The best scary film screenings in London for Halloween 2025

As usual, beloved central London repertory cinema The Prince Charles will be showing more frightening films than Dracula has had bloody dinners during the month-long season of spooky cinema this October. The wildly eclectic programme features almost 100 titles this year, encompassing everything from horror classics to niche B movies, all-night marathons and, of course, its famous Sing-A-Long-A Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oct 31 and Nov 1). 

Highlights of the programme include the original 1977 Suspiria (various dates Oct 4-Nov 1), The Night of the Living Dead (Oct 26), the original 1922 Nosferatu performed with a live score (various dates Oct 6-Oct 31) and several all night marathons, including all six Final Destination films (Oct 25), a mystery space-themed bonanza (Oct 4) and another mystery line-up on All Hallow’s Eve itself (Oct 31). 

As usual, there’ll also be several screenings on 35mm, including The Exorcist (various dates Oct 11-31), The Shining (various dates Oct 10-Nov 6) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (various dates Oct 13-31). And that’s just a few options; there really is something for absolutely everyone across the month. Excluding wusses. Check out the full programme here.

If laughter is the best medicine, this gut-twisting tale of vanishing kids from American comedian-turned-horror auteur Zach Cregger comes with its own built-in cure. Put simply, if Weapons wasn’t the best horror movie of the year, it would probably be the best comedy; Tthe last 30 minutes is a whirlwind of laughs and scares that ties up the movie’s knotty narrative in a singular fashion.

Of course, Weapons is a less-you-know-the-better experience. Suffice to say, at 2.17am on an otherwise unremarkable night in the fictional US town of Maybrook, 17 classmates spontaneously get out of bed, leave their parents’ homes and run into the darkness, arms outspread like sycamore seedlings blown by some unseen tempest. When teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) turns up to class the next morning, there’s only one pupil to greet her: a taciturn boy called Alex (Cary Christopher). Is his silence down to shock or is there something else going on? 

There’ll be moans from horrorheads that it’s not scary throughout, but in deepening his exploration of family life in the ‘burbs, Cregger sharpens his twisted scares to a dagger point. And the frights, when they come, really land. It’s easy to see why Jordan Peele, threw everything at trying to win the rights to produce it. Not since his own debut Get Out has a horror movie packed this much playfulness and invention – and burrowed so far under your skin in the process. 

Following its annual summertime horror bonanza in August, London’s primo horror film festival – dubbed ‘the Woodstock of Gore’ by no less an authority than Guillermo del Toro – is once again resurfacing, Kraken-like, for a spooktacular weekend of Halloween screenings at the Odeon Luxe West End. The line-up for this year’s event will be announced in late September, but horror afficionados can expect a handful of terrifying indie movies, typically including one or two UK premieres. Bedwetters need not apply, and, needless to say, the festival has an 18 rating. 

‘Babe’ is a term of endearment that can have a lot of uses. For real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, who star as long-term, not-yet-married couple Tim and Millie in their new horror film, it can be wielded with passive-aggression, gooey pleading, or clingy apology; the pair use ‘babe’ so much it’s basically meaningless. 

Tim and Millie are on the verge of a move from city to country as Millie takes on a new teaching job; we find them at a difficult crossroads, with a moratorium on sex and a growing distance between them. While Millie is pragmatic and high-achieving, Tim is rudderless, ageing out of his dreams of success as a musician and recovering from a traumatic incident. The move only seems to increase tension – especially when, on a hiking trip in the nearby woods, they stumble into a cave and find themselves infected by a strange medical condition. They cannot, seemingly, be physically apart.

The metaphor is not subtle, but it is deployed with delicious and surprising twists nonetheless. Bone-cracking and fleshy and disgusting in all the most satisfying ways a body horror should be, Together gets its visual effects right, and finds much to say within its unpleasant metaphor of two sets of bones, skin and sinew sticking like glue to one another.

It never overstates its (already obvious) case: clinginess and romantic codependency often crop up when a relationship is at its most discomfiting. It’s a wonderfully rich gambit for talking about the push and pull of long-term commitment. The fact that Brie and Franco are married in real life gives heft, intimacy, and emotional power to what could be ridiculous. Ultimately, for better or for worse, you feel their sticky, fleshy, monstrous, codependent love.

The beautiful Rivoli Ballroom – one of the last remaining ballrooms in town – is open again for its usual series of Halloween pop-up film screenings. In the days running up to fright night, it’ll be showing movies of the spooky and scary (and camp) variety; this year’s line-up features Psycho, The Lost Boys, The Crow, Carrie, Hocus Pocus and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As always, fancy dress is very much encouraged, and the bar will be serving up themed cinema snacks and bevs. Full details of the spooktacular film programme can be found here.

For a rather luxe version of a scary movie night, head to Art’otel Battersea’s rooftop restaurant Joia, which is screening some spook-tastic classics alongside dinner and skyline views either side of All Hallow’s Eve. Guests will enjoy a selection of the restaurant’s dishes for dinner from 5.30pm, before cosying up on sofas to enjoy one of four seasonal classics – Lost Boys, Ghostbusters, Scream or Hocus Pocus – with popcorn and a hot toddy. Blankets and hot water bottles will be on every seat to stave off the cold, and you’ll be able to purchase extra drinks and more popcorn if you still have room after dinner. Cosy and spooky in equal measure!

If the warm, funny and fuzzy Colin From Accounts represents one extreme of Australian popular culture, then Bring Her Back is its polar opposite. The second feature from directors Danny and Michael Philippou, the brothers behind Talk To Me, takes the gore and frights of their debut and ally it to an examination of maternal instincts gone batshit crazy. Anchored by a terrific Sally Hawkins, it firmly cements the duo as fresh, interesting voices in the over-saturated horror market.

The set-up is economically sketched: following the death of their single father, teenage siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are sent away to live with quirky foster parent Laura (Hawkins) in a spacious, secluded cabin in the woods. Laura is already a parent to another adopted, seemingly mute orphan Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), while grieving the mysterious death of her own daughter Cathy, who was blind. Andy has vowed to look after his visually impaired sister, but begins to suspect their new custodian might have her own agenda. 

Bring Her Back doesn’t rely on jump scares or cheap thrills for its effect. There are startling moments, but it really finds its impact in slow creeping dread fostered by a patiently built narrative. Like Talk To Her, it doesn’t completely satisfy when it comes time to resolve its intrigue, but the Philippou brothers show a real skill for creating believable teen characters, Barratt and Wong create a tender, affecting chemistry that make the chills all the more affecting. 

Standing proudly on St John’s Hill since 1900, the Clapham Grand is certainly old enough to be home to a ghost or two, so it’s a fitting place to enjoy some spooky antics in the form of a scary movie or two. As part of the venue’s epic Halloween programme, it’s hosting two OTT film screenings for spooky season, featuring costume competitions, dance offs, themed cocktails, creepy decor and one or two surprises. On Tuesday October 28 you can catch camp classic Hocus Pocus on the venue’s huge 25ft screen, while Halloween night itself sees the return of the Grand’s longstanding Rocky Horror Picture Show night, hosted by local drag star Miss Leigh Ding (doing her best Frank-N-Furter impression), with tickets including entry to the Grand’s massive post-show Halloween Party, where you can do the time warp ’til 3am.