Damian McCarthy’s Oddity is by my reckoning the best movie horror movie I’ve seen in 2025 (it was released toward the end of the prior year) not because it’s perfect – though it’s pretty damn close – but because it does so much right.

By which I mean the movie introduces numerous things at the beginning of the movie that it pays off before the credits roll.

And while that might sound like a simple thing, how many movies have you seen where characters and ideas are introduced, only to vanish into the ether a few moments later?

While in the case of Oddity, events that seem insignificant or minor in the front end of the movie might play an oversized role in the latter half, which means that paying attention is a must because what you miss could be important to what follows.

The tendency for directors to disregard storylines, plots and characters that don’t interest them isn’t an unusual one, which is why when you see a movie that sticks the landing as well as Oddity is worth noting.

It’s also not particularly gory, so if you know someone who isn’t into horror but likes well-done storytelling it would be a great introduction to the genre.