Twin films – when different studios make similar films at around the same time (think Antz and A Bug’s Life, or Deep Impact and Armageddon) – are a common phenomenon, but 2025 was the year of actors playing twins in films.
Michael B. Jordan plays the Smokestack Twins in Sinners and Robert Pattinson portrays multiple clones in Mickey 17 (both films have some of the best doubling effects in cinema history).
Theo James plays feuding brothers in The Monkey, and in Predator: Badlands, Elle Fanning plays sister androids and Cameron Brown plays an entire android squadron.
Despite the widespread No Kings protests, 2025 was a huge year for Stephen King adaptations.
The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, The Running Man and the shows The Institute and It: Welcome to Derry are all based on Stephen King stories, and Black Phone 2 is the sequel to a film based on a short story by Joe Hill, King’s oldest son.
This was also a banger year for movie villains.
Nicholas Hoult and Sean Penn both deserve Oscar nominations as Lex Luthor in Superman and Colonel Lockjaw in One Battle After Another.
Other great villains this year include the witch aunt in Weapons, Void in Thunderbolts, Galactus in Fantastic Four, Isaiah in Him, Laura in Bring Her Back, Teddy in Bugonia, the hive-mind vampires in Sinners and the Leopold family in Death of a Unicorn.
Here are my picks for the ten best films of 2025.
10. Black Phone 2. A highly-justified sequel full of brutal chills, intrigue and heart.
9. Companion. A taut, funny sci-fi chase thriller with potent commentary on controlling relationships and disingenuous “nice guys”, driven by riveting performances from Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid.
8. 28 Years Later. A deeply moving character study amid the zombie postapocalypse, with plenty of gory terror but a surprising degree of warmth and hope.
7. Nosferatu. A supremely-atmospheric masterpiece from Robert Eggers, suffused with dread, stunning cinematography and remarkable performances, especially from Lily Rose-Depp and Bill Skarsgård.
6. Sinners. A macabre, funny, invigorating film, with richly-developed characters, nuanced villains, rousing music and a slow, deliberate first act that shifts smoothly to bloody Grindhouse excitement.
5. Together. Shot in the Yarra Ranges, Together is a fascinating, deeply unsettling film blending marital strife with body horror.
4. Frankenstein. The self-described culmination of director Guillermo del Toro’s life as an artist, Frankenstein is a breathtaking Gothic fairytale, a faithful but inventive adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, and sees Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi flourish as the dashing but despicable Victor and the imposing but sympathetic monster.
3. A House of Dynamite. A grounded, finely-tuned three-part thriller from Kathryn Bigelow that hits like a meteorite, A House of Dynamite has such a tense, stressful build that you’ll forget to breathe.
2. Train Dreams. A sad, sublime historical drama that nourishes the heart like no other film this year, built on simple, no-frills, powerful filmmaking.
1. The Long Walk. Beyond the incredibly engaging dialogue, well-developed characters and sombre Depression-era imagery, this has some of the most gut-wrenchingly suspenseful scenes of the year and it’s not even a horror movie.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
