I can’t decide if I meant to do this earlier or meant never to because, truly, low-effort posts like this are a blight!
Cloud
18 July 2025, In Theaters
I heard about this one a little too late. I haven’t seen anything by the director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse), but this looks really cool as a different kind of take on an action movie. I mean, I love when horror directors do action. But with Japanese movies, I never know when they’ll come around.
Weapons
7 August 2025, In Theaters
Actually, part of the reason I’m writing this is because I have a little more than an hour before I jet off to see Weapons, and that’s just not enough time to do anything really productive. Having been hemming and hawing about it for a while (I don’t generally see horror movies in theaters, because I’m scared), I was sent this Polygon article this morning, in which Tasha Robinson encourages seeing it unspoiled and in a crowd. I had one of the twists in Barbarian spoiled for me, but still liked that movie a lot. Apparently, Zach Cregger’s follow-up is even better.
Alien: Earth
12 August 2025, FX-Hulu
They’re saying it’s good! Now, I know critics have had a weakness for showrunner Noah Hawley since the first season of Fargo (whose opening episode didn’t do it for me), but after the success of Alien: Romulus, there’s nothing for our premier space-horror franchise to lose. This project was actually announced before Romulus was, and it’s taken this long to finally come out — it almost doesn’t seem real.
Butterfly
13 August 2025, Amazon Prime
Far be it from me to promote something of Amazon’s after, well, everything, but especially that weird War of the Worlds Amazon ad, this one’s actually pretty interesting — and I fear it’s gonna dive right under the radar. Starring the ever-likeable Daniel Dae Kim (heard earlier this year in KPop Demon Hunters) as well as relative newcomer Reina Hardesty (who rocks), it’s a novel mix of Asian-American themes with military-spy stuff. To be honest, those themes get tossed in with pretty out-there subject matter (Turning Red, Everything Everywhere All at Once), so call this a stone unturned, making it one paint chip off its Amazon peers like Reacher, The Terminal List, Jack Ryan, and all their spinoffs.
Sweet Revenge
13 August 2025, YouTube
Only the great successes of the Halloween and Scream reboots could get the fractured Crystal Lake estate to power through the custody battle and pull something together for Jason, almost 20 years after the remake. This short film will be the start of a Jason Universe, according to Bloody-Disgusting, and while that might sound trendy, it’s a similar situation with Alien. Well, not exactly — I’ve seen most of the Friday the 13th movies by now, and only one is what I’d call “good,” that being part six. A very low bar. Pretty much, just have Jason — which not all of them accomplished.
Shin Godzilla
14 August 2025, In Theaters
I have a good feeling about this one. Yeah, another reason I was iffy on Weapons was because Shin Godzilla‘s being rereleased in theaters a day before the release of our next entry. That’s a lot of movies in the span of two weeks, and since they’re all gonna be in different theaters (stupid “not living in L.A. anymore”), I can’t do one of those post-MoviePass membership things. Anyway, Shin Godzilla is one of my favorite movies, and I missed out on seeing it in theaters originally. It is so funny and weird and, honestly, scary. A freaky monster movie satire more in the vein of South Korea’s The Host than anything homegrown, it made a huge splash in Japan but kind of left no cinematic legacy.
Apparently, this mutant, googly-eyed Shin Godzilla is the Godzilla over there, even more so than Godzilla Minus One — seen as more of an international Godzilla — but the spiritual sequels Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider were truer to their respective source material (truest, perhaps). From what I understand — all my knowledge coming from D Man1954‘s coverage — Toho is testing the water with a rerelease to gauge global interest for a potential Shin Godzilla sequel. Hideaki Anno’s original idea for that, back during the original film’s production, was a Showa-style comedy, to which top brass said, “No.” At this point, with Shin Godzilla being a masterpiece on its own, let this bespectacled dork do whatever the hell he wants.
Nobody 2
16 August 2025, In Theaters
Man, I’ve been meaning to watch Nobody since it came out, so I can’t exactly say I’m a huge fan just dying to see the next one. It’s all down to the director, the incomparable Timo Tjahjanto, of The Night Comes for Us and last year’s The Shadow Strays. He’s one of the most exciting action directors working today (and he’s, truthfully, more of a horror guy), and this is his first Hollywood test. He’s already been in the trades for the Train to Busan remake and The Beekeeper 2, neither of which are gonna sound interesting until they’re real. Ultimately, there are things I’d prefer to see him do, but the trailer for this one was a lot of fun.
Obligatory “Julie Estelle Night of the Operator” mention.
Primitive War
21 August 2025, In Theaters
We’re still not through August, though I’m gobsmacked that this is coming to theaters. Primitive War is like the guy version of 50 Shades of Grey, beginning life as self-published fiction on a Jurassic Park message board (not, to my knowledge, Jurassic Park fan-fiction, as the plot summary will suggest), and adapted now as an independent, low-budget film. Well, high enough to sport some impressive-looking CG dinosaurs and a fallen star like Jeremy Piven (bleh). On the plus side, it’s also got Ana Thu Nguyen, who plays Sindel in a later entry on this list.
In Primitive War, American soldiers encounter dinosaurs during the Vietnam War, which sounds a lot less high-concept the more you say it in your head. I mean, from what I’ve read of the book, it’s played very straight, without even the heightened sensibility of a comic like The War that Time Forgot, and the movie seems to be tracking in that direction. It’s all a big question mark, coming from new talent and featuring Jeremy Piven, but it’s a fucking dinosaur movie. Box office returns for the latest Jurassic Park ought to tell us that people will take dinosaurs any way they can get ’em. I’m certainly no exception.
PS, the tagline, “This ain’t no walk in the park,” was already pretty much the tagline for Jurassic Park III and arguably Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. God, you just can’t get away from it.
Baby Assassins: Nice Days
26 August 2025, Streaming
Rounding out the month, we have the one movie not coming to theaters and, God, I wish it was. Marketed over here as Baby Assassins 3, this is the third outing for Chisato and Mahiro, callous hit men and sloppy eaters extraordinaire. As I only started watching these movies this year, there are properties closer to my heart, as we’ll see later, but this is the movie I’m most excited about in 2025.
The Resurrected
9 October 2025, Netflix
Shu Qi. And dude, this looks so good!
Mortal Kombat II
24 October 2025, In Theaters
If this is as good as 2021’s Mortal Kombat, I’ll be happy. That movie was surely a disappointment after its mega-hype trailer — a pattern now, with the new one — but it had a couple of really good fight scenes. I think Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana looks amazing, and as Chelsea observes in the Dead Meat trailer reaction, we might be seeing an exploration of the backstory, specifically Shao Khan’s conquest of Edenia. That sounds good! I didn’t realize until that 2021 movie how widely beloved Mortal Kombat was as a brand, because my era of video games was the sixth generation, when fighting games were kind of dead. It’s cool to see how everyone’s excited again.
Still sad no Sisi Stringer, though. 😦
Predator: Badlands
7 November 2025, In Theaters
This is the big one for me. No pressure, because the Predator series has proven remarkably durable over the years, but as a semi-sequel to Prey, I don’t know. That was one of my favorite movies ever, and I don’t think Killer of Killers came close to clearing that bar. But I like the alien setting, and it’s yet another bold swing from the new magic man, Dan Trachtenberg.
Frankenstein
November 2025, Netflix
Like everyone else, I’m bummed this seems to be going straight to Netflix. Del Toro’s fantasy visions deserve the big screen, and this is one of his hallowed passion projects. For that alone, it’s really exciting.
I’d love to say more, but I am running out of time.
No Other Choice
2025, In Theaters
I’m chuffed that Director Park and Lee Byung-hun, with careers at their apex, have crossed paths again, more than 20 years after Three Extremes. Now, Decision to Leave left me a bit dry and The Sympathizer could feel like homework at times, but I’ll never not be excited for another hit of adrenaline from one of the best directors out there. There’s just something comforting about a movie that’s “masterfully directed,” even if I don’t understand what’s going on.
And that’s most of what I wanted to cover for the rest of 2025. I mean, I really wanted to mention Zero Day Attack, but I got to go!
With Eyes East 