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Kristopowitz’s Top 10 Movies of 2025 (#5 – 1)
Image Credit: Eli Adé/Warner Bros. Pictures
The Top 10 Movies of 2025 Part 2: #5-1
Okay, so here is part 2 of my Top 10 Movies of 2025 list, showing what made the top five spots. Just like the first part of this list, part 2 is a mix of theatrical releases, direct-to-video/video on demand/streaming releases, and film festival movies. There are no honorable mentions. If you missed the first part of this list, or just want to read it again, you can check it out here.
And so, without any further what have you, what made spots 5 through 1 in my Top 10 Movies of 2025 list?
The Top 10 Movies of 2025 Part 2: #5-1
5. Straight On Till Morning: I saw this tremendous horror flick at Amazing Fantasy Fest. Directed by Craig Ouellette, the flick starts off as a sweet romance road trip type movie, with rock star hopeful Dani (Kelsey Christian) heading to Los Angeles to make it big with the love of her life, Kaitlin (Bonnie Jean Tyler), a waitress she essentially hits it off with after meeting her one time. Before meeting Dani, Kaitlin was in a terrible relationship with a man named Darrel (Travis Lincoln Cox). Going to LA with Dani is exactly what she needs to have a better life. One night, while making out in the car in the middle of a rainstorm, their car is attacked by a gigantic masked man (Virgil, as played by Michael Gmur), and then they are kidnapped by a man posing as a cop (Rubin, as played by Bill Hengstenberg). Dani and Kaitlin then find themselves chained up in Rubin’s house, which is essentially out in the middle of nowhere. What the hell is happening? Why did Rubin, and his disabled wife Lilly (a diabolical Maria Olsen), kidnap Dani and Kaitlin? And what are they going to do with them now that they have them chained up in their house? I won’t say what, exactly, happens, but it is pretty goddamn horrific. Straight on Till Morning is nothing short of amazing, managing to expertly transition from romance road trip movie to horror hostage movie and still be as interesting and thrilling and entertaining as ever. Every performance in this movie is spot on, it has a dynamite soundtrack (easily one of the best indie movie soundtracks I’ve ever heard), and the movie will have you glued to the screen until its conclusion. I loved every second of Straight on Till Morning, and it’s a movie that you absolutely need to see, either at a film festival near you (I don’t know if it’s still playing festivals at the moment, so keep your eyes peeled for it) or when it hits home video/streaming. You will love this movie.
4. Cleaner: Directed by Martin Campbell, this badass British action flick has Daisy Ridley as Joey Locke, ex-British soldier turned professional window cleaner that finds herself in a sort of Die Hard situation as the building she’s working at has been taken over by a group of eco-terrorists led by the notorious Marcus Blake (Clive Owen). The building is hosting a big party by corporate scumbags, rich people, and British government officials. Blake’s group intends to get the various hostages to confess to crimes against people, the environment, and the world. At least, that’s the initial plan. The situation goes south when Locke’s fellow window cleaner and apparent terrorist Noah (Taz Skyler) decides to escalate the hostage situation and make things beyond super deadly. Locke, initially locked out of the building and dangling off the side (she was cleaning windows when the building was seized), is mistaken by the police as one of the terrorists and is attacked. When the cops figure out that Locke isn’t a terrorist, they use her to try to gain an advantage over the terrorists (as an ex-military badass, Locke knows how to fight). Locke also wants to rescue her troubled brother Michael (Matthew Tuck), who is in the building, too. Cleaner is filled with exciting action sequences and top notch performances from its main cast, especially Ridley (as if the Star Wars sequels hadn’t shown everyone, Ridley can be an action star if she wants to be. She has the presence and the chops to pull it off). The big twist regarding what the terrorist group really wants feels like an actual big twist, and the breezy tone director Campbell establishes works throughout the movie. It’s a shame that this action flick didn’t get a bigger theatrical release in the United States (it had one but it wasn’t a wide release. It seemed to mostly play in big cities). I think it would have been fun to see this on the big screen. This flick will no doubt cultivate a large audience/fandom over time. Cleaner rocks.
3. Sinners: From writer/director Ryan Coogler, Sinners is nothing short of an amazing movie watching experience, either on the big screen or at home. From star Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance as the Moore Brothers, Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore to Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim (really, the whole cast is fantastic), to the post-World War I setting in Deep South Mississippi (the Moore brothers are WWI veterans), to the amazing blues soundtrack, to the vampire horror plot twist, Sinners is a movie that deserves every ounce of praise it has received from audiences and critics, as it really is that goddamn good. The most amazing part to Sinners, at least to me, is how it manages to make all of those elements not only work but fit and not seem strange. You can easily see Sinners working without the supernatural threat, as the movie’s main bad guys could have been an army of racists and the movie probably would have been just as good. There’s a certain vibe that Coogler and company create via the story’s time period, in that it feels like we’re watching something play out in the early 1930s. And then vampires show up and it doesn’t feel ridiculous. If you haven’t seen Sinners, you really need to find a way to see it. It’s an absolutely fantastic movie, something that movie fans will be talking about for years (the horror movie convention cosplay for this movie into the future will no doubt be epic). And, man, if Coogler ever feels like doing some sort of follow up to Sinners, I am totally down for a movie about those Native American vampire hunters that we briefly see. There is definitely some sort of movie there.
2. Frenzy Moon: I saw this movie on the big screen at the 2025 edition of Amazing Fantasy Fest. Written and directed by Gregory Lamberson, Frenzy Moon is a solid and scary low-budget werewolf horror flick featuring a bevy of practical werewolf special effects including plenty of gory “man-in-suit” werewolf carnage, a top notch ensemble cast, an amazing soundtrack by composer Armand John Petri, and a werewolf hunter that audiences will remember. The movie is about a group of grad students (Alyssa Grace Adams, Kayla Malika, Gabrielle Nunzio, Harold Jacob, Steve Maiseke, and Jacob Applegate) that head out to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of fun and whatnot and end up taking care of a strange man that one of the couples hits with their car (Aaron Krygier is the “hit and run” victim). Then some weird and scary stuff happens, Krygier’s Gavin reveals himself to be a werewolf hunter, werewolves actually appear, and then all hell breaks loose. Frenzy Moon moves along briskly, rarely slowing down, the tension cranking up as the story progresses and the bloody body count grows. The practical werewolf special effects are amazing and gross in exactly the right way, and I can’t stress enough how phenomenal the cast is. Everyone does a great job as their various characters. There’s also a terrific opening scene involving KateLynn E. Newberry and the immortal Chad Ridgely, as well as a sequence in the snow involving the great Paul McGinnis and Daniel Baker (one of those guys gets his face removed). If you like down and dirty badass werewolf flicks, you definitely need to check out Frenzy Moon. Heads roll, the blood flows, and the werewolves howl at the goddamn moon! See Frenzy Moon! See it, see it, see it!
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1. Diablo: Directed by the great Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Diablo stars Scott Adkins as Kris Chaney, an ex-convict and badass that smuggles himself into Colombia (yes, that’s what I said, smuggle himself into Colombia) so he can fulfill a promise he made to someone special before he went to prison. That promise? To remove his daughter Elisa (Alanna De La Rossa) from the clutches of crime boss Vicente (Lucho Velasco), a bad man that Chaney has a sordid past with (the movie eventually explains everything). And so that’s what Chaney does, removes Elisa from Vicente’s grip. Now, Elisa doesn’t know that Chaney is her father, as far as she knows Vicente is her father and Chaney is some lunatic. The longer they stay together, though, Elissa starts to develop a relationship with Chaney, and they work as a team as Vicente sends his henchmen out into the world to look for Elisa and her captor. While all of that is happening, the notorious assassin El Corvo (Marko Zaror) is hired by Vicente to also look for Elisa. El Corvo, who has a metal hand, brutally mows through everyone and everything in his path as he tries to find Elisa. Will Chaney be able to get Elisa out of Colombia? Will El Corvo intercept Chaney and snatch Elisa? Diablo is an absolutely phenomenal action flick, with multiple spectacular fight sequences choreographed by Zaror, with both Adkins and Zaror destroying people and then facing off against each other. On top of that, Adkins gives one of the best acting performances of his career, Alanna De La Rossa does an amazing job as the teen girl that doesn’t know what to think, and Mark Zaror is fucking terrifying as El Corvo. It’s true, Zaror will freak you the fuck out as El Corvo. From the metal hand to the serial killer glasses to his bald head, Zaror will unsettle you (when is the last time you saw that in any sort of action flick?). The movie’s soundtrack is also cinematic perfection, functioning as both its own thing and an homage to the soundtrack of the 1982 Chuck Norris classic action/horror flick Silent Rage (and if it isn’t an homage it’s one of the most amazing coincidences in movie history). I loved every goddamn second of Diablo, and if the ending is believed, there very well could be a Diablo part 2 at some point. You have no idea how much I would love to see that. See Diablo. See it, see it, see it!
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