The 13 Best Horror Movies of 2026 (So Far)

2026 has been a monster year for horror. YouTubers became box office headliners, liminal spaces became the scariest place on screen, and a few veteran directors reminded everyone why we fell in love with the genre. Here are the 13 films we'd put at the top of your watchlist.

No. 1: Hokum. Damian McCarthy, who made the slow-burn shocker Oddity, delivers what may be the scariest movie of the year. Adam Scott plays a novelist trapped in a remote Irish hotel with a witch, and the donkey-faced TV creature Jack the Jackass is the stuff of fresh nightmares.

No. 2: Obsession. Curry Barker jumps from viral YouTube horror to a studio feature about a man whose wish to be loved comes true in the worst possible way. Inde Navarrette's performance is the talk of the year.

No. 3: Backrooms. Kane Parsons turns the internet's most famous liminal-space creepypasta into a full A24 feature. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a furniture store owner who finds an endless yellow maze beneath his shop.

No. 4: Exit 8. Based on the hit Japanese video game, it follows a man stuck in a looping subway corridor who must spot what's changed to escape. Simple premise, unbearable tension.

No. 5: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Nia DaCosta takes over the infected-Britain saga and balances brutal horror with real heart. Ralph Fiennes steals the show.

No. 6: Send Help. Sam Raimi returns to gross-out horror comedy with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien as an overlooked employee and her awful boss stranded on a desert island. The tables turn fast.

No. 7: Resident Evil. Zach Cregger, the director of Barbarian and Weapons, finally makes a Resident Evil movie that feels like the games: one ordinary guy, too few bullets, and a city full of nightmares.

No. 8: Primate. A tropical vacation goes wrong when the family's pet chimpanzee turns violent. Practical effects, real gore, and a lean 90 minutes.

No. 9: Leviticus. An Australian horror film about two teenage boys sent to a conversion ritual that summons a shape-shifting entity. Scary and heartbreaking.

No. 10: Undertone. Two podcasters play a series of creepy audio files at the witching hour. One believes they're real. Watch with headphones if you dare.

No. 11: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Samara Weaving's Grace is back for another deadly game of hide and seek, with more rich Satanists and bigger kills.

No. 12: Evil Dead Burn. The latest Deadite outbreak hits a family lake house, and it's one of the nastiest entries in the series. Not for the squeamish.

No. 13: Buddy. A Barney-style kids' TV mascot snaps. From the creator of Too Many Cooks, this one will ruin children's television for you.

Still Coming This Halloween

Clayface hits theaters October 23, a DC movie that's really a full-on body horror film. Over on streaming, Scream 7 and The Bride! both arrive on Prime Video this month.

What's the best horror movie you've seen this year? Drop it in the comments and we'll add reader picks to our next list.