‘Scariest film of year’ lands on Netflix and terrifies viewers | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

If you’re looking for something new to watch that gets your adrenaline pumping, then you may wish to heed the advice of film buff, Alex The Film Guy on social media. 

“This new film that dropped on Netflix last week is probably the scariest of the last year and should serve as a warning because this could easily happen to us,” he began in a TikTok video.

Alex went on to reveal that the film is called Anniversary. The story centres on a family over the course of five years, following how they’re affected by a new political movement in America called The Change.

“I won’t tell you anything more as I really think you need to watch it, but let’s just say they don’t have a very good time,” he continued.

The movie stars the “incredible” Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane as parents Paul and Ellen Taylor, with Madeline Brewer playing their daughter, Anne, Dylan O’Brien as thir son Josh, and Phoebe Dynevor as his new girlfriend, Liz.

Alex said of the latter: “Phoebe’s character is essentially the catalyst that creates all the catastrophe and rips the family apart. She plays the character really well.”

Alex went on to describe the “thing that really got [him]” about the film, which was the authoritarian regime sweeping the US.

He added: “It feels really releveant, especially now… I think the [Polish] director, Jan Komasa does a really good job of showing how quickly these kind of political movements can escalate.

“I will say though that I think the film is a little slow to pick up and the best part of it is in the third act.”

The 2025 movie has a rating of 6.7/10 on IMDb from almost 8,000 reviews. Additionally, it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 66%.

Directed by Jan Komasa, the Anniversary’s synopsis reads: “After meeting their son’s aloof, ambitious new girlfriend, a couple watches their family fall apart as her extreme political project sweeps the nation.The political project in question is The Change, a crusade which aimed to ‘put ‘united’ back in these States of America by enforcing a no-party system.

“When Ellen and Paul’s son introduces his new girlfriend one lovely afternoon at their 25th anniversary party, no one suspects that it is the beginning of the end for this happy family. The new girlfriend is Liz, Ellen’s former student, who left the university, some years before, after Ellen called her out in class for her radical ideology.”

Writing in response, to Alex’s clip, one TikTok user said: “It’s a brilliant film and it’s so easy to believe it could be true currently.” A second person concurred: “It was good but definitely scary as I think it’s the way things are going.”

A third was left feeling uneasy: “I couldn’t sleep after it.” Whilst a fourth TikTok user exclaimed: “This film is fantastic. I can’t believe it’s not got the credit it needs, absolutely brilliant.”