photo courtesy of Focus Features
Horror has been having an incredible decade, but 2026 has already proven to be an especially fascinating year for the genre. From the current box office domination of fresh films like Obsession and Backrooms to distinct reimaginings of established horror imagery, many of this year’s strongest horror films have used the genre as a springboard for something stranger, more ambitious, and often more emotionally resonant.
The genre continues to be one of the most exciting spaces for creative risk-taking, and with us now officially halfway to Halloween, I’ve compiled what I consider to be the strongest of this year’s offerings thus far. Together, these films represent everything I love about horror in 2026: bold filmmaking, unforgettable imagery, and stories willing to venture into places most genres simply can’t reach.
Backrooms (Currently in theaters)
Expanding his wildly successful YouTube series into a feature-length film, Kane Parsons transforms a simple internet creepypasta into a genuinely immersive nightmare. A bitter, failed architect-turned-furniture-salesman (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers a secret dimension within the basement of his store that leads to endless hallways, impossible designs, and perhaps even something far more sinister around the endless corners. When he disappears into the bowels of the Backrooms, the only person willing to follow is his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve).
Check out our full review of Backrooms
What makes Backrooms so effective is the overwhelming sense of disorientation that permeates every frame. Parsons understands that horror often thrives on uncertainty, and he weaponizes the distorted space and found-footage realism to create an experience that feels genuinely uncanny. Backrooms embraces ambiguity and invites viewers to get lost alongside its characters. The result is one of the most unique horror experiences of the year and a remarkably confident debut from a filmmaker who continues to prove he’s far more than a YouTube phenomenon.
Send Help (Streaming on Disney+ / Hulu)
Sam Raimi’s return to full-blown horror was always going to be one of the year’s most exciting events, but Send Help exceeded expectations. Combining survival thriller tension with gross-out gags and Raimi’s signature sense of kinetic visual storytelling, the film feels like a filmmaker rediscovering exactly what makes him special. The movie is about Linda Little (Rachel McAdams), a hardworking but under-appreciated employee who, along with her obnoxious boss (Dylan O’Brien), winds up crash landing on a remote tropical island.
Check out our full review of Send Help
Anchored by amazing performances, the dysfunctional pair’s fight for survival is a constant thrill. Raimi’s camera remains as playful and inventive as ever, constantly finding new ways to heighten tension while keeping viewers off balance with twists and turns. Send Help serves as a reminder that few filmmakers understand wild cinematic suspense quite like Raimi. It’s thrilling, funny, nerve-wracking, and endlessly entertaining - a master filmmaker operating near the top of his game.
Mother of Flies (Streaming on AMC+)
Equal parts folk horror, dark fantasy, and emotional tragedy, the Adams Family's latest indie creation creates a world that feels modern yet ancient, mystical, and deeply unsettling. The story centers on Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young woman desperate for a cure to her terminal illness. Accompanied by her skeptical but equally desperate father (John Adams), she turns to a mysterious, witch-like healer (Toby Poser) deep in the forest for a supernatural answer.
Check out our full review of Mother of Flies
What separates Mother of Flies from many contemporary folk horror stories is its overwhelming sense of atmosphere. Every frame seems drenched in decay and spiritual unease. The film often feels less concerned with narrative mechanics than with immersing viewers in its uniquely beautiful horror bog. For viewers willing to surrender to its strange rhythms, Mother of Flies offers one of the year’s most unforgettable horror experiences.
Exit 8 (Currently available to rent or own digitally)
Adapted from the viral indie game, Exit 8 transforms a deceptively simple premise into one of the year’s smartest horror films. Set almost entirely within an endlessly looping subway corridor, the film thrives on paranoia, repetition, and the fear of noticing something just slightly wrong. Kazunari Ninomiya stars as an unnamed man who becomes trapped in a continuous loop and must learn how to spot anomalies each time he passes through if he hopes to ever escape.
Check out our full review of Exit 8
The concept sounds almost absurdly minimal on paper, yet that’s precisely what makes it so effective. Like the best psychological horror, director Genki Kawamura turns the audience into active participants. Every corner, every passerby, every detail becomes something to scrutinize. It’s a remarkably tense exercise in minimalist horror filmmaking, with a satisfying mystery surrounding it to boot.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (Currently available to rent or own digitally)
After reinvigorating the Evil Dead franchise, Lee Cronin turns his attention toward one of cinema’s oldest and most iconic monsters and delivers something genuinely unexpected. Rather than chasing adventure or slow-burning spectacle, his version of The Mummy embraces pure visceral horror, following a grief-stricken family who are unsure how to proceed when their supposedly-dead daughter (Natalie Grace) reappears one day in a horrifying fashion.
Check out our full review of Lee Cronin's The Mummy
Cronin’s greatest strength has always been his ability to combine shock and gore with emotional weight, and that skill is still solid here. The film is packed with disturbing imagery and intense set pieces, but what makes it resonate is its focus on grief, family, and the desperate lengths people go to in order to avoid loss. It’s a mean as hell movie, and strangely it’s all the better for it.
Obsession (Currently in theaters)
Few films this year burrow under the skin quite like Obsession. From filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial), this psychological nightmare spectacularly hinges on a very simple premise. Emotionally stunted Bear (Michael Johnston) makes a hasty yet all-too-powerful wish for his childhood crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), to love him more than anything else in the world. A horror story of fixation, desire, and self-destruction, Obsession thrives on an atmosphere of mounting dread that feels almost suffocating by the time it reaches its final act.
Check out our full review of Obsession
Combined with striking visuals and an incredibly haunting central performance by Navarrette, the result is a genuinely terrifying movie that lingers long after the credits roll. It’s the kind of tale that becomes more unsettling the more you think about it, revealing new layers with every passing day. It's become a horror phenomenon for a reason.
undertone (Currently available to rent or own digitally)
Easily one of the most unnerving films of the year, undertone demonstrates how little a filmmaker actually needs to terrify an audience. Built around sound design, atmosphere, and psychological unease, this chilling debut from Ian Tuason is positively dripping with profound dread. The story follows Evy (Nina Kiri), the host of a paranormal podcast who, while caring for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet), receives disturbing recordings for her show that begin to blur the lines between fiction and reality for her.
What strikes the most about undertone is how effectively it weaponizes absence. Tuason, who has since been tapped to direct the next iteration of the Paranormal Activity franchise, understands that what we imagine is often far more frightening than anything placed directly on screen. Every strange noise, every unexplained detail, every lingering silence becomes another source of anxiety. By the time its final moments arrive, the tension explodes in one of the greatest horror endings of the decade. Many have been calling this a genuinely “cursed” film after watching it, which feels like one of the highest compliments you can give.
Dead Lover (Currently in select theaters)
Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover is one of the strangest films you’ll see all year, and I mean that in the best possible way. Equal parts gothic romance, horror comedy, and mad-scientist fever dream, the film constantly threatens to spin off the rails while somehow remaining completely captivating. Glowicki herself stars as Gravedigger, an offensively smelly but incredibly loving woman with a macabre profession. When her one and only lover (Ben Petrie) is tragically killed, she goes to extreme lengths to bring him back.
Check out our full review of Dead Lover
Glowicki’s singular creative voice is all over every frame. The film embraces theatricality, absurdity, and dark humor while never losing sight of the genuine emotional longing driving its bizarre narrative. That balance is incredibly difficult to achieve, yet Dead Lover makes it look effortless. Beneath the grotesque imagery and outrageous comedy lies a story about loneliness, devotion, and the impossible desire to reclaim what’s already been lost.
Faces of Death (Currently available to rent or own digitally)
Using the infamous taboo film franchise title as a launching point rather than a blueprint, this reimagining from Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei (Cam) explores our relationship with violence, internet culture, exploitation, and the endless cycle of consuming real-world suffering as entertainment. It’s a horror film about horror itself, interrogating why we look and what happens when we can’t look away. The story centers on Margot (Barbie Ferreira), a content moderator for a TikTok-esque platform who discovers what appear to be real-life murders enacted by an unhinged serial killer (Dacre Montgomery).
It’s disturbing, intense, and frequently difficult to watch. Yet beneath the visceral imagery lies a genuinely intelligent examination of modern media consumption. Few horror films this year felt as timely or as willing to wrestle with uncomfortable questions. It’s challenging, provocative filmmaking that refuses to leave audiences with easy answers.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Currently streaming on Netflix)
The follow-up to last year’s triumphant return to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s infected 28 Days Later universe was already one of the year’s most anticipated horror events, but Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple managed to expand this world in ways that feel both earned, unexpected and deeply exciting. Rather than simply repeating what worked before, the film pushes the franchise into darker, stranger territory, focusing on the violent cult of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) as he clashes with the far more benevolent Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).
Check out our full review of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
DaCosta’s (Candyman) engaging, performance-focused directing approach and Garland’s sharp thematic interests combine to create something that feels simultaneously epic and deeply, darkly intimate. The result is everything great horror can be: terrifying, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and unforgettable. Nearly three decades after 28 Days Later changed the genre forever, this franchise remains one of horror’s most vital and exciting voices.
