It’s that time again. With the calendar about to flip over to a fresh, new year, we have compliled a list of some of the most interesting horror movies that are scheduled to be released over the next twelve months. And here it is, the 2026 Horror Preview:
Adam Scott (Severance) stars in writer/director Damian McCarthy’s Irish supernatural horror film Hokum, which tells the story of a horror novelist who visits a remote Irish inn to spread his parents’ ashes, unaware the place is rumored to be haunted by a witch. Here’s the synopsis: When reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, the staff’s tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Soon, disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw him into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past. Scott is joined in the cast by Peter Coonan (Bad Sisters) and David Wilmot (Bodkin).
Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss has launched a new production company with Gary Hamilton (so the company is appropriately called Simmons/Hamilton Productions), and the first project they gave the greenlight to was a shark thriller called Deep Water – with Deep Blue Sea director Renny Harlin at the helm! Scripted by Pete Bridges and Shayne Armstrong & SP Krause, Deep Water centers on an eclectic group of international passengers whose plane, en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai, is forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. The film stars Aaron Eckhart of Harlin’s The Bricklayer, Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Molly Wright (Netflix’s True Spirit), Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road), Kelly Gale (Plane), singer and actor Li Wenhan, who is a member of the Chinese-Korean K-Pop group UNIQ, and Nashi (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms).
In 2024, Curry Barker wrote, directed, and starred in the found footage horror movie Milk & Serial, which is said to have had a budget of $800. Baker then released the movie through YouTube, where the free-to-watch video has racked up more than 2 million views. Even though he already sent Milk & Serial out into the world, it’s his new horror movie, Obsession, that’s being billed as his feature directorial debut. Starring Michael Johnston (Teen Wolf) and Inde Navarrette (Superman & Lois), Obsession is a story about a hopeless romantic who makes a wish that his long-time crush falls in love with him. A sinister enchantment ensues. Here’s the official synopsis: After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price. Cooper Tomlinson (Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (Killer Rental), and Andy Richter (Conan) are also in the cast.
After a thirteen year break, the Scary Movie horror parody franchise is back – and it’s being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers! The Wayans Brothers have written the screenplay with Rick Alvarez, with director Michael Tiddes bringing the wackiness to the screen. Franchise stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning after sitting out Scary Movie 5 and are joined in the cast by Damon Wayans Jr. (Let’s Be Cops), Kim Wayans (Dance Flick), Heidi Gardner (Hustle), Cheri Oteri (Liar Liar), Chris Elliott (Cabin Boy), Lochlyn Monroe (Freddy vs. Jason), Dave Sheridan (The Devil’s Rejects), Jon Abrahams (House of Wax), Olivia Rose Keegan (Minx), Savannah Lee Nassif (Dance Rivals), Cameron Scott Roberts (Departing Seniors), Sydney Park (There’s Someone Inside Your House), Gregg Wayans (Fifty Shades of Black), Ruby Snowber (Yellowstone), newcomer Benny Zielke, Shawn Wayans (White Chicks), and Marlon Wayans (Him). It has been hinted that I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Scream franchise, Heretic, Longlegs, Get Out, Nope, and Sinners may be among the movies that get spoofed this time around.
In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. They have proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise. They gave the director complete creative control on the movie, which he says has “a French twist.” Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, has already been hired to make the next Evil Dead movie after this one.
Pretty much everything about Flowervale Street is being kept under wraps. Last year, film journalist Jeff Sneider reported the rumor that Flowervale Street happens to be “a dinosaur movie set in the ’80s,” and The Hollywood Reporter’s sources have said it’s “a family adventure set in the 1980s that involves dinosaurs.” We know for sure that it has been directed by It Follows‘ David Robert Mitchell for Warner Bros. Pictures, Jackson Pictures, and J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot. The cast includes Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Maisy Stella (Nashville), and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). The movie was previously scheduled to reach theatres on May 16, 2025, then March 13, 2026. We’ll see if it sticks with August 14.
Back in 2021, filmmaker Mike Flanagan let it be known on social media that he was interested in making a “standalone horror/thriller/tragedy” movie that would center on the DC Comics Clayface character. When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios and launched the DC Universe, he got his chance. Flanagan wrote the screenplay for Clayface, which has been brought to the screen by Speak No Evil director James Watkins. Deadline reminds us, “Clayface is shape-shifting villain in the Batman comics and got his introduction as part of Detective Comics #40. The original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. Clayface has a body seemingly made out of clay and has appeared over the years in various films, series, animated works, video games and other forms of media.”Tom Rhys Harries (Kandahar) plays the title character and is joined in the cast by Naomi Ackie (I Want to Dance With Somebody) and Max Minghella (Spiral: From the Book of Saw).
Zach Cregger, writer/director of Barbarian and the recently released film Weapons, is directing the new Resident Evil movie for Sony and also wrote the screenplay with Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and the story apparently harkens back to the original Capcom game’s horror roots. Here’s the supposed logline: Bryan, a laid-back organ courier, is sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. En route through a snowy mountain road, he accidentally hits a strange woman with his car. She survives—but something is very wrong. As he tries to help, Bryan stumbles into a full-blown outbreak involving horrifying tentacle-based mutations and bio-engineered monstrosities. Weapons cast member Austin Abrams has the lead role and is joined in the cast by Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), Zach Cherry (Severance), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), and Johnno Wilson (I Love That for You). Cherry is said to be playing a scientist at a hospital and Reis plays an ex-military character that was initially written for a male actor. Cregger took the approach of telling an original story with original characters that’s set within the world of the Resident Evil video game franchise because he feels that the stories of the video game characters are already being perfectly told in the games.
Rob Savage moves on from a Stephen King adaptation to a Josh Malerman adaptation, as The Boogeyman director is at the helm of this film adaptation of Bird Box author Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, which is coming our way from Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Jessica Chastain (It Chapter Two), Jay Duplass (Transparent), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), and Arabella Olivia Clark (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere) star in Other Mommy, which centers on 8-year-old Bela (Clark), who lives in a home strained by her parents’ troubled marriage, only to see her life further upended by a sinister entity she calls “Other Mommy.” When this malevolent presence emerges from her closet, persistently asking “Can I go inside your heart?”, Bela refuses. But soon, Other Mommy’s manifestations become increasingly aggressive, threatening the safety of Bela’s family.
Forty years ago, writer/director Dan O’Bannon delivered one of the most highly entertaining zombie movies of all time with The Return of the Living Dead – and now, we’re getting a reboot from Muck and Kill Her Goats director Steve Wolsh. Information found on the Living Dead Media website reveals: Our reboot of Return of the Living Dead will expand the existing world created by the original 5 films, while staying true to the R-rated, sci-fi, horror, dark comedy roots adored by fans of the cult classic around the world for the last 35 years. We are excited to resurrect this storied franchise for current fans and new generations of zombie fans. Here’s the set up: Taking place 18 months after the events at the UNEEDA Warehouse in Louisville, KY, a new Trioxin 2-4-5 leak puts a small Pennsylvania town on the brink of a zombie outbreak during Christmas, 1985. If surviving a zombie outbreak isn’t hard enough, the characters and the Army will have to also contend with blizzard conditions. This Christmas, it’s Tarman who will be coming to town. Devon Sawa (Final Destination) plays a character named Isaac Horton in the film, with Casimere “Cash” Jollette (Tiny Pretty Things) as Delilah Horton and Kynlee Heiman (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever) as Sophia Horton. Alexander Ward, who has played “demons, monsters and villains” in the likes of Teen Wolf, Ghosted, Annabelle Comes Home, Westworld and American Horror Story, is this project’s version of Tarman.
Sure, this movie is likely to be a heartwarming viewing experience fit for the whole family, but the Charles Dickens source material will also give director Ti West, whose filmography has primarily consisted of horror movies up to this point, the opportunity to tell “a thrilling ghost story.” Deadline reminds us, the classic Charles Dickens story has seen its fair share of retellings over the years with its tale of an elderly miser visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. For his first major studio movie, West will be telling a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, following one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present and future and fight for a second chance. Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) plays Ebenezer Scrooge and is joined in the cast by Andrea Riseborough (Mandy), Ian McKellen of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings franchises, Tramell Tillman (Severance), Daisy Ridley (the Star Wars franchise), Rupert Grint (the Harry Potter franchise), Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & The Six), Charlie Murphy (Halo), Arthur Conti (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and Ellie Bamber (Willow).
The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu writer/director Robert Eggers has dealt with some dark subject matter over the course of his career – but the darkest story is yet to come. Eggers has written the screenplay for Werwulf with Sjón, his co-writer on the Viking saga The Northman. Details are being kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter’s sources told them “the story is set in 13th century England. The script also features dialogue that was true to the time period and has translations and annotations for those uninitiated to Old English. Initially, Eggers was planning on shooting the feature in black and white, but that is no longer the case. Suffice to say that considering the setting and the dialect, Eggers is promising another deep dive into a muddy, costumed, and violent time period consistent with his oeuvre which has earned him a loyal film following.“ Screen Daily adds that the story centers on a mysterious creature who stalks a foggy countryside as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers. During a recent Q&A event, Eggers told the audience that his “medieval werewolf movie” is, “the darkest thing I’ve ever written, by far.” The film is also a Nosferatu reunion for Eggers and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe.
Some of today’s biggest genre companies – A24, James Wan‘s Atomic Monster, the Stranger Things makers at 21 Laps, and Planet of the Apes producers Chernin Entertainment – are joining forces for The Backrooms, which marks the feature directorial debut of teenage director and VFX artist Kane Parsons. The film is based on a series of viral videos Parsons released through his YouTube channel Kane Pixels. If you were to splice those videos together they would reach feature length, but the feature version of The Backrooms is going to be something entirely new. The screenplay for the feature has been written by Roberto Patino (DMZ). Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) star alongside Mark Duplass (Creep), Finn Bennett (True Detective), Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking), and Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap)
Director Eli Roth had been planning to make a sequel to his slasher movie Thanksgiving in 2025, but when he wasn’t able to get that one into production, he just pivoted over to another horror movie,Ice Cream Man. The film follows an idyllic summer town descending into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Roth directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Noah Belson, based on “an original idea he has had for over twenty years, but studios were too nervous to finance.” Roth’s company The Horror Section fully financed the film with Media Capital Technologies.
Universal had been given this film, a Blumhouse/Atomic Monster production that’s set in the universe of the M3GAN films, a theatrical release on January 2 – but a month before that date, they dropped it from their release schedule and the producers started shopping it around to other distributors. It’s not clear why Universal lost faith in SOULM8TE, although the box office disappointment of M3GAN 2.0 might be to blame. Described as “Fatal Attraction with robots,” the movie will show us what happens when a man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. This “1990s erotic thriller with a new technological twist” stars Evil Dead Rise actress Lily Sullivan, Claudia Doumit (The Boys), and David Rysdahl (Booger.) Rysdahl is playing the man, while Sullivan plays the android. Details on the role Doumit will be playing have not been revealed. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray saw an early preview of the film at CinemaCon last April and reported, “Seems similar to Companion. Centers on a sexbot that becomes so obsessed with her “owner” that she kills anyone close to him and goes on a murder spree. Looks more violent (and kinkier) than M3GAN but has the same humor. When a woman she’s about to kill says ‘Women aren’t supposed to be pitted against each other,’ she answers, ‘Don’t start that girl power shit with me.’“
Trash was the character played by scream queen Linnea Quigley in The Return of the Living Dead – and yes, Quigley is also back for Trash’s Revenge. Her Return co-stars Beverly Randolph, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., John Philbin, and Drew Deighan are also in the cast. Plus, the late James Karen and Don Calfa are going to be resurrected through the use of CGI! Eric Roberts and Michelle Bauer are in the cast as well, along with Andrew Pierson, playing a Elon Musk type character named Nathan Virel; news anchorman Danny Langston; and zombies Kevin Plantz, Dave Knee, and Sean Wolfe. Quigley is producing Trash’s Revenge, with Randolph serving as an associate producer and Night of the Living Dead co-creator John A. Russo co-producing. Richard Driscoll is the writer/director. Here’s what it’s all about: As the saga continues decades after the horrific events of the 1985 cult classic, Trash the notorious punk rocker, played by Linnea Quigley, finds herself trapped in a past where fame has faded. Once a rebellious icon, Trash now embraces the persona of a grotesque Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, attending conventions to sign autographs while her co-stars rise to greater heights. For Linnea, her legacy as a star of Return of the Living Dead becomes both a curse and a twisted ticket to notoriety in an industry obsessed with horror and scandal. But when a young filmmaker approaches her to make a documentary with staged re-enactments from the original film to celebrate the film’s 40th Anniversary, Linnea sees an opportunity to reclaim her place in the spotlight no matter the cost. As the documentary delves into her past, a shocking truth emerges: Return of the Living Dead wasn’t just fiction, part of it was real. Linnea confesses that she still possesses three original cannisters from the film, hidden away in her basement. Cannisters that were never revealed to the public… until now. Here’s a shorter description: A punk rocker rises from the dead, hungry for fame and flesh. She heads to Hollywood, manipulating a filmmaker to document her gruesome “comeback.” Her notoriety and body count grows, leading to a bloody showdown that will decide her fate.
Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon) star in The Young People, the latest horror film from Longlegs and Keeper director Osgood Perkins. Also in the cast are Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey), Heather Graham (Suitable Flesh), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), Lexi Minetree (The Paramedic Who Stalked Me), Lily Collias (Good One), Brendan Hines (Lie to Me), Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife), and Best Actress Oscar winner (for The Hours) Nicole Kidman. Details on the role Kidman will be playing have not been revealed. In fact, we don’t know who anyone’s playing. This project is being kept tightly under wraps. Perkins is directing The Young People from his own script. When filming began, an image of the script was shared online, and a glimpse of the top line of page 76 indicates that Perkins is entering Lovecraftian territory with this film, because there’s a reference to “The Old Ones.”