TOP FIVE WORST FILMS OF 2025
The fact that this film has made it on to my “worst of” list of the year is a massive shock to me, not least because it was my most anticipated film of 2024. For whatever reason, the release date for “Mickey 17” ultimately was changed late so that it would end up premiering in 2025 and whilst my anticipation for the film was originally very high, I will admit that I was a little nervous about it when the early trailers for it arrived. Sadly these feelings would turn out to be prophetic, as for the first time in his entire career, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has delivered an out-and-out dud. Almost nothing in the film works, with performances being sub par (outside of an entertaining Toni Collette), the film is ugly to look at, but it is the story itself that is the worst thing about “Mickey 17” as it is mind numbingly boring and at times confusing and pointless. I was also quite unimpressed with the special effects in the film, something that Bong Joon-ho has been excellent at incorporating into his other films so it all feels real and organic, but here just feels like a CGI mess. What is most shocking about all of this is that this is the first film Bong has released since winning praise and Oscars for “Parasite”.
Sadly, these “worst of” lists are usually heavily populated by very poor horror films. There is such a glut of product within the genre, and the good ones are few and far between, so whilst I am a life-long horror fan, I try not to watch all the crap that is out there, and only watch the ones by filmmakers I trust (or if a film has great word-of-mouth). I am a big fan of director Bryan Bertino, and think his 2008 home invasion horror film “The Strangers” is something of a minor masterpiece. Since that film, Bertino has made a number of other interesting horror films, with varying degrees of success, with both 2020's “The Dark and the Wicked” and particularly 2016's “The Monster” being very impressive pieces of work. However, he also made “Mockingbird” back in 2014, which was absolutely dreadful, and at the time made me question if Bertino had the stuff to keep making new and fantastic horror films, or if “The Strangers” was just a fluke. He has since proved he is made of the right stuff, but sadly, “Vicious” is the worst thing he has made since “Mockingbird”. Whilst not even close to being as bad as that film, “Vicious” fails to make a lot of sense, nor put the audience even on edge, let alone be scared. It also feels entirely pointless, and something of a rip off of Richard Kelly's 2009 film “The Box” (which is a much better film than this). I will say that the film looks great, and Dakota Fanning gives her all in the lead role, but it is all for nought in this seriously unsatisfying horror film.
I will admit upfront that my memory of “Shell” borders on non-existent, as I seemed to forget almost everything as soon as the credits rolled. I do remember that I was looking forward to the film, as it was a different take on what women are willing to do to themselves to stay looking younger for longer, or what they feel they must do to appeal to men for longer, be it in a working or loving environment. This topic was tackled in the balls-to-the-wall horror film, “The Substance”, last year, which was not afraid to take the subject as far as humanly possible. Maybe “Shell” is a product of bad timing, coming so soon after “The Substance”, as it will forever be compared to that film, but “Shell” is a much more anaemic effort, despite how batshit crazy it also goes at times. You would think that a film that has a young model turn into a giant crustacean by it's end, would be a lot more fun than it turns out to be, but “Shell” is just a very dull film, that thinks it is much more taboo breaking than it really is. The film's biggest problem though is in its miscasting of Elisabeth Moss (an excellent actor in her own right) in the lead role.
Whilst I will concede that there is definite art involved in the creation of the Quay Brother's latest stop motion feature “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass”, the film that has been delivered is a total mess and almost incomprehensible (for me, at least). I am not a total novice when it comes to the brother's previous work and understand they focus more on their visuals and how they haunt the audience, rather than to tell a straight forward story that is easy to decipher. Knowing this though did not help me and whilst I did like some of the silent film-like aesthetics and thought the sound design was very impressive, I just could not make heads or tails out of the story at all, which made it a very frustrating watch. Personally, I put the blame squarely on the Quay Brothers as it is their job as directors to make their story accessible to the viewer, which they have not done here. Yes, some of the visuals are beautifully macabre and creepy, but the images do not help in telling the story. More often than not, they actually confused me more. What is interesting is that the Quay Brothers have stayed true to their aesthetic they created for all of their animated shorts, which I applaud them for that, but the way the animation has been shot creates this weird diffused look, that at times your eyes struggle to be able to understand what they are looking at. The images are dark and foggy, almost like an old photograph that is fading or that wasn't developed properly. Your eyes feel like they are constantly adjusting to a darkened room, as they search for the puppet onscreen. At the time of my screening of the film, I didn't realise why this may be, but I now think it is due to the fact that the brothers no longer shoot on film but digitally, which has affected the quality of their images. The other thing I really hated about the film was it's overly florid dialogue, which I am sure is meant to be poetic, but had me rolling my eyes, as again it made the story inaccessible and harder for the viewer to find a doorway in to enjoy the film. Click here to read my original review.
My least favourite film that I saw in all of 2025 was the Australian shark movie, “Beast of War”, directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. I have been a fan of Roache-Turner's previous films, particularly his zombie epics “Wyrmwood” and it's sequel, and think he has a real knack at hiding his low budgets and giving his films a more epic feel than the budget should actually allow. Hearing he was doing a new shark film, I thought it was going to be bloody and awesome, but I found it to be a total embarrassment, and the thing that I thought was Roache-Turner's biggest strength, let him down with “Beast of War” as the film looks like a group of actors thrashing around in a tank rather than the ocean like it is meant to. The film looks so cheap and nasty, and whilst the shark itself has an impressively snarling and teethy face, he is always shot in the same way during an attack: front on and in slow motion, so it becomes very boring, very quickly. The acting within the film is terrible, with the dialogue even worse.......I hate to say it, but I felt uncomfortable watching “Beast of War” due to how bad I found it. My screening was actually the world premiere of the film and was attended by the director, the cast and the crew of the film, who all seemed to have a blast with it. As I have said though, I thought “Beast of War” was utterly dreadful, in every way, and I must admit that I have been surprised that my horror community has ended up accepting the film and enjoying it a whole lot more than I did. Unfortunately, I found nothing to recommend about “Beast of War” and worse, I found it boring as all hell, which is the biggest crime a shark movie can commit, which is why it is my least favourite film of 2026. Click here to read my original review.
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