With dozens of different movie genres one sticks out to be the most popular, this being horror. As you may expect October to be the biggest time horror movies are released, as it is considered the “spooky season”, you may be shocked to learn January was actually the top month for horror releases. According to Baltimorefishbowl.com, out of the 30,000 horror movies released between 1950-2022 5,600 of them were released in January while only 4,900 were released in October. Students around Morgan were asked what their favorite horror movie of 2025 was.
When thinking about horror movies, the first thing that may come to mind is the Scream series by Kevin Williams. Scream is a 7 part horror series, starring actors like Matthew Lillard, who you may know from Scooby Doo, She’s All That, or the most recent 5 Nights At Freddy’s. The movie is about a masked killer named Ghostface that targets teens and young adults. Junior, Kiera Flannigan, describes the movie as “a classic and a great movie to watch on Halloween because it has some humor in it too.” Throughout the movie there is manipulation, trust issues, and fear as the characters try to solve who the killer is. From the first movie in 1996, to the most recent movie in 2026, releasing February 27th, they have always been a hit to horror movie fans. The new movie is going to star Neve Campbell, who played Sidney Prescott in the original movie, as she fights for her and her family’s life once again. Along with Campbell, original actors like Mathew Lillard, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette will also be coming back to star in the upcoming movie.
While slasher films are big in horror movies, another genre you may see is supernatural horror – which is when the main horror in the film is something beyond the natural world, like ghosts, demons, etc. Junior Aaliyah Langner said she enjoyed the film, “The Boogeyman,” made in 2023 by Stephen King, as she “loves horror movies” and thought this movie was “the perfect amount of scary.” Stephen King is a name you may recognise from other horror movies films like It, The Shining, or Carrie. The movie follows two sisters who are being terrorized by an evil entity after the death of their mother. After an unsettling visit with a patient and their therapist father, something evil is left behind that feeds on the fear and grief that swallows the home. As the “Boogeyman” haunts them, they must learn not to fear the monster, but to confront it and face the grief they are pushing aside.
The Conjuring series is another that almost everyone has at least heard the name of. But these stories aren’t just stories, they are real life experiences that are told in the lens of Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson. Farmiga is seen in other movies like The Boy in The Striped Pajamas, and Up in The Air. While Wilson is known for his roles in Aquaman, and Insidious. The Conjuring is a 4 part series, The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and the most recent being made in 2025, The Conjuring: Last Rites. Maddy Grenon, a junior at Morgan described the second movie as “more funny than scary” and recalled watching it with her brother Cameron Grenon as they “laughed throughout the movie.” Ed and Lorraine Warren were as mentioned real paranormal investigators who helped families that were being haunted by demonic spirits. Lorraine was known to have psychic and spiritual abilities, being able to sense when spirits are around while also having visions of the past or future. The movie shows possession, curses, and exorcisms. At the end and beginning of the movie text is shown on screen as facts are listed from the actual reports made at the time of the haunting.
While the conjuring series follows Ed and Lorraine Warren, there is another series that leads back to the couple, this being the Annabelle series. Annabelle is a real doll that haunted 2 roommates who received the doll from one of the roommates mothers as a gift. In the movies the doll is seen to be a porcelain doll while the actual doll is a vintage Raggedy Ann doll. The doll now resides in a locked, consecrated glass case at the former Warren Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. You can go visit the doll but right now she is on a limited “Devils On A Run” tour with the New England Society for Psychic Research. Senior Katherine says the movie is “one of those movies where you know what is going to happen but it still scares you,” also saying “I enjoyed the fact that it is based on a true story.” After a young couple gets the doll their lives are immediately changed. What they didn’t know was that there was a deadly demon in the doll using it as a vessel. The doll would cause accidents, attacks, and visions no one could describe. The couple tries their best to fight off the doll. In the end the doll makes its way over to Ed and Lorraine Warren where it was blessed by a priest and locked in a glass case to keep the public out of danger.
The last movie is weapons which was made in 2025, and directed by Zach Cregger. Cregger is also credited for directing films like Barbarian or Resident Evil. The movie is about a town thrown into panic after a whole classroom of students vanishes, as they run into the night. The community is frightened as they try to learn what happened to their children. The story follows multiple different characters whose lives begin to overlap as suspicion, fear, and guilt spread through town. As the movie goes on you see secrets and past events slowly start to surface, causing people to wonder if the missing children have any connection to this. The movie is slow as it shows you multiple people’s points of view, but junior Nathalie Avila-Hernandez enjoyed this as she said, “throughout the movie you are wondering who took the children? I enjoyed the mystery of why this all happened.” The movie doesn’t heavily rely on jump scares like other movies, instead the scare comes from the eerie atmosphere and tension made from the characters. This is what keeps you unsettled throughout the film as you wonder if this is something supernatural or from the people residing in the town.
