Movies Coming Out in December 2025: From Tarantino’s Bloodbath to Another Trip to Pandora

December is usually where your wallet goes to die. It’s the month of Oscar bait, franchise bloat, and the kind of holiday cheer that feels like a threat. But looking at the slate for movies releasing in December 2025, the vibe isn’t just festive; it’s unhinged. 

You have Quentin Tarantino finally unleashing a four-hour uncut beast, Nicolas Cage parenting the Messiah, and a Norwegian “Megatroll” threatening to flatten a city. If you want to end the year with quiet dignity, stay home. If you want to see the industry swing for the fences, read on.

Week 1

Troll 2

• Premiere Date: December 1
• Where to Watch: Netflix
• Genre: Monster / Action
• Cast: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim Falck, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen

Let’s be clear: this is not the 1990 cult disaster about vegetarian goblins. This is the sequel to Roar Uthaug’s 2022 Netflix smash, and they have decided to stop being subtle. The production has scaled up to become the largest in Nordic history, introducing a “Megatroll” that makes the previous antagonist look like a garden gnome. 

Paleontologist Nora Tidemann is back, and the film seems to be ditching the “man vs. nature” metaphor for a straight-up “man vs. building-sized fist” reality. It’s loud, expensive, and exactly what streaming was made for.

Also Read: November 2025 Movies

Oh What Fun

• Premiere Date: December 3
• Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
• Genre: Holiday Comedy
• Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dominic Sessa

There is a specific joy in watching Michelle Pfeiffer unravel. Here, she plays a mother who organizes a perfect Christmas, gets ignored by her ungrateful family, and then gets “kidnapped” (possibly by choice?). Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), this film has “sleeper hit” written all over it. Getting Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) in the cast was a stroke of genius—he brings that prickly, indie energy that keeps this from dissolving into Hallmark mush.

Les enfants vont bien (Out of Love)

• Premiere Date: December 3
• Where to Watch: Limited Release
• Genre: Drama
• Cast: Camille Cottin, Juliette Armanet, Monia Chokri

Nathan Ambrosioni wrote this, and the kid is only 26. That is annoying. What’s less annoying is how good the film looks. Definitely makes me excited about the December 2025 movies. Camille Cottin (House of Gucci) plays a woman whose sister vanishes, leaving her to raise the kids. It’s being pitched as a “reverse thriller”—it starts with the disappearance and stays in the quiet aftermath rather than the chase. If you need to cry in a dark room while everyone else is buying presents, this is your safe space.

La misteriosa mirada del flamenco (The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo)

• Premiere Date: December 4
• Where to Watch: Art House Cinemas
• Genre: Drama / Mystery
• Cast: Paula Dinamarca, Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán

You don’t buy a ticket for a film titled The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo expecting a linear narrative; you go for the bruising. Diego Céspedes’ debut feature is set in a Chilean mining town dealing with a mysterious disease (a metaphor for the HIV crisis) that is rumored to be transmitted by looking at flamingos. 

It sounds bizarre because it is. Expect stunning, dusty cinematography and a plot that refuses to hold your hand. This is festival cinema at its most uncompromising.

Also Read: Humans in the Loop Review

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: Theaters (Exclusive Engagement)
• Genre: Action / Thriller
• Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, David Carradine

It’s real. After two decades of rumors, Lionsgate is putting Tarantino’s complete vision in theaters. This isn’t just Vol. 1 and 2 glued together. It includes the full, colorized House of Blue Leaves fight (the MPAA originally forced it into B&W to hide the gore), a significantly longer anime sequence explaining O-Ren Ishii’s past, and a seamless flow that changes the entire pacing. Watching The Bride’s rampage as a four-hour opera changes it from a “cool action movie” to a legitimate Greek tragedy.

Dhurandhar

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: Theaters (Netflix release in Jan 2026)
• Genre: Spy Thriller
• Cast: Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan

Ranveer Singh has dropped the loud shirts for a tactical vest. Directed by Aditya Dhar (Uri: The Surgical Strike), one of the most popular movies releasing in December 2025, it’s diving deep into the grim reality of Indian intelligence. The production has been hush-hush, but insiders suggest the plot mirrors the real-life “Operation Lyari” in Pakistan, which makes this politically charged dynamite. 

With Sanjay Dutt as the antagonist and Akshaye Khanna likely playing the weary handler, the acting pedigree here is stacked. It’s less “Bollywood dance number” and more “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: Theaters / Peacock
• Genre: Horror
• Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Piper Rubio

The first movie made money by pandering to the fans; the second one looks like it might actually be scary. Rumors from the set confirm we are getting the “Withered” animatronics, which look like nightmares fueled by diesel and rust. 

Emma Tammi returns to direct, and she seems to have been given a longer leash to embrace the weird, convoluted lore that the games are famous for. If you don’t know who “The Puppet” is, you’re going to be confused. If you do, you’re already buying tickets.

Also Read: Frankenstein Review

The Chronology of Water

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: Limited Theaters
• Genre: Biopic / Drama
• Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut was never going to be a normal movie. Adapting Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, the film treats memory like a fluid, non-linear entity. Imogen Poots has practically dissolved into the role of a swimmer battling addiction and grief. 

Early buzz suggests it’s visually aggressive—lots of extreme close-ups and sound design that mimics being underwater. It’s an artistic statement from Stewart that she’s done being just a face in front of the camera.

Rosemead

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: VOD / Limited Theaters
• Genre: Thriller / Drama
• Cast: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou

Based on a terrifying true story covered in the LA Times, Rosemead sees Lucy Liu playing a mother in the San Gabriel Valley who discovers her son’s obsession with mass shootings. It dismantles the “Model Minority” myth with a sledgehammer. 

Liu is having a hell of a week (she’s getting her head sliced off in Kill Bill the same day), but her performance here is quiet, desperate, and utterly terrifying. It asks the question: what do you do when you’re afraid of your own child?

Feels like it is going to top the chart of most heartbreaking movies coming out in December 2025.

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

• Premiere Date: December 5
• Where to Watch: Disney+
• Genre: Animation / Family
• Cast: Jabari Banks, Jill Basey, P.L. Brown, Erica Cerra

Greg Heffley returns to be the world’s most sociopathic middle schooler. Disney is churning these out annually now. This one adapts the Last Straw book, focusing on Greg trying to be “good” to get presents. It’s reliable content. It looks like the book, it sounds like the book, and it will keep your children silent for 90 minutes. Sometimes, that is the only value proposition you need.

Week 2

Merv

• Premiere Date: December 10
• Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video
• Genre: Rom-Com
• Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Charlie Cox

A woman, her ex-boyfriend, and a depressed dog. It sounds like an AI generated a rom-com prompt, but with Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox involved, it might actually work. Filmed in North Carolina (posing as a snowy paradise), this is designed to be background noise for gift wrapping. But keep an eye on Cox—he has a charm that can elevate even the most formulaic script into something watchable.

Week 3

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants

• Premiere Date: December 19
• Where to Watch: Theaters
• Genre: Animation / Comedy
• Cast: Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown

SpongeBob shouldn’t still be funny, but he is. This fourth theatrical outing pits him against the Flying Dutchman. The franchise has quietly become a playground for experimental animation, mixing 3D, 2D, and live-action in ways that would make an art student blush. It’s surrealism for toddlers, and honestly, it’s usually the most coherent film of the season.

Avatar: Fire and Ash

• Premiere Date: December 19
• Where to Watch: Theaters (IMAX is mandatory)
• Genre: Sci-Fi / Epic
• Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Oona Chaplin

James Cameron doesn’t release movies; he annexes the box office. Fire and Ash introduces the “Ash People,” a volcanic, aggressive clan of Na’vi led by Oona Chaplin. This is the pivot point where the franchise stops being “Nature Good, Humans Bad” and admits that nature can be nasty, too. The tech will be flawless—Cameron has likely invented three new cameras just to film the lava—but the real test is if the story can match the visuals. Prepare for a three-hour runtime and a billion-dollar gross.

The Great Flood

• Premiere Date: December 19
• Where to Watch: Netflix
• Genre: Sci-Fi / Disaster
• Cast: Kim Da-mi, Park Hae-soo

While America looks to Pandora, Korea is drowning the world. Set on the absolute last day of Earth, this film follows an AI researcher (Kim Da-mi) trying to save a child as the waters rise. Korean cinema does disaster differently—it’s less about the spectacle of destruction and more about the suffocating human cost. It’s going to be wet, claustrophobic, and significantly more stressful than your average blockbuster.

Week 4

The Carpenter’s Son

• Premiere Date: December 22
• Where to Watch: Theaters
• Genre: Horror
• Cast: Nicolas Cage, FKA Twigs, Noah Jupe

This is the wildest card in the deck. A horror movie about the childhood of Jesus, based on the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas? Starring Nicolas Cage as Joseph? It sounds like a hallucination. The film explores the “dark side” of divinity—a child with godlike powers who doesn’t understand consequences. It’s bold, likely blasphemous, and with FKA Twigs involved, it’s going to be visually bizarre.

Also Read: Best A24 Horror Movies Ranked

The Plague

• Premiere Date: December 24
• Where to Watch: Select Theaters (NY/LA)
• Genre: Psychological Horror
• Cast: Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a film about cruelty at an all-boys water polo camp. Directed by Charlie Polinger, this film is getting a limited release for awards qualification. It follows a socially anxious 12-year-old who gets pulled into a hazing ritual called “The Plague.” It’s Lord of the Flies in a swimming pool. Joel Edgerton adds some star power, but the focus is on the kids and the terrifying peer pressure that turns them into monsters.

Anaconda

• Premiere Date: December 25
• Where to Watch: Theaters
• Genre: Horror / Comedy / Meta
• Cast: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Daniela Melchior

They remade Anaconda, but they made it a movie about remaking Anaconda. It’s a meta-comedy where a film crew goes to the Amazon to reboot the 90s classic, only to run into actual giant snakes. It’s a genius pivot—you can’t make a serious snake movie in 2025, so you lean into the absurdity. With Jack Black and Paul Rudd, the tone is going to be closer to Tropic Thunder than the original.

It might turn out to be a comedy classic among movies releasing in December 2025.

Qui brille au combat (The Wonderers)

• Premiere Date: December 31
• Where to Watch: Select Theaters
• Genre: Drama
• Cast: Mélanie Laurent, Angelina Woreth

Closing out the year is Joséphine Japy’s directorial debut. The title translates to “Who Shines in Combat,” which feels appropriate for a New Year’s Eve release. Based on a true story, it follows two sisters navigating a severe disability. Mélanie Laurent is, as always, luminous. It’s a film about resilience and the quiet battles fought in living rooms, a perfect, melancholic note to end the cinematic year on.

Also Read: Best French Horror Movies

Conclusion

December 2025 isn’t playing it safe. You have the technical perfection of Avatar sitting uncomfortably next to the gritty realism of Rosemead and the meta-madness of Anaconda. Whether you want to see Nicolas Cage parent a god or watch Uma Thurman slice through the Crazy 88s in 4K, the variety is staggering. The cinema remains a place of worship, and this month, the calendar of movies coming out in December 2025 clearly shows, the gods are angry, funny, and very, very loud.

FAQs

Is Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair really different from the original movies?

Yes. It combines Volume 1 and 2 into a single runtime (over 4 hours), includes a longer, fully colored anime sequence (no black and white censorship), and features minor editing changes that alter the pacing and violence levels significantly.

Will Avatar: Fire and Ash be the final Avatar movie?

No. James Cameron has planned five films in total. Fire and Ash is the third installment, serving as the middle chapter that expands the lore of Pandora to include the “Ash People,” a fire-based Na’vi clan.

Is the new Anaconda movie a horror or a comedy?

It is a horror-comedy with a heavy emphasis on the comedy. The plot revolves around a film crew trying to remake the original Anaconda, blurring the lines between the movie-within-a-movie and the actual danger. Expect a tone closer to Jumanji than the 1997 original.