What to Watch in December 2025

Your guide to all the best new films and TV shows heading to UK screens in December 2025

FILM

Eternity (December 5)

Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen star in this charming romantic comedy from director David Freyne, which takes an amusing look into a question that humanity has been asking since time immemorial; what happens to us after we die?

Larry and Joan are an elderly couple attending a family party when Larry begins choking on a pretzel. Next thing he knows, he is sitting on a train heading to an unknown destination. When he arrives, he meets Anna, his ‘afterlife coordinator’, who explains to Larry that he is dead, and that he has arrived at a place known as The Junction. Here, he is told, is where he will decide where he wants to spend the rest of eternity – and who he wants to spend it with. 

To his surprise, he soon meets Joan there and learns that she, too, has passed away as a result of her terminal cancer. Larry is initially delighted and relieved, but just as he’s getting ready to spend eternity with his wife of 50 years, Joan’s first husband Luke – who died many years earlier in the Korean war – appears on the scene, leaving Joan with a difficult decision to make. Also starring Callum Turner, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, John Early and Olga Meridez, Eternity is well worth watching even if rom-coms aren’t usually your thing.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (December 5)

A decade on from the release of cult Blumhouse horror Five Nights at Freddy’s, your favourite demented animatronics are back for another helping of chaos and murder. Set one year on from the events of the first film, survivors Mike and Vanessa are still struggling with the aftermath of the horrors they witnessed at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. Mike has so far managed to shield his young sister Abby from the truth about her animatronic ‘friends’, but when Abby receives a message telling her to come and find them, Mike and Vanessa make a horrifying discovery: not only are they still functioning, they’re heading out on the rampage.

Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubo and Matthew Lillard all return for a second helping of fun, with McKenna Grace among the new additions to the cast thus time around. Emma Tammi also returns to the director’s chair for this riotous sequel, with Scott Cawthon – the creator of the games on which both films are based – also returning to provide the script. Still fancy a pizza? You’d better order a takeaway…

Silent Night, Deadly Night (December 12)

When the original version of Silent Night, Deadly Night made its debut in 1984, it caused quite a stir. In the run-up to its release, due to a scheduling error, a trailer for the film (which featured Santa Claus murdering naughty children with an axe) was accidentally broadcast during the commercial break in an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The film lasted just a week before the backlash from parents and religious groups, who staged protests across the United States, forced Tri-Star pictures to withdraw the film from cinemas altogether.

However, nothing makes audiences want to see a film more than banning it, and so despite its controversial beginnings the film became something of a cult hit that has since spawned several sequels. Now, with Christmas approaching, we’re going back to the beginning with a new remake from director Mike P. Nelson. Rohan Campbell takes on the role of the film’s protagonist Billy Campbell who, as a young boy, witnesses the grisly murder of his parents at the hands of a man dressed in a Santa outfit. Many years later, an incident at work triggers the trauma he has been trying to keep buried, unleashing a psychotic episode that results in a festive killing spree. Not for the faint-hearted, this one, but if you’re sick of all the feel-good fare on offer at the cinema over Christmas, this is just the tonic.

Avatar: Fire and Ash (December 19)

With a 13-year gap between James Cameron’s 2009 hit Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, many wondered whether the world might have lost interest in the fate of Pandora’s blue-skinned humanoids the Na’vi, but they needn’t have worried. The Way of Water became 2022’s highest-grossing film, pulling in a mind-blowing $2.7billion (£1.7b) at the box office, giving Cameron two out of the top 3 highest-grossing films of all time. 

Luckily for fans, the wait for another instalment has been much shorter this time, with the third film in the series set to land in UK cinemas this side of Christmas. Avatar: Fire and Ash sees Jake Sully and the Na’vi continuing to battle against the occupying forces of the Resources Development Administration, but as the conflict on Pandora escalates, Jake and his family face a new threat in the form of a rival Na’vi tribe. 

Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigouney Weaver and Stephen Land all return for the latest adventure, while Oona Chaplin becomes one of the most intriguing new additions in the role of new Na’vi villain Varang. If you loved the first two Avatar films, you won’t want to miss this.

Marty Supreme (December 26)

Our final pick this month is this comedy-drama from Uncut Gems director Josh Safdie, which is loosely inspired by the exploits of New York’s 1950s table tennis legend Marty Reisman (although it should be noted that Safdie’s film takes more than a few artistic liberties with the truth).

Timothée Chalamet stars as his fictionalised incarnation, Marty Mauser, a young man with a singular talent that is hell-bent on achieving his dream – even if he has to go to hell and back to make it happen. To say more would be to spoil the fun, but alongside Chalamet is a cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma, Fran Drescher and Abel Ferrara, among many others. Something of a hidden gem amongst the Christmas film release schedule, Marty Supreme is due to land in UK cinemas on Boxing Day. Catch it on the big screen while you can.

TV

The Abandons (Netflix, December 4)

If you’ve already burned your way through all of Yellowstone and its various spinoffs, and you’re looking for your next dose of western-themed adventures, then look no further. Gillian Anderson and Lena Heady lead the cast of this new drama from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. Set in the 1850s, Heady stars as Fiona Nolan, a devout Irish woman who is unable to have children of her own, and who adopts four orphans in the hope of realising her dream of settling down with a family. 

Unfortunately for Fiona, her newly-acquired home in Oregon is already under threat from Constance Van Ness (Anderson), heiress of the powerful Van Ness mining dynasty, who have their own plans for the land on which Fiona’s new home sits. A showdown beckons between the two single-minded women, each of whom believes their cause to be a divine calling. 

Available to watch on Netflix on December 4, The Abandons adds a female-led spin on the tried-and-tested Wild West formula, but which one of these rival outlaws will claim victory in the end? There’s only one way to find out…

The War Between the Land and the Sea (BBC One / iPlayer, December 7)

If you’re a Doctor Who fan and you’re itching to find out why the last series ended with a new reincarnation that looks suspiciously like the Doctor’s former companion Rose Tyler, sadly you won’t find out this Christmas. In fact, there’s another whole year to wait before the planned Christmas special written by Russel T Davies is due to appear on our screens, so in the meantime you’ll just have to console yourself with this new spin-off series, which becomes the latest addition to the ever-expanding ‘Whoniverse’.

The War Between the Land and the Sea centres around the shadowy government agency known as UNIT, who find themselves trying to prevent a global conflict between humans and an old Doctor Who enemy, the Sea Devils. Unlike most of his adversaries, however, the Sea Devils are native to Planet Earth, but now the ocean-dwelling species have had enough of life underwater and are determined to claim ownership of the land as well as the sea. Russell Tovey, Jemma Redgrave and Gugu Mbatha-Raw lead the cast of this new sci-fi adventure, the first episode of which arrives on BBC One and iPlayer on December 7.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: Season 2 (Disney+, December 10)

Based on the fantasy novel series by American author Rick Riordan, the first season of Percy Jackson & The Olympians proved to be a hit with critics and audiences alike when it first aired on Disney+ in 2023. Now the show is returning to the streaming service for a second run, with season 2 due to land this month

The new season takes its cue from the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters, and finds Percy and his new half-brother Tyson joining Annabeth on a quest to the Bermuda Triangle, where they hope to recover the Golden Fleece in an attempt to save Camp Half-Blood from destruction at the hands of a variety of gods and monsters – and hopefully rescue their friend Grover from the clutches of the cyclops Polyphemus.

Walker Scobell and the rest of the gang return for this latest adventure, which is set to begin on Disney+ from December 10.

Fallout: Season 2 (Prime Video, December 17)

With the bombshell ending that came at the end of Fallout’s first season, fans of the show will be pleased to know that a second is imminent, with the next instalment due to begin its run this December. Season 2 picks up where the first left off, with Vault 33’s Lucy McClean reeling from the discovery about her father’s role in her mother’s fate – and striking up an unlikely partnership with a fearsome Ghoul bounty hunter on a mission to find out what happened to his own family. With a civil war looming, both of them will need all the friends they can get.

Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Kyle MacLachlan and the rest of the cast return for the show’s second run, which is due to begin on Prime Video on December 10^th. If the trailer below is anything to go by, things are going to get worse before they get better. Much, much worse…

Amadeus (Sky Atlantic, December 21)

Last but not least on our list of TV recommendations for this month is this new series adapted from the stage play of the same name – the first time the story has been adapted for the screen since Miloš Forman’s 1985 film starring Tom Hulce.

Like the play and the film that came before it, Amadeus centres around the life of legendary composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (played here by Will Sharpe) – and specifically his relationship with rival composer Antonio Salieri (Paul Bettany), who becomes so consumed with envy at Mozart’s divine talents he becomes determined to destroy the young composer, one way or another.

Created by Joe Barton, the man behind recent Netflix thriller Black Doves, Amadeus is due to arrive on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW on December 21