Of this year's UK cinema releases (as listed on the Film Distributors Association website), I've only managed to see 67. That doesn't sound a lot, granted, but it's still more than one a week and it doesn't count the numerous movies at FrightFest that don't appear on the official FDA lists. It does, however, include a number of titles which I saw on DVD or streaming, either because they disappeared from the circuits very quickly or they never screened anywhere near me. Pre-COVID I was seeing around twice as many new films as since, (in 2017 my score was 162!) so I'm guessing it's a combination of different releasing patterns favouring streaming rather than physical media, a tendency towards massive blockbusters which hog too many of the available screens for too long, and increased personal apathy towards a filmic menu that simply isn't aimed at me any more (the superhero parade in particular appears to be petering out a little, and not a decade before time). All this, combined with the closure of one of my two local plexes and the imminent closure of a very nice 9-screener in Northampton next month, rather suggests that my numbers are never going to reach 120+ again. C'est la vie.
So, having scanned the list of the films I did decide to see, these are my Top Five of 2025.
5. LISA FRANKENSTEIN
In truth there were quite a few possibles for fifth place, including one (Abigail) which also starred Kathryn Newton. I ultimately went with this one because it was just a really nice, sweet, charming and funny little horror comedy that benefitted in part from not having been hyped months in advance: it just turned up out of nowhere one week. Sometimes these things work better as a surprise and I went into this knowing absolutely nothing about it: absolutely worth the chance that these days I'm increasingly reluctant to take.
4. CIVIL WAR
A very near future America divided to the point of all-out war? That's precisely the dystopian vision we need right now. But it's persuasively done, gripping throughout, and quite unsettling in the idea that some ordinary people are just gagging for a green light to take up arms in a meaningless conflict, and the ease with which thise regular Joes could become stone cold killers. I liked it a lot.
3. CONCLAVE
A ripe political drama set against the ritual and rite of choosing a new Pope, as well as a string of fun mysteries with Ralph Fiennes essentially playing Cardinal Poirot uncovering the financial and sexual secrets of his peers (including the always welcome John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci) as they manouevre themselves for the top job. And it's a visual joy with many scenes framed and lit like Old Masters. More of this sort of grown-up fare, please.
If we are going to have more and more followups to movies made decades ago, at least spend some money on them and make them look good. Yes, there are a couple of nostalgia callbacks which make absolutely no narrative sense and should have been excised during the rewrite stage. But it has brilliantly captured the look of the earlier movies (specifically the first two) and I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting, a better and more exciting entry in the Alien series than Covenant was, and also better than Fede Alvarez' take on The Evil Dead. Terrific stuff.
There wasn't any doubt that this was going to place very high on my list when it practically took the roof off the Odeon as the closing film at this year's FrightFest. Exceptionally graphic in its latter stages, it's a geniunely bonkers melding of Society, The Fly, Death Becomes Her and Carrie, but there's a point to it: fear of looking old and not being seen as sexually viable. For women, of course: male stars can look like Piltdown Man but female stars still have to look like cheerleaders or they're deemed past it. And special kudos to Mubi for getting it out on the national circuits, despite the jawdropping bloodsoaked finale not being your usual mutiplex fare.
Honorable mentions: The Beekeeper (Jason Statham's best movie for some time), Immaculate (better than The First Omen), Heretic, Hundreds Of Beavers, Blink Twice, Borderlands (shut up, I liked it), Blink Twice, Megalopolis, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
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