With the worst behind us, it’s time to talk about the best movies of the year – let’s get into part one of our best-of list, courtesy of Lou!
5. Final Destination: Bloodlines
I have been waiting the better part of a decade and a half for the next instalment in my beloved Final Destination franchise, and let me tell you, Bloodlines did not disappoint. For pure riotous fun this year, it was hard to beat this take on the FD formula – inventive, witty, and packed to the brim with kills that would make Chuck Palahniuk blush, it somehow made all that time waiting worthwhile. Throw in a beautiful send-off to Tony Todd’s William Bludman, and it’s about as warm and fuzzy as it gets for a franchise based on exploding bags of viscera.
4. Dangerous Animals
Speaking of things I’ve been holding out on for more than a decade – Dangerous Animals, Sean Byrne’s third movie, came out this year, and it’s another sensational addition to his bloody, creative, and profoundly unsettling oeuvre. Jai Courtney soars (or swims?) in a meaty villainous role, and Byrne brings new meaning to survival horror in a properly thrilling fight against the odds. It’s pure, propulsive horror with an edge of unsettling ritual that lifts it to the level of Byrne’s singular work, and I can only hope this release means there’s more to come from him soon.
3. Best Wishes to All
There have been some brilliantly weird movies in 2025, but none have really come close to the utter, confounding oddness of Yuta Shimotsa’s Best Wishes to All. Part social commentary, part nightmare torture flick, part family drama, Best Wishes to All has been running around my head since I saw it earlier this year. The family dynamics are relatable even against the impossibly strange backdrop, and, as esoteric as things get, the film never loses sight of the human stories at its heart. It’s the kind of movie you want to spend hours sifting through just to figure out how all the pieces fit together, and trust me, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
2. Pillion
Gay BDSM biker romance dramedy with Harry Melling? As specific as it might sound, Pillion was always going to be a slam-dunk for me, and this curious and compelling mix of sex, power, and intimacy made for one of the most unique and oddly endearing films of the year. Melling and co-lead Alexander Skarsgard put in a pair of outstanding performances as the central dominant and submissive, and the dry British wit married with the BDSM dynamic teases out the humour in even the kinkiest scenes. I’ve never seen a movie quite like it, but I sincerely hope this isn’t the last.
1. The Ugly Stepsister
On my way home from seeing The Ugly Stepsister for the first time, a woman approached me on the train to ask if I was feeling alright. And the answer was and still is no, because this film has wormed (pun intended) its way into my brain in a way I can’t shake. Good thing I don’t want to, either, because Emilie Blitchfeldt’s debut feature is one of the richest and most fascinating body horror movies of all time. Lea Myren dominates in a superb and committed lead performance as the titular stepsister, finding humour amongst the grotesque, and Blitchfeldt already feels like such a dominant force behind the camera. A deconstruction of beauty standards through the lens of this lavishly-reimagined fairytale, it’s a film that balances astounding beauty in its production with some of the nastiest, gnarliest, and most stomach-churningly sick sequences in recent movie memory. Just go in with your sick bags ready.
Check in tomorrow for the second part of our best-of list, and feel free to share with us your own personal favourites in the comments below! If you enjoyed this article and want to see more stuff like it, please consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. You can check out more of my work on my personal blog, The Cutprice Guignol!
By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Bloody Disgusting)
No But Listen 