As 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple hits cinemas, Conor Bryce wields his axe at this year’s brutal buffet of blood.
2025 was a fine year for Horror; with prestige fare like Frankenstein and The Long Walk breaking the genre’s stigmas to make it on to many a best-of list, sequels like 28 Years Later and Final Destination Bloodlines breathing life into older properties, and Bring Her Back and Weapons proving the first efforts from the genre’s brightest new voices weren’t just flukes. Then there’s the surprise steamroller hit that is Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which enjoyed massive mainstream success and will surely bag a slew of Oscar nominations come award season.
2026 is shaping up to be another banger of a year - sequels galore, exciting projects from last year’s stars, the return of more classic monsters, and brand-new content from the genre’s old guard. Read on as we take a look at this year’s biggest releases…
Do It Again, Again
2025 had its fair share of sequels, but 2026 looks to blow it out of the water. Notable new franchise entries coming our way include (deep breath) Ready or Not: Here I Come, Return to Silent Hill, Wolf Creek Legacy, Godzilla Minus Zero, Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: The Bleeding World, In A Violent Nature 2, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Violent Night 2 and Thanksgiving 2. We’ve also got the strange pleasure of welcoming not only Scream 7, but also the next instalment in the movie series that mocks it - Scary Movie is back with a sixth entry. And while it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, you’d be mad to bet against the next (fourth) Terrifier movie breaking more box office records.
What They Did Next
The MVPs of last year have some very interesting projects coming up. From workaholic Osgood Perkins, director of 2025’s The Monkey and Keeper we’re getting the Nicole Kidman-starring Young People, probably the director’s biggest venture to date, with a plot currently shrouded in mystery. Landing this month is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which picks up directly where last year’s entry ended (and what an ending), with director Danny Boyle moving to producer and making way for Candyman’s Nia DaCosta at the reins. Taking a break from cinemas, Sinners’ Ryan Coogler is bringing The X Files back to our home screens - an undeniably strange pairing that should pay off given Coogler’s knack for juggling big, flashy horror thrills and canny social commentary. And speaking of surprise project choices, Zach Cregger has chosen to follow up lo-fi classics Barbarian and Weapons with…a reboot of Resident Evil? Fingers crossed we’ll finally get an adaptation worthy of the video game juggernaut this year.
More Classic Frights
2026 is packed with enough Universal monsters to give Abbott and Costello the whim-whams. Last year Robert Eggers divided audiences with his lavish adaptation of Nosferatu. He’s at it again, adding his unique touch to the legend of lycanthropy with Werwulf, slated for a December release. Also incoming are Lee Cronin’s spin on The Mummy mythos, Get Out’s Caleb Landry Jones as the titular Count in Luc Beeson’s Dracula, and Irish screen goddess Jesse Buckley dons stitches and a fright wig for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s crazy looking The Bride! A Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula and Mummy movie all coming in the next 12 months? Salubrious.
Return of the King(s)
Some of the genre’s biggest names are also back in a big way this year. First off we have Evil Dead maestro Sam Raimi taking a break from mainstream superhero fare with survival satire Send Help. Next, did anyone have an M. Night Shyamalan/Nicolas Sparks team up on their bingo card? The master of the plot twist continues to keep us on our toes with supernatural thriller Remain, based on an idea he conceived with the aforementioned author of decidedly non-Horror fare like The Notebook and A Walk to Remember. We’ve also got a new serial killer movie in the form of Psycho Killer from legendary Seven and Sleepy Hollow scribe Andrew Kevin Walker, along with madcap slasher Ice Cream Man incoming from Hostel’s Eli Roth. Finally, while we don’t know for sure just how much it’ll veer into scary territory, the man that practically invented the horror blockbuster looks to be returning to his roots - Disclosure Day sees Steven Spielberg in alien invasion mode, starring Emily Blunt and our own Eve Hewson.
If that’s not enough for you, here’s 5 smaller projects with the potential to be top of our lists come December. Keep them on your radar, even if they might be harder to catch…
Hokum
Damian McCarthy brings us another atmospheric Irish horror this year, with Severance’s Adam Scott starring as a novelist visiting a remote inn to spread his parent’s ashes, unaware that he’s about to get seriously spooked. If McCarthy’s debut (Caveat) and follow-up (Oddity) are anything to go by, we’re in for a creepy good time.
Dooba Dooba
Arriving on our screens with a ton of praise from its festival showings, Dooba Dooba is the found footage movie to watch in 2026. Shot entirely on in-home security cameras, it follows a babysitter as she slowly realises her charge is not what they seem. With its analogue look and inventive premise, Dooba Dooba has future cult hit written all over it.
Mother of Flies
No list of this ilk would be complete without a good old-fashioned folk horror to look forward to. Mother of Flies, landing on Horror streaming platform Shudder late January, is another festival darling. A deeply personal entry from filmmaking group The Adams Family, it chronicles a family’s turn to unconventional (spoiler: witchy) methods when faced with a cancer diagnosis.
Obsession
Writer/director Curry Barker hit big with his viral YouTube short Milk & Serial, and now he’s ready for big school. An intriguing take on the classic Monkey’s Paw story, Obsession looks to be equal parts horror and black comedy as a music store employee uses a supernatural toy to make his childhood friend call in love with him. Think last year’s Companion meets Talk To Me, with a side order of scathing commentary on toxic masculinity…
The Scurry
I’d be crazy not to mention this absolutely bonkers sounding project. The Scurry follows two pest controllers, hired by an eco-cafe when their idyllic location is threatened by…wait for it…a group of deranged, bloodthirsty squirrels. Star Ela Purnell probably put it best - "It’s either going to be the coolest thing ever or it’s going to ruin my career”. Count me in.
