EJ Moreno and Flickering Myth honor the year in horror…
Welcome to the third Flickering Myth Horror Awards, the place to spotlight the best in our beloved spooky genre.
From fan-favorite horror outings to prestige heavyweights, this year saw horror go more mainstream than ever, while still keeping its indie roots. With another solid year, it’s fair to say horror is in the best spot it’s been in decades. Our Flickering Myth Horror Awards include the standard fare like Best Picture, Actress, and Actor, but we’ll also have special awards like Unexpected Horror Hit and Best International Horror.
Firstly, let’s kick things off with the second inductee into the Flickering Myth Horror Hall of Fame…
HORROR HALL OF FAME
Guillermo del Toro
Finally getting to make your long-awaited dream project is a moment any filmmaker wants, and the horror maestro Guillermo del Toro lived out that fantasy this year with his Frankenstein adaptation.
While constantly drawing inspiration from Mary Shelley’s iconic horror tale, we’ve never seen the legendary Mexican filmmaker go as deep into the creature’s and its creator’s story. It feels like the wait was worth it, as the scale and scope are only something a seasoned director could concoct. It feels like seeing a true madman at work.
Guillermo del Toro not only served himself well with Frankenstein, but also gave actor Jacob Elordi his best role to date and let the production team have a field day with his mad vision of Catholic, gothic imagery. It wasn’t just a filmmaker living out his movie dreams, but it was a caring father of film guiding everyone to a near-perfect finish line.
UNEXPECTED HORROR HIT
Weapons
After Weapons, we can never put Zach Cregger’s work in an unexpected category again. He’s proven himself twice now as a man who knows how to conjure up a good scare within a wild universe.
With Barbarian, I wasn’t entirely sold on what Cregger was cooking. While not fully half-baked, I saw room for improvement. Then Weapons came along, and he said, “I’ve improved” with great gusto. This second outing as a horror filmmaker saw better world-building, a solid mystery, and one of the year’s best characters in Aunt Gladys.
There’s something to be said about how much of a ‘hit’ this ended up being. Weapons grossed $269 million against a $38 million budget, becoming one of the year’s biggest box-office successes. We also saw it become a slight awards darling, given Amy Madigan’s multiple acting nominations and even some love for Cregger’s script.
BEST INTERNATIONAL HORROR
The Ugly Stepsister
The Midnight section at the Sundance Film Festival is a gold mine for some exciting horror films. This year gave us The Ugly Stepsister, which became one of my personal favorites of 2025.
It’s easy to be tired of the modern trend of “horror retellings” of classic family stories, i.e., Winnie the Pooh or Steamboat Willie. Still, the story of Cinderella is ripe with good horror elements, so The Ugly Stepsister had enough to draw on to feel inspired as it carved out its own path. Carve is also the perfect world, as the film gets disgusting quickly.
With nominations for its SFX makeup and a strong critical admiration, it’s nice to see a weird little flick like this get its time to shine. The Ugly Stepsister could’ve easily got lost in the shuffle in a year of plenty of horror offerings, but it stayed true to itself and found a family within the genre. It’s quite a beautiful fairytale ending.
BEST HORROR DIRECTOR
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
If you had told me at the beginning of Ryan Coogler’s career that he’d craft a vampire movie, it would’ve come as a shock. Horror didn’t seem in his artistic DNA, but boy, was I wrong.
Everything about Sinners comes off like a filmmaker who lives and breathes horror; whether it’s insane vampire kills or the high-stakes, horror-inducing tension, Coogler knows the genre all too well. What also comes from this film is one of the single best performances of Michael B. Jordan’s career, which is wild to think about, given his previous work with Coogler.
My biggest fear now is that Coogler will never return to horror, much as Steven Spielberg made a classic like Jaws and never fully returned to the genre. That’s not to say that Ryan Coogler must be a horror filmmaker from here on out, but it would be a shame to see his exceptional skills for scares go to waste. Sinners just screams “you have more to offer.”
BEST SUPPORTING HORROR ACTOR
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
The tall and broodingly handsome man from Euphoria shouldn’t play one of pop culture’s most famous monsters this well, but it seems like 2025 is about defying odds.
Jacob Elordi stepped into the role of the creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and gave one of the year’s most confident performances. This didn’t seem like a young actor trying to find himself in a new artsy role, but an assured artist stretching himself in a new way. Elodri showcased himself as one of this generation’s best performers with this.
Could he make it all the way to the Oscars with this? Only time will tell, but the fact that he shone in a film stacked with some insane performances and stunning visual direction is enough of an award. What this also did for me was serve as a reminder never to doubt Elordi’s abilities ever again; this was his defining moment in his early career.
BEST SUPPORTING HORROR ACTRESS
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Most of us knew about Amy Madigan before the summer of 2025. She’s been a working actress for decades, and it’s wild to think she may have found her best role this late in her career.
While someone like Elordi was stepping into himself with his work this year, Madigan used Weapons to remind us all that she’s been a scene-stealing icon since her first turn in Streets of Fire in 1984. Even if you didn’t love the film, you can not deny that Madigan gave it her all playing the chillingly camp role of Aunt Gladys.
Aunt Gladys became an instant fan-favorite. If it was her memorable look or the way Madigan performed her iconic bits of dialogue, you couldn’t take your mind off what was happening on the screen. It was like watching a star being born, but for Madigan, it was just another way to show us she’s a powerhouse worthy of all the awards praise she’s getting.
BEST HORROR ACTOR
Indy – Good Boy
The award for Best Horror Actor was one of the toughest this year. So many men gave stellar turns, but none sat in my soul like what dog actor Indy did in the film Good Boy.
We’ve seen great animal acting in movies before, but never has someone been so bold as to give us a whole film of it. It’s a daunting task, but our leading pup was up to the task. Indy provides us with a performance that works as a cute gimmick of “look at a dog in a paranormal film,” but it goes deeper as the film progresses.
By the time the credits roll on Good Boy, you are shocked that you were able to be this invested in the horror of a pet trying to protect its owner. Nothing about the film should work, and at times it struggles, but it is never Indy’s fault. This dog knows what to do to make us feel every emotional and dramatic beat, and we are sitting at attention for it.
BEST HORROR ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins – Bring Her Back
Throughout her career, you could easily call most of Sally Hawkins’ acting work ‘raw’ and ‘gripping.’ But I don’t think we’ve seen her as explosive as she was in Bring Her Back.
What we see conjured up from Hawkins in this film is unlike anything she’s done before. She walks the line of being mentally unhinged at all times, but uses her natural warmth to lure you into a false sense of security. It’s a perfect showcase of all she has to offer as a performer, brought to screen brilliantly by The Philippou brothers.
We all know horror is often ignored during the award season, and while that isn’t exactly true for this year, it’s still a shame we saw no significant recognition for what Sally Hawkins brought to Bring Her Back. In a role that could’ve easily fit many actresses, Hawkins brought something wholly original that screams, “This is her role.”
BEST HORROR SEQUEL OR REMAKE
Final Destination: Bloodlines
By now, most Horror fans roll their eyes at the sixth installment in a horror franchise; not all of them can be Friday the 13th Part 6, but Final Destination says it has more to offer.
What a great offering Final Destination: Bloodlines turned out to be, giving this long-running gory horror series a new life with a new generation. But fans from all ages and demographics turned out for this, as Bloodlines even made the coveted John Waters Best Movies of the Year list. It’s safe to call this a smash hit, emphasis on smash.
Making $315.8 million on a $50 million budget, earning the franchise’s best critical score, and pleasing longtime fans… this feels unheard of for most fandoms. Final Destination: Bloodlines did what things like Marvel and Star Wars have struggled with in recent years, all while maintaining that nasty horror charm we all love from it.
BEST HORROR FILM
Sinners
No award was harder to nail down than Best (original) Horror Film. In a year stacked with so many heart-pumping and jaw-dropping excursions, none hit like Sinners. Ryan Coogler made something that will live on.
We could’ve seen Weapons, Bring Her Back, or Shelby Oaks take this big prize, but you cannot deny the impact Sinners made on pop culture. We got memes, Halloween costumes, a momentous box office haul, and potentially some Oscar nominations from this masterfully made film. It had everything it needed to cement itself into our cinematic landscape.
As a longtime fan of vampire media, ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the anime Hellsing, it’s a medium that works so well on the screen, but it’s hard to make it feel fresh. Sinners found a way to go retro while maintaining a cool, modern swagger. Coogler had us all buzzing this year about his powerhouse vampire film, and made 2025 that much better.
What do you make of our selections, and what are your favourite horror picks for 2025? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
EJ Moreno
