2026 has already been a wild year for horror, from low-budget box office hits (“Backrooms,” “Obsession”) to sequels the world could have lived without (“Scream 7,” “The Strangers – Chapter 3”). In a year loaded with scary movies, many of them were good-to-great, a welcome surprise that kept multiplexes busy. Below are the year’s standouts, including some honorable mentions also worth watching.
Note: Only films that were fully released in 2026 so far were up for inclusion, so no festival favorites or titles that haven’t hit theaters yet — “Evil Dead Burn,” Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil” and Robert Eggers’ “Werwulf,” to name a few — could make the cut.
Honorable Mentions:
Send Help (20th Century Studios) — Sam Raimi’s return to horror was this stylish little survival thriller, with great performances from Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as two at-odds office workers who are trying to get off a deserted island after a gnarly plane crash. While the overarching plot is a little predictable, there are some great twists and turns along the way.
Buffet Infinity (Yellow Veil Pictures) — This wild feature made up entirely of fake commercials is a trip to watch, and will delight any fans “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” or other lost media madness. Although the clips feel disconnected at first, it’s soon clear that a local sinkhole might be behind a restaurant war, a religious cult and plenty more unpredictable twists and turns. It’s not for everybody, but those who can get on the same wavelength as “Buffet Infinity” will be richly rewarded.
Saccharine (Independent Film Company and Shudder) — Natalie Erika James’ timely film considers the dark side of fad diets, as a med student (Midori Francis) realizes that ingesting the ashes of the dead is the best miracle drug around. While it’s not the white-knuckle ride many fans might want, it’s an effectively gross body horror story that has plenty to say.
-
Backrooms
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection A24
Kane Parsons’ dizzyingly accomplished film is a masterwork in tone and tension, dropping Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve into an endless maze of liminal spaces that are claustrophobic, confusing and overwhelming. It’s hard to describe why “Backrooms” works to the unconverted or unconvinced, but the incredible production design and camerawork of Jeremy Cox make up for any limitations of the sketch of a script. It’s exciting to see what Parsons will do with a next chapter — and maybe even what he could do beyond the limitations of his own space.
-
Exit 8
Image Credit: Courtesy of Toho, Cannes Film Festival
Neon
Genki Kawamura’s video game adaptation concerns a man (Kazunari Ninomiya) who cannot escape walking a long section of a subway hallway, stuck in an endless repetition. Yet he’s soon able to discern tiny clues about how to move forward and pass through some dark reverberations of his life and decisions to get to the other side. While the hook grows a little thin, it’s by necessity, as the audience begins to feel as stuck and hopeless as its main character, and each new detail pointing to escape is a breath of fresh air.
-
Mārama
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Dark Sky Films and Watermelon Pictures
Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale examines Māori culture and the colonizers who almost snuffed it out. Ariāna Osborne is spellbinding as the title character, a Victorian-era woman who travels to England to find out more about her lineage, only to become a governess for a mysterious man with an affinity for her Māori heritage. As things get dark, Stappard’s vision grows even more lush, with an atmosphere teeming with evil.
-
Faces of Death
Image Credit: Courtesy of Independent Film Company and Shudder Independent Film Company
The idea of releasing a new “Faces of Death” may have once seemed inconceivable, but the creative partnership of Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber was able to spin the seminal oddity into a tight serial killer movie with a deeper motive. Dacre Montgomery plays a maniac obsessed with the original film, which was purported to include real-life depictions of violence. His recreation of the goriest bits nabs the attention of a content moderator (Barbie Ferreira) and a bloody game of cat and mouse begins. Mazzei and Goldhaber have plenty of keen observations on influencer and online culture, while Montgomery is genuinely chilling as a killer who does his best to blend in and be forgettable.
-
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Sony Pictures Releasing
A heady, heartfelt spin on zombie movies, Nia DaCosta helms this fourth chapter in the series, which dodges nearly every expectation. Ralph Fiennes stars as Dr. Ian Kelson, who lives alone in the post-breakout world, coming closer and closer to finding a cure with the help of his undead friend, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). Unfortunately, as the pair develops a partnership, a roving leader of violent kids, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), roams the countryside looking for people to antagonize. Many thought-provoking moments — as well as one wild Iron Maiden dance sequence — follow in Alex Garland’s sharp script, which begs for another installment.
-
Leviticus
Image Credit: Courtesy of Neon Neon
A touching love story about two boys in Australia becomes a nightmare when a religious conversion therapy turns the person they love the most into the thing trying to kill them. From there, Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) are unsure if the object of their affection is real or a beast out for blood. Building a heartfelt and tender romance, “Leviticus” traffics more in tension than flat-out scares, but it’s unlikely there will be a more affecting horror movie this year.
-
They Will Kill You
Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures
Zazie Beetz kicks an enormous amount of ass as brutal fighter Asia Reaves in this horror-action-comedy. When she infiltrates a hotel that she believes has kidnapped her maid sister, Asia must brawl her way through endless villains loyal to the satanic cult, who are invincible but can get mutilated along the way, leading to surreal scenes like the adventures of a dislodged, crawling eyeball. An early “Kill Bill”-esque showdown and a torch-lit beatdown in a ballroom are among the flashy setpieces. Beetz is a pro at the stunt choreography, showing the toil of inflicting and receiving extreme pain. Cinematographer Isaac Bauman also shoots her in inspired ways, touching on pop touchstones like comic books and martial arts films.
-
Touch Me
Image Credit: Dustin Supencheck Yellow Veil Pictures
Addison Heimann’s wild take on an alien creature feature blends up countless inspirations: tentacle sex, drugs, Japanese cinema, ‘80s hip-hop dance and throuples, to name a few. Yet it’s a kaleidoscopic adventure: A slacker (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and her gay best friend (Jordan Gavaris) both start hooking up with an extraterrestrial (Lou Taylor Pucci) whose powers make them feel like they’re in a drug-fueled euphoria. Unfortunately, the alien has a darker plan than he lets on, and our unlikely heroes must save humanity. With plenty of humor and unpredictable moments, it’s a joy to take a ride in Heimann’s mind.
-
Hokum
Image Credit: Courtesy of Neon Neon
An old-school haunted house bonanza, Damian McCarthy’s latest drops Ohm (Adam Scott) into an Irish hotel that’s filled with secrets. When he gets locked in, he has to solve a murder mystery before he’s overtaken by scores of supernatural happenings. The set design is remarkable, toeing the line between coziness and mustiness that makes the hotel come alive for all of the senses. Scott is a remarkable lead, as he’s playing Ohm as such an asshole, but his journey of self-awareness soon becomes as engaging as what happened to the dead body. It’s all threaded by some highbrow jump scares that make for a great rollercoaster ride, best enjoyed at a crowded multiplex.
-
Obsession
Image Credit: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Focus Features
Before all of the thinkpieces and analysis, “Obsession” started life as a nasty little thriller that mixed an old-school monkey’s paw scenario with a contemporary look at life in the friendzone. It’s a simple story, but twisty scares and an all-timer performance from Inde Navarrette made the fear burrow deep into audiences’ minds. Countless WTF moments have been debated for months, and that bleak ending ensured the film stayed unforgettable long after leaving the theater.
