violent chase in which Iris struggles to gain control of her system-wide settings while Josh attempts to shut her down. Shocking revelations add context to this futuristic nightmare, and we learn that Iris’s perfect boyfriend may not be as charming as he seems.
Thatcher gives a stellar performance as an empathetic AI system whose personality changes according to her settings. The story is a blood-soaked yet upbeat meditation on female empowerment and the toxic men who confuse love with control.
Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld – Sinners
Perhaps the year’s most exciting horror film features a host of empowered female characters. Ryan Coogler’s exceptional film introduces us to the entrepreneurial Smokestack Twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan) as they return to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and prepare to open a juke joint which will feature the talents of their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton). But as they set to work preparing the venue, both brothers reunite with their long-lost loves.
Stack has abandoned the white-passing Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), hoping to protect her from the Klan, while Smoke is estranged from Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) after the death of their infant daughter. A successful opening night is derailed when a white vampire and his newly turned minions storm the building, hoping to appropriate Sammie’s musical talent. While Smoke and Stack are the film’s protagonists, Mary and Annie form the story’s heart, both employing their unique skills to support their men. Mary takes a dangerous risk when she tries to use her light-skinned appearance to smooth over tensions at the venue’s front door while Annie draws on her rootwork practice to help defeat the vampire threat.
Coogler’s powerful film finds humanity in this forgotten culture, highlighting the power of music as the tie that binds.
Sally Hawkins – Bring Her Back
Danny and Michael Philippou followed their harrowing breakout hit Talk to Me with an equally upsetting and gory film. Seventeen-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) has been caring for his visually impaired sister Piper (Sora Wong) while their single father undergoes cancer treatment. But his death forces them to enter temporary foster care until Andy is old enough to serve as his sister’s legal guardian.
At first, their foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins), seems like the answer to their prayers with a home outfitted to meet Piper’s needs. But she’s strangely hostile towards Andy, and her other foster child, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), is eerily silent. Tensions escalate as Sally begins to gaslight Andy, building a narrative about his incompetence, while Oliver engages in disturbing acts of gruesome self-harm. As this devastating story unfolds, we learn that Laura has an unthinkable plan to reverse a traumatic event from her past. The story merges into one of grisly violence and a powerful exploration of unresolved grief.
Hawkins is magnetic in the role, managing to humanize an outwardly monstrous mother.
All of the Women – M3GAN 2.0
The robotic menace returns in a bombastic sequel much different from her 2022 breakout hit. Two years after a violent showdown between M3gan (Amie Donald, Jenna Davis) and her creator Gemma (Allison Williams), a mysterious agency has used her programming to create Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), an evolved prototype designed to serve as a global assassin, then sit motionless until she’s needed again. Having backed her program up in the cloud, M3gan has been lying dormant in Gemma’s Smart Home to keep watch over Cady (Violet McGraw), the child she’s still bonded to.
As Amelia wages a destructive battle for freedom, M3gan and Gemma must rely on each other in order to save the girl they both love. But as caregivers to a growing child, they must also learn to step back and let Cady learn to protect herself. The exciting film pulls from legendary sequels like Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day while dressing its action up in hot pink empowerment. While M3GAN 2.0 premiered to disappointing box office numbers, it’s a fascinating exploration of AI ethics and technology’s corrosive effect on humanity.
Jennifer Love Hewitt – I Know What You Did Last Summer
It was only a matter of time before the legacy sequel trend hit one of the 90s’ most beloved films. Released in response to the surprise success of Scream, the original I Know What You Did Last Summer is a throwback whodunit dressed up in ’90s meta-slasher style. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s newest franchise installment brings the Fisherman killer roaring back to the screen in a poppy sequel that reunites us with one of the genre’s favorite final girls.
Decades after surviving the famously knowledgeable stalker, Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has left Southport for good and now uses her experiences to teach trauma response at a nearby university. But a similar series of connected deaths brings her back to her hometown and a tense reunion with her ex-husband, Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr.). While admittedly messy, this updated chapter provides Julie with long-awaited clarity and empowerment as she’s forced to contend with the root of her pain.
The director also treats us to a brief appearance from fan-favorite scream queen Helen Shivers, played by genre icon Sarah Michelle Gellar, before teasing a future team-up sequel featuring Hewitt and her I Still Know What You Did Last Summer co-star Brandy Norwood.
Alison Brie – Together
Alison Brie and her husband, Dave Franco, once again project their real-life love onto the screen in Michael Shanks’s body horror comedy Together. The couple stars as Millie and Tim, a quasi-engaged pair trying to mend their crumbling relationship without admitting how unhappy they are. After moving out of the city for Millie’s new job, Tim struggles to find himself while grieving the recent loss of his parents. Hoping to reconnect on an afternoon hike, they become lost in a mysterious cave that seems to conceal a dangerous pool. Something in the water ignites a desperate need to be together, and Tim finds himself physically unable to function without Millie nearby.
Even worse, their bodies are dragged toward each other by an unseen force, and physical contact fuses their skin, requiring grisly measures to split them apart. An admittedly bonkers conclusion ties a cheeky Spice Girls song into the film’s warnings about unexamined codependency and the dangers of all-consuming love.
Amy Madigan and Julia Garner – Weapons
Perhaps the year’s most surprising genre moment was Amy Madigan‘s villainous turn in Zach Cregger’s jaw-dropping Weapons. The twisting story begins when Justine (Julia Garner) arrives at school one day to find a single student in her class. The rest have disappeared without a trace, and as a new teacher, she finds herself the town’s prime suspect.
As this mystery unravels in parallel narratives, we learn that the woman accused of witchcraft is not the story’s true sorceress. By following her only remaining student, Justine discovers a much more sinister creature operating from within his house. A skilled witch, Gladys (Madigan), uses grounded spells to captivate her intended victims and operate them like human weapons. Both stunning and visceral, Cregger’s thrilling film features a strong protagonist in Justine while delivering a female villain for the ages.
Vera Farmiga – The Conjuring: Last Rites
One of horror’s most successful franchises ended this year with a surprisingly emotional final chapter. Despite what we know about the real-life figure she’s portraying, Vera Farmiga once again dazzles as the cinematic clairvoyant Lorraine Warren, who battles demons alongside her beloved husband Ed (Patrick Wilson). Michael Chaves‘s The Conjuring: Last Rites takes us back to the beginning as the couple shies away from a terrifying case and a cursed mirror that seems to mark Lorraine and her unborn child.
Decades later, the now-famous couple is eyeing retirement and preparing for their daughter’s wedding when the mirror and its demons reappear in their lives. This symbolic passing of the torch says goodbye to a cinematic couple whose story has changed the landscape of horror. The Conjuring: Last Rites is both a terrifying haunted house story and a touching reminder to teach our children to empower themselves. Though it’s goodbye for now, an upcoming series for HBO may soon bring Lorraine Warren back to the screen.
Elle Fanning in Predator: Badlands
(L-R) Elle Fanning as Tessa and Ella Fanning as Thia in 20th Century Studios’ PREDATOR: BADLANDS film. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Of all the things to expect in a new installment of the Predator franchise, a female android from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation was not high on the list. Director Dan Trachtenberg follows his 2022 hit Prey with a creative approach to franchise lore. Elle Fanning stars as Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani synthetic lost on the dangerous planet Denna.
With limited options, she connects with a Yautja warrior named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who’s also been sent to hunt the Kalisk, a dangerous apex predator. What begins as a relationship built on mutual survival blossoms into a trusting bond that defies species classification. Fanning also gets a villainous turn as Tessa, Thia’s manipulative “sister,” determined to fulfill her corporate objectives.
As the third prominent female AI character of the year, Fanning’s dual roles solidify the trend of using subservient AI as a metaphor for feminist empowerment in the face of systemic patriarchy. With the continued proliferation of invasive tech, it’s an archetype we’re likely to see more of in the coming years.
Mia Goth in Frankenstein
FRANKENSTEIN. Mia Goth as Elizabeth in Frankenstein. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2025.
One of the most anticipated horror adaptations of the year was drawn from the pen of a legendary female author. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the story of a troubled man who destroys the lives of everyone he loves in an attempt to replicate women’s life-giving power. Guillermo del Toro brings this beloved novel to life in a new reimagining that sharpens Shelley’s original themes. His Victor (Oscar Isaac) is a hubristic monster, and his Creature (Jacob Elordi) a sensitive child desperate for a father’s love.
Del Toro adds a feminist edge to his updated story with an empowered Elizabeth (Mia Goth) reminiscent of Shelley herself. Much more than a damsel in distress, Goth’s Elizabeth is both intellectual and empathetic, challenging Victor’s audacious theories while inadvertently providing the key to his monstrous creation. Rather than terror, her connection with the Creature sparks yearning for unquestioned love and acceptance, while her stunning costumes make us long for our own gothic romance. Goth also disappears into the role of Victor’s doomed mother, whose death in childbirth sparks his deadly obsession, positioning women as the driving force of this foundational story.
From empowered AI creations and women determined to save their partners, scientists and scholars guiding the next generation, to villainous witches using magic to exert their will, this year has seen a fantastic roster of disparate women taking the horror world by storm.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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