OUR YEAR OF SPLAT SCARES AND RELAXATION
From Hot Frankenstein to spy dinner parties, we actually saw new movies for fun in 2025
We watch a lot of movies to entertain our readers. We also watch a lot of movies as writers and producers. That leaves precious little time to keep up on new films watched together, just for fun. It may have taken several nights to watch most of these, but we did out best. Here’s our 2025 in fun watches.
THE MONKEY
Directed by Osgood Perkins
BRIAN J DAVIS: I think I maybe had a bit more of a profound experience with The Monkey than you. I’m just so into the idea of a two-act movie lately. The three-act is just feeling so bloated and slow to me creatively. I’ve noticed a few movies lately have been using this two-act structure, and that’s one of the things I liked about The Monkey. That and the pacing of the storytelling.
EMILY SCHULTZ: You’re seeming to imply that I didn’t get into this movie and that’s absolutely false. I thought it was fantastic and weird and I loved how graphic it was and how it had… they weren’t even jump scares.
BJD: Splat scares?
ES: That’s good. Act II did kind of bother me. But I still love the movie.
BJD: We’re professional problem solvers for storytelling. Can we ever really enjoy a movie?
ES: No. Even movies I enjoy, I’m lying in bed later and I’m trying to rewrite certain scenes.
BJD: Readers should pity us! One more thing about The Monkey is that it gets at something close to profound: the aleatory nature of life and death. I think specifically in the first half of the film, focusing on childhood, this is done so well. And I’ll just put this back to your criticism of the second half, it’s dropped a little bit when we get into the plotty details of what’s happening.
ES: It’s still exhilarating to see big ideas in a horror movie.
BONE LAKE
Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
BJD: I just thought this was a classic nasty-ass, nihilistic horror film. And a total blast. You don’t get that from the trailer, which presents it as a little on the generic erotic thriller side.
ES: I liked it because it’s so sure of itself. She took a very simple setup that you see in a lot of horror movies: limited cast at a house on a lake and she did something different.
BJD: You know what you’re seeing is a small-resources movie, but she ended up with a big movie feel. And that comes from talent and the wherewithal to make it happen.
ES: An absolute shameless joyride of a horror movie.
BJD: Look at you go, Gene Shalit! I think the great thing is we don’t really know what’s happening for a solid half hour.
ES: It’s a slow build. And the other thing that I really loved about it is that they were willing to actually use the relationships for horror. A couple’s sexual problems or their miscommunications become the horror. With someone preying on whatever their insecurities are.
BJD: Readers, if you’re going to do Bone Lake as a couple’s watch, you should be rock solid. No cracks. Because this movie will chip away.
ES: The other thing that I want to say about the movie is that when it got to the climax, it just went for it.
BJD: And I don’t think a single movie has ever used The Exploited on the soundtrack before. [Correction to self: Alan Clarke’s Made in Britain, and you own it on DVD.]
ES: What song is that?
BJD: “Sex and Violence.” And this will let me tell you the story of why I have never gotten a tattoo.
ES: Right, Mr. Punk. You have none. And somehow I have four!
BJD: So, the reason is this. At age 14 I’m at a party at this punk house. And a guy named Dennis just got out of jail where he had learned how to make a homemade tattoo gun out of a toy motor and a pen casing. And he was giving out tattoos at this party. Now, I’m in line for this and if it actually happened—a tattoo at 14 is pretty baller, in theory. But the tattoo I’m going to get is the Exploited logo. A Mohawked skull. And the only reason this didn’t happen is that Dennis passed out before he got to me. And for years afterwards I thought, Holy shit, I almost got an Exploited tattoo—the cheesiest punk band ever. I can’t be trusted with tattoo ideas for the rest of my life.
ES: And that’s the reason you don’t have a tattoo?
BJD: Or hepatitis.
FRANKENSTEIN
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
BJD: When I made the Frankenstein image for the Composites project, I got an email from a novelist and she told me, “THIS is the Frankenstein Monster who can quote Milton. And he can get it.” I didn’t know until that moment people thirsted after the Monster! And I don’t know if Guillermo del Toro saw my Hot Frankenstein. I was only going by Mary Shelley’s description, and I’m sure he did as well, along with a lot of Bernie Wrightson. But I do think del Toro cast it perfectly. And Jacob Elordi is great in this. If I walked away with anything it’s the skill of Jacob Elordi’s physical performance.
ES: So, you think he should get some award noms?
BJD: I think it’s entirely possible. Actors do like to reward transformation and physical work in acting.
ES: I have to say, I adore Guillermo del Toro. Love all his films. This was not my favorite among them.
BJD: Is it because he combined Frankenstein with Wuthering Heights?
ES: No…more that it got into, like, “Frankenstein on the therapist’s couch,” a little bit too much.
BJD: I was thinking about that after. That every era gets the Frankenstein movie it deserves. James Whale’s version was the class anxiety Frankenstein. This is the emo Frankenstein. And anti-war Frankenstein, a theme that goes back to del Toro’s Spanish-language films.
ES: I think I liked his relationship with Mia Goth. I don’t think I liked his relationship with his creator.
BJD: Well, are you interested in any man’s relationship with his father? Or is that just, like, a no-go area?
ES: That might be a no-go area for most women.
BJD: “Just don’t even talk about his father. He made him from corpse parts and then abandoned him before going to his new family. Father’s Day is rough for him, okay?”
SINNERS
Directed by Ryan Coogler
BJD: Given that this was the year that the entire industry was kept alive with horror films, would it behoove the Academy to acknowledge Sinners?
ES: I would like to see it acknowledged because, one, the acting was fantastic. Two, the costumes were fantastic. The music was fantastic. And it was just a hell of a lot of fun. I also thought the twin dynamic was well done, and I loved that the film is not going to spare the characters you like just because you like them.
BJD: The scene where they go through Black music history through the centuries. To me, that’s not just the best scene of the year. That’s one of the best scenes in movies ever.
BLACK BAG
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
BJD: I want to talk about this young director, Steven Soderbergh. I’ve really liked following this kid’s stuff ever since he complimented my cinematography I did for a friend of his. Or so I’ve been told.
ES: You’re going to go there?
BJD: How else is that going to get out there in the world other than me spreading it?
ES: So Black Bag was really interesting because it had that sort of vintage feel of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
BJD: But this is Michael Fassbender. So, it’s George Smiley after an Armani glow-up.
ES: It’s a very attractive cast all around. We were talking about acts, and the only thing about this was that I kind of wished it had…not so much another act, but another turn.
BJD: A part of me was thinking along those lines. What if this had those Soderbergh time jumps he now avoids?
ES: Maybe he finished with time jumps by doing Mosaic? Maybe it’s the one thing you just never want to touch again after something as complex as that series.
BJD: The plot of Black Bag is aggressively ABCD, but isn’t that kind of the appealing part of a fun watch? That tidiness is down to David Koepp. Koepp writes blockbusters so he doesn’t get the artistic accolades for his scripts that he should. But if you look at any of his great scripts—Panic Room, Death Becomes Her, his work with De Palma. They’re master classes in what makes a script work. Each scene just falls into perfect place.
ES: I will say that one of the best scenes is the couple breaking up. The breakup scene between Regé-Jean Page and Naomie Harris was phenomenal.
BJD: And the opening dinner party scene, which I almost wished was the entire movie: spy couples at a dinner party!
ES: But the rest is great as well. Especially how the relationships are drawn between the couples.
BJD: We’re framing this as movies we watched for fun this year. So why do you keep watching a movie when you put it on? For me, it’s a hook like the dinner party in Black Bag.
ES: I think that not everyone feels that way, Brian. Once they start a movie, they finish it no matter what.
BJD: I guess I watch movies by myself like a manic DJ! Music on headphones. Movie muted on screen. And I’m also writing.
ES: Like a complete immersive experience?
BJD: Exactly. And one more thing about Black Bag. You’re drawn to any movie in the 90-minute range.
ES: I love a movie that knows what it should be.
BJD: But again, this comes back to the time that we have. I remember when I realized our movie watching lives had changed after parenthood. When it took us three nights to watch Tootsie together!
ES: How long is that?
BJD: 116 minutes, including credits.