I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I rarely make them, probably because I don’t want to break them. Looking back though, over the past few years I have been setting movie-watching goals that begin in January. Even if I don’t state the goal out loud, that’s still basically a resolution. Why not just make it official this year?
For 2025 I have six resolutions, and they all involve horror movies. My purpose for writing them out and sharing them is twofold. First, I want to hold myself accountable for my goals this year, and if I share them publicly then I’ll be more likely to actually do them. Second, I hope that my resolutions can help even just a few people to think about what they want to do this year as a fan of horror. Watch more? Get more involved? Create something in the horror community? I’d love to know what you hope to accomplish this year!
In 2024, I watched about 130 brand-new horror movies. I say “about,” because there were a few movies I didn’t finish for various reasons, and because some sticklers might consider a few of the movies on my Best and Worst Horror of 2024 list to be more horror-adjacent rather than “true” horror. Regardless, the number is 130, and that’s not good enough for me.
Looking at the list in our New and Upcoming Horror Movies tracker which includes the past twelve months of releases, 130 barely seems to make a dent in the overall total of films released during the past year. So in 2025, I’m not setting a number as a goal. Instead, my first New Year’s resolution is to watch as many new horror movies as I can. If just a couple new movies come out one week, that’s easy. If seven titles come out in a week, I’ll try to watch all seven. More? I’ll do my best. Watching every single horror movie released throughout the year seems impossible, so that’s not necessarily the goal. The goal is to significantly surpass 130 while doing my best to watch as much of everything as I possibly can. That way I can get an even better sense of the overall year in horror.
With as much new horror as I plan to watch in 2025, how will I have time for anything else? I don’t know. I’ll just have to figure it out, because my second New Year’s resolution is to make more time for classic horror films that I haven’t seen. I watch a lot of older horror movies, but I have a habit of rewatching my favorites repeatedly while leaving gaps in my overall coverage of certain eras and subgenres. To fix this, every week in 2025 I will attempt to watch at least one new-to-me classic horror movie from a previous decade.
Another bad habit I find myself falling into is my tendency to buy more physical media than I watch. I always intend to watch everything I buy, but whenever I splurge on box sets during a sale or load up on cheap horror DVDs at my local used-media store, a portion of my purchases inevitably go unwatched. That needs to stop, so my third New Year’s resolution is to watch every disc I buy. It’s that simple. Physical media is important for many reasons (which I’ve shared before), and I don’t intend to buy less. I’ll just need to be more mindful of what I spend my money on. That way, this resolution can potentially feed into my desire to watch more classics.
One of the most rewarding parts of this past year was getting more involved in supporting low-budget and independent horror movies. I’ve always loved indie horror, but in 2024 I was able to increase my personal involvement in directly supporting a few projects. In addition to the movies I wrote about here on Creepy Catalog (Onlyfangs, New Fears Eve, Deathwoods, Piglet, The Barn III, etc.), I also contributed to the crowdfunding campaigns of other movies. Still, I could do more, and I hope to do more in 2025. Which means my fourth New Year’s resolution is to spread the word about more indie horror.
Like my other resolutions, I don’t have a specific number in mind. I’ll aim for maybe one indie flick a month to recommend, but I won’t do it unless I actually believe in the project. Every movie I’ve written about in 2024 I believe in wholeheartedly, and I’m not going to suggest that people spend their own money on something I wouldn’t contribute to myself. I get excited about these projects, and I hope my enthusiasm is infectious. Every little bit helps when it comes to low-budget horror, whether it’s supporting a crowdfunding campaign, watching the movie when it comes out, or even just talking about it online. That’s the message I want to spread more widely in 2025.
The past two years I’ve gone to Texas Frightmare Weekend, and I had a blast both times. However, this year I think it’s time for a change, and I resolve to go to more than one horror convention in 2025. I might still go to Frightmare, but I also want to see what some of the other conventions have to offer. My favorite part of conventions are the panels, so a good lineup of interesting guests is the biggest selling point of any con I go to. Other than that, I just love the atmosphere created by a bunch of horror-loving people gathered in one place. I’d suggest that every horror fan try attending a convention if they can.
Conventions are largely about celebrating what we already love about horror, and film festivals are about looking for the next movie we’re going to fall in love with. There are some great horror-themed film festivals running, but I’ve not been able to attend any of them in recent years for one reason or another. This year has to be different. My sixth New Year’s resolution is to attend at least one film festival, preferably one geared towards horror or genre films in general. Ideally I’d love to go to one big festival and one small event. Hopefully I can achieve that and the rest of my New Year’s resolutions in 2025.
