The first half of 2026 certainly made a statement in the horror genre. Reverberations will be felt across Hollywood as studios reassess what constitutes a blockbuster. The recent critical success of Sinners, Weapons, and The Substance appears to be bearing fruit. The results may have led to a diverse slate of offerings for 2026, and it is reflected in the wide array of horror offerings so far this year. If variety is your preference, then you have been in luck, so far. The unimaginable financial and critical success of Obsession and Backrooms, particularly given their low cost, have re-written the horror producer’s playbook, and will have a lasting impact for years to come. The Scariest Things evaluated what we’ve seen so far, and have come back with a report card of our favorites.
The Mid Major – Large Indie Productions:
It will be interesting to do an autopsy of 2026’s horror fare when we do our year end assessment. This year’s crop has been notably light on mid-major productions so far. The roaring successes we’ve seen thus far have been from the deep indie filmmakers. Backrooms, Undertone, Hokum, and Obsession. All original titles, and produced for less than $5 million. These are not the type of films you would typically predict would be box office hits. But, they outperformed any reasonable expectation, particularly startling for Backrooms and Obsession, which will have cinema economists trying to figure out the alchemy.
The Major Studios:
There were only a few major studio franchise sequels this year. All of them capable, but none of them superseding their source material. Scream 7 did very well at the box office, but it failed to make a big impression. Evil Dead Burn was a very violent, very intense outing that didn’t connect in the way its predecessors have. Scary Movie also did well on its $30 million budget, earning $210 million, its long layoff didn’t hurt its popularity, despite the derivative humor.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was a hit with critics (including our own Liz Williams) but it’s turn from zombies may have hurt it in the box office, as it probably will not make its budget back. The notable big comeback was Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, which gives horror fans hope that Universal has gotten their monsterverse back on track, and remembered how to deliver a vicious movie with a good story.
The Festival Circuit:
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get out to as many film festivals this year as we would have liked, but we still managed to review a lot of great small indie horror films. Our traditional rotation of SXSW, Overlook, Portland Horror, and Popcorn Frights all provided very interesting films from emerging filmmakers. Even the bigger festival this year were heavy on small indie productions, and there were a lot of good offerings. We didn’t discuss all of them in our Podcast, but you can review a lot of the movies we saw with links on the images below.
There is an emerging trend of release schedules for many of the best independent horror films, relative to the festival circuit. Open at SXSW (Or sometimes Sundance), get some buzz, go to Overlook to validate the buzz, and then release in the early summer. It can be a big momentum builder. Last year it was The Ugly Stepsister (Oscar Nom), and Good Boy that were the big beneficiaries of that combination. This year it was Obsession, Hokum, and Leviticus. Sometimes Panic Fest will factor into the equation, depending on when runs relative to Overlook.
Popcorn Frights still brought a massive catalogue for viewing, but this year was more reliant on reperatory films. Some of my favorite films this year were horror adjacent, and all of their streaming content was small indie productions. Our favorite local festival, The Portland Horror Film Festival had an unusually large amount of feature films, and the best part was that almost all of the directors participated in the festival. We were fortunate to get interviews with all of them. Check out our Podcasts for the interviews. It was a diverse group of films, and not a dud among them.
What is Still Coming in 2026?
Probably the most intriguing film that is still due to come out is new take on Resident Evil, by Zach Cregger, the director of Barbarian and Weapons. This is a major tonal shift for Sony. No more Mia Jovovic and Paul W.S. Anderson. Video game translations are usually dubious, and the franchise squandered its potential. It became more superhero, and less horror. However, Hollywood has figured out that if you get the right creator, it just might work, and Cregger may inject real scares to this franchise for the first time since the original. We shall see. The trailer looks great.
Other Mommy, which arrives on October 9 has some incredibly disturbing visuals. Jessica Chastain stars, and Rob Savage (Host) directs. This uncanny valley movie arrived late on my radar and is intriguing. Later this August, the Insidious franchise is issuing Insidious: Out of the Further. Lin Shaye returns, and Leigh Whannell will write this, and it has a banger trailer. This franchise has maintained some of the scariest PG-13 fare, but the sequels have been a gradual decline in quality. We’ll see how this goes.
Beware Boiúna might give us the Anaconda movie we wish we got earlier this year, and wipe the slate clean from the Jack Black/Paul Rudd disappointment. It’s R rated, and features reliable scream queen Jessica Rothe, along with Logan Marshall-Green and Kiana Madieira in the Amazon. The trailer impressed me with the monstrousness of the snake.
Clayface will attempt to bridge the superhero and horror genres, which is no easy feat. Will it have enough horror for horror fans, and will it have enough fealty to the Batman universe to appeal to the comic book fans? It is written by Mike Flanagan, and it promises real R rated body horror, so it could be very interesting. Lastly, Robert Eggar’s period piece Werwulf is getting the full Eggers treatment, in monochrome and moody as you could possibly want. Hopefully it will get the stink of the Wolf Man out of our popcorn. Just give me a great transformation scene, please.
The Podcast: The Best Horror Movies at the 2026 Halfway Mark: Episode 214
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Recommendations from the First Half of 2026:
Here are all the movies that we have ranked ★★★ or better, so far in 2026.
