2026 is a banner year for horror. While Backrooms and Obsession wrecked the box office, there are dozens of indie films that were just as good as, if not better than, the tentpole theatrical releases. With the mid-year point, it’s time to take stock of what we’ve seen so far and what’s stood out most.
50. Snow Blinded
Directed by Brian Lockyer
Writer/director Brian Lockyer reminds the viewer there’s great value in micro-budget horror filmmaking. You truly don’t need a big budget to make something people will remember. With his film, Snow Blinded, Lockyer does this and so much more through a terrifying, kaleidoscopic journey into madness. Meager resources work to his advantage, allowing him to expose the stickiness of delirium in its rawest and purest form. Lockyer tricks you into believing that you can properly define the film, its aesthetics, and its genre play, but the illusion quickly wears off. [Review]
49. This House is Totally Haunted
Directed by Sean Nichols Lynch
Writer/director Sean Nichols Lynch runs wild with his new film, This House is Totally Haunted, the sequel to 2024’s The Ceremony is About to Begin. Playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, the film winds up actor Chad Westbrook Hinds and lets him stir up a frenzy in a film that’s clearly better than the last. The stakes are higher; the tension is thicker; and the payoff is more disturbing. Lynch possesses a stronger hand on the material, allowing the characters to breathe in their environment. Mixing Creep with Influencer, This House is Totally Haunted is a real crowd pleaser. [Review]
48. Heel
Directed by Jan Komasa
Abduction and torture are pretty common concepts in horror. Hounds of Love, Cloverfield, Locked, and Saw are just a few films that explore modern themes of accountability, the millennial-boomer generational divide, and humanity’s most savage behaviors. Working off a script written by Bartek Bartosik and Naqqash Khalid, director Jan Komasa digs in for a brutal, yet tragically empathetic, story called Heel. The film invites the audience to see the very real human beings tucked behind a well-intended but impactfully cruel exterior. [Review]
47. The Morrigan
Directed by Colum Eastwood
The Morrigan is easily one of the year’s biggest surprises. Writer/director Colum Eastwood pulls on the lore surrounding The Morrigan, a figure in Irish mythology, most often associated with war and fate. He found himself drawn to her power and “how multifaceted she is,” he tells B-Sides & Badlands. “She’s not a simple ‘good’ or ‘evil’ figure. She’s contradictory, powerful, unsettling, and difficult to pin down, which makes her feel much more alive to me than a lot of mythological characters. She’s a war goddess, but also a sovereignty figure, and those different aspects give her a real moral and symbolic complexity. She can be protective, even allied to certain people, but also utterly devastating. I found that ambiguity really compelling.” [Interview]
46. Slanted
Directed by Amy Wang
Amy Wang’s “Slanted” comes from a deeply personal, perhaps even primal, place. “As an immigrant, I’ve always been aware that I looked different,” the writer/director says in a press statement. “As a teenager trying desperately to fit in, I used to wake up and wonder: Wouldn’t life just be easier if I were white?” Wang explores that question through a satirical approach with her directorial debut feature. While she’s been a screenwriter for several years, this is her first spin in the front seat of the creative process. In 2021, a shooter entered three Asian-owned spas and murdered eight people. That day “jolted me in a way that I hadn’t really experienced in America,” says Wang. So, she put pen to paper and out popped “Slanted,” her way of processing the past and feelings of never truly belonging while growing up in Australia. [Review]
45. UN-DEAD
Directed by Bo Webb
These days, your zombie flick has to be really special to stand out. Bo Webb’s Un-Dead emerges out of the festival circuit as a real treasure that possesses not only a heartfelt story about human connection but some damn good zombie action—with lore you’ve probably never seen before. Jane (Kelley Pereira) is new at her job and just wants to fit in. Little does she know that a contagion has infiltrated the building and infected numerous co-workers. While it’s clearly commenting on the 9-to-5 hustle, that’s not what makes Un-Dead unique. As the dead army swells, an unexpected discovery leads to our band of survivors learning what it means to take a bite out of crime. Un-Dead is silly fun, and that’s all we need sometimes. [Review]
44. Halfway Haunted
Directed by Sam Rudykoff
Billed as Beetlejuice for the housing crisis, Sam Rudykoff’s Halfway Haunted is a hoot and a half. Jessica (Hannan Younis) is fully on the struggle bus these days. Crushing debt and an exponentially rising cost of living aren’t her only problems. A ghost (Kristian Bruun) sets up shop in her basement and likes to cause chaos around the house out of sheer boredom. Real estate agent Stephanie (Sugar Lyn Beard) breathes down her neck, letting her know that in two months, the house will be demolished and a new, slick apartment complex built in its place. Something has got to give, and when the ghost offers a solution, all their problems could just go away. Halfway Haunted feels ripped from the classic horror/comedies of the ’80s and ’90s, with a charm all its own. [Review]
43. Jump Scare
Directed by Donnie Hobbie
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is one of the messiest in horror. Various timelines, plot holes, and changes in the Leatherface family plague the series. We’ve never quite gotten the sequel we deserve (the 2003 remake excluded), but writer/director Donnie Hobbie makes a claim for a worthy (spiritual) sequel with his new film. Jump Scare, playing this year’s Panic Fest, uses the 1974 Tobe Hooper classic as a jumping-off point and plunges into something new, fresh, and exhilarating. From the dusty desert landscape to the clan of cannibals, it’s as though Hobbie gave The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a coat of paint. [Review]
42. My Severed Arm
Directed by Casey De Fremery
Slasher hive unite! My Severed Arm lives in the same realm as Hatchet and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Writer/diretor Casey de Fremery shows a great adoration for slashers. He knows all the tricks, but supplies some very special treats. As a young woman runs for her life, she finds a disassembled gun and seeks out a YouTube tutorial on how to reassemble it. The only trick is she’ll have to sit through ad breaks. My Severed Arm hilariously combs through digital life and constantly being fed advertisemets in every corner of the internet. Of course, De Fremery doesn’t skimp on all the slasher-y bits. It’s gooey, gruesome, and a real guffaw. [Review]
41. Wrathbone
Directed by Steve Flavin
Love the ’80s and gummy hair-metal pop? Then, Steve Flavin’s Wrathbone is just the thing for you. A mockumentary style film, the musical horror/comedy features talking heads and, more importantly, full blown music videos. Flavin plays both Nigel Wrathbone, the lead singer of an iconic ’80s group, but his pop rival, Frankie Ecco, who bares a striking and eerie resemblance to Rick Astley. Nigel appears to be stuck in one of those VH1 Behind the Music specials and must learn the truth about his superstar past in order to break the curse. But at what cost? And what is the truth, really? Do we even want to know? Wrathbone addresses these questions, but at the root of it, it’s a damn good time. [Review]
40. Meathook
Directed by Jermey Ashley
39. The Confession
Directed by Will Canon
There’s a tendency to discount indie horror outright or hold indie filmmakers to an impossibly high standard. We know they have a low budget, and the story feels suffocating, or the effects are a little off, or the acting is a little stilted. We know all these things. The real magic happens when you let go of preconceived biases and go along for the ride. In the case of writer/director Will Canon’s THE CONFESSION, the brisk, 87-minute feature uses its meager resources to its advantage. There’s a real fear leaking from the screen, and Canon’s ability to tap into the subconscious can not be overstated. The film’s DIY spirit and aesthetic pulse as loudly as its heart—it’s clear that everyone involved is fully committed and focused on the work at hand. And that’s half the battle. [Essay]
38. 1000 Women in Horror
Directed by Donna Davies
“Sit down, little boys, the grown-ups are talking,” swears author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas at the beginning of the brand new documentary, 1000 Women in Horror, based on her 2020 book. Documenting the years 1895-2018, the presentation brings together a diverse panel of women filmmakers, including Mattie Do (The Long Walk), Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny), and Cerise Howard (Program Director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival), to dissect the roles women have played in horror. In fact, you could argue that Mary Shelly, who conceived the idea for Frankenstein when she was 18, birthed the genre. Throughout history, women have played an integral part in horror films, both in front of and behind the camera. This documentary serves as a timely reminder that women have commanded the conversation and frequently been squashed by cis straight white men. The doc also disproves the long-held belief that women don’t like horror. [Review]
37. Content
Directed by Adam Meilech
Studio execs in suits like to call films “content,” a conveyor belt of ideas reapplied and rearranged into different shapes to bring in a profit. There’s also a tendency to follow the money when it comes to social issues and trends. What was once uncool 10 or 20 years ago (e.g., being a Nazi) is now the new “in” thing (e.g., cutting DEI initiatives). Screening at this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, Content bulldozes you over with a razor-sharp critique of modern culture and its impact on horror filmmaking. Writer/director Adam Meilech uses a two-ton anvil with his on-the-nose script, and that’s okay. In 2026, there’s no time for subtlety. [Review]
36. The House Was Not Hungry Then
Directed by Harry Aspinwall
A house as a horror character is a long-standing tradition. From The Old Dark House (1932) to The Night House (2020), the genre has dabbled in the concept of a residence being the source of evil. With his new film, writer/director Harry Aspinwall tears down the walls and invites the audience into a house of horrors. The House Was Not Hungry Then, which bears a striking stylistic resemblance to Presence, makes a house the literal monster. It begs the question: what if a house consumed, in even a small way, the inhabitants before spitting them back out again? Aspinwall proves to be a real craftsman. He turns a haunted house story into a tale about loneliness and the sharp claw of time itself. [Interview]
35. The Killing Moon
Directed by Daniel Bogran
A couple retreating to a secluded cabin in the woods has been done to death. It’s such a common premise that you immediately know what’s gonna happen: a monster, human, or a paranormal entity shows up, and people die. But writer/director Daniel Bogran makes a claim that the conceit can still be just as exciting and gripping as that very first time. With his new film, “The Killing Moon,” he upends every expectation, reworks conventions and tropes, and delights the viewer with a dangerously twisty story about deception, the entitled white man, and the lengths we’ll go for the people we love. [Review]
34. He’s Watching You
Directed by Jordon Foss
33. Go to Sleep
Directed by Steven Espinoza
If A Nightmare on Elm Street has taught us anything, it’s that sleep can be deadly. With his new found footage film, Go to Sleep, director Steven Espinoza taps into the subconscious mind when under the spell of sleepwalking. Along with his co-writer Chris VanderKaay, whose own film .ask splashed onto the scene two years ago, Espinoza examines a broken man, his struggle not only with sleepwalking but also in the aftermath of a messy separation, and the things we do when we’re under immense physical distress. Go to Sleep illustrates how sleepwalking really is the body’s hocus pocus way of dealing with life. [Review]
32. We Put the World to Sleep
Directed by Adrian Tofei
Sometimes, you watch a horror film that seems impossible to review. Adrian Tofei’s We Put the World to Sleep, playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, makes a strong demonstration that indie filmmakers create works far superior to tentpole theatrical releases. One phrase perfectly captures the spirit of Tofei’s latest: bloody brilliant. While Be My Cat: A Film for Anne takes viewers into the mind of a serial killer, We Put the World to Sleep hypnotizes you into an apocalyptic world, with plenty of mind trickery and psychological magic. Tofei tinkers around with perception and reality in ways that are smartly constructed and cleverly delivered. [Review]
31. Pretty Lethal
Directed by Vicky Jewson
30. Jacked
Directed by John Fucile
The slasher boom of the 1980s was a special time for horror. The genre eventually moved on to other styles, but through the decades, the pendulum has swung back at various points. From the brief Scream-induced period of the late ’90s and early 2000s to the current slasher renaissance, slashers always come back. Just like the killer. John Fucile’s Jacked takes the audience back to 1987 for a minimalist, vintage slasher that falls in line with titles like Alone in the Dark (1982) and Edge of the Axe (1988). The aesthetic is totally ’80s, with the signature automobile, telephone booth, clothes, and gas station. It’s like we’ve stepped back in time as though no, well, time has passed at all. [Review]
29. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Directed by Radio Silence
28. Crazy Old Lady
Directed by Martín Mauregui
Martín Mauregui’s Vieja Loca (or Crazy Old Lady) makes good on the crazy part. With a taut, emotionally affecting script, the writer/director explores the ravages of dementia and its aftershock effects on loved ones. He approaches the story very much grounded in reality, but turns up the heat until it all boils over in alarming and uncomfortable ways. Mauregui roots around the darkest corners of the soul and shakes loose all the cobwebs of the mind, crafting a cursed story that already makes a bid for the best of 2026. Sure, it’s only February, but we’ll be talking about this one for a long time. [Review]
27. sMOTHERed
Directed by Rafki Hidayat and Kevin Rahardjo
Co-directors Rafki Hidayat and Kevin Rahardjo’s latest joins the ranks of the best expertly crafted Indonesian horror films ever—Impetigore, May the Devil Take You, and Grave Torture among modern horror’s finest offerings. sMOTHERed is far more than meets the eye, transforming from one kind of film into another one entirely. Very hard left turns hit when you least expect them, and you’re left picking your jaw up off the floor. It’s akin to The Handmaiden in that way. Rahardjo and Hidayat, who co-wrote the script with Joko Anwar and Aline Djayasukmana, based on the folktale Malin Kundang, create something so twisty and gnarled, you’ll have a hard time slashing through the thorny underbrush. [Review]
26. Diabolic
Directed by Daniel J. Phillips
Religious horror runs very deep. Historically, it’s a common well filmmakers have drawn from for over a hundred years. Various belief systems, classic iconography, and sacred saints have been repurposed and reimagined, extracting the darkest fears of the human subconscious. With Daniel J. Phillips’ Diabolic, religious trauma takes a front seat in an unstoppable horror vehicle that drives the viewer mad. Terrifying, mind-melting imagery and strong performances across the board make the bedeviling film an early contender for the best of 2026. Phillips, who co-wrote the script with Mike Harding and Ticia Madsen, bulldozes you over before backing up and doing it again. It’s a wholly effective, carefully drawn, and often introspective piece that examines religious fundamentalism and its stranglehold on our culture. [Review]
25. Backrooms
Directed by Kane Parsons
24. It Ends
Directed by Alexander Ullom
23. Night Patrol
Directed by Ryan Prows
First things first: ACAB and Fuck Ice. If you’re living anywhere in the world, you should be well aware of what’s happening in the United States. A dictator with tiny hands bolstered his own secret army with ICE since his second inauguration in 2025, and social media is flooded with videos of tragic killings, human beings of all ages being dragged away, and countless anti-ICE protests. Ryan Prows’ new film, Night Patrol, feels like one of those clips. [Review]
22. Trad
Directed by Dave Bekerman
Spend any amount of time on TikTok, and you’ll likely stumble upon a “trad-wife” video on your FYP. In Dave Bekerman’s Trad, the classic pick-me woman is taken to the extreme. And it’s delicious (you’ll see!). When a young woman turns to video content for financial survival, things get weird and intense real fast. Her partner licks it all up, pushing her to do more and more. The videos quickly take off, and she becomes a bonafide trad-wife influencer. But at what cost? It’s giving Good for Her, and it’s pure cinema. [Review]
21. American Dollhouse
Directed by John Valley
Writer/director John Valley delivers an early Christmas present with his new film, American Dollhouse. Screening at this year’s Overlook Film Festival, it plays like an early ’80s slasher (it’d fit nicely next to the likes of Alone in the Dark and Death Screams) but operates with a modern-leaning psychological lens. It feels familiar without being tired and forgettable. With several star-making performances, American Dollhouse serves as a stunning reminder that evil in today’s world is not monsters or ghouls creeping out of the woods, but rather the corruption and cruelty emerging from our neighbors. It’s insidious and will surely smother you in your sleep. [Review]
20. Compliance
Directed by Kyle Mangione-Smith
Throw out all expectations when you head into Kyle Mangione-Smith’s Compliance. It’s so intense and chaotic, it makes the 2012 film of the same name look like child’s play. It’s eerie that the screenlife film hit Fantaspoa at this moment in time, so soon after the Epstein Files and Luigi Mangione’s shooting of a healthcare exec. Perhaps, it’s a bit of prescience on Mangione-Smith’s part—or he’s simply capturing the swelling fury we have over politicians and their complicity in sex crimes. He breaks the floodgates wide open with a story that’s uncomfortable, bold, and provokes one very important idea: we should just burn this country down and start over. [Review]
19. The Serpent’s Skin
Directed by Alice Maio Mackay
Alice Maio Mackay has the single most consistent body of work of any current indie filmmaker. And she’s only 21. She’s made six films already, with another set for festivals soon. Her latest, The Serpent’s Skin, slithers between queer joy and rage—slimy tentacles that capture the scope of the queer experience. In true Mackay fashion, the story grounds itself in raw humanity and colors with a seemingly monstrous story about a young queer woman killing the worst kinds of men. Written with frequent collaborator Benjamin Pahl Robinson, the film arrives as Mackay’s second-best film, behind Carnage for Christmas. [Review]
18. Infirmary
Directed by Nicholas Pineda
Nicholas Pineda’s Infirmary feels cursed. Playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, the film gets its kicks from scaring you with the darkest thrills of the human subconscious. Nothing about it isn’t an electroshock to the nervous system. With a limited cast, it can be difficult to sustain interest and intrigue. But Pineda adeptly maintains suffocating dread and suspense for the whole runtime. Infirmary feels familiar but justifies its existence through well-planned scares and the overwhelming sense that someone is always watching from the shadows. [Review]
17. The Killing Cell
Directed by Karsen Schovajsa and James Bessey
James Bessey and Karsen Schovajsa’s The Killing Cell emerges as one of the biggest surprises out of this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival. Breaking into a dilapidated building isn’t anything new in found footage—Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum and Grave Encounters among the genre’s best. The writing and directing duo proves there’s plenty of territory left to mine with the premise. Bessey and Schovajsa capture the recklessness of youth and the throat-gripping fear that comes with the unknown. Disregard any preconceived notions you have about the paranormal and clutch your seat, as you descend into eerie hallways of strange noises, gurgling screams, and a darkness that seems to have no end. [Review]
16. undertone
Directed by Ian Tuason
15. Send Help
Directed by Sam Raimi
“No help is coming. So, you better start saving yourself,” warns Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) in the last few moments of survivalist horror/thriller Send Help. I’ve been telling myself that for weeks, ever since I first witnessed Sam Raimi’s latest cinematic marvel. It’s a brutal refrain, piercing the camera lens through Linda’s thorny, yet totally rewarding, gaze. In the age of Trump, it’s a reality that many of us queer folk must contend with, process, and learn to combat. Life lines have been gutted, and the rising tidewaters seem unstoppable. And the hard truth is: it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. And the even harder truth: those you believed you could count on will betray you. [Essay]
14. Charlie is Not a Boy
Directed by Pol Kurucz
13. Honey Bunch
Directed by Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer
Actor, writer, and director Madeleine Sims-Fewer (behind 2020’s excellent Violation) enlists her frequent collaborator Dusty Mancinelli for a wild, dystopian roller coaster with Honey Bunch. Horror has long danced alongside and with sci-fi, and this particular blend roots itself in a grounded reality from which we are not that far removed. The script tightly winds itself around human desperation, the lengths we’ll go to find answers, and the role of the healthcare system in our lives. From the very opening frame, the audience can deduce that what we’re about to experience is somewhat of a heightened world, almost reminiscent of a Dali painting. [Review]
12. Salt Along the Tongue
Directed by Parish Malfitano
Gastro-horror meets folk horror in writer/director Parish Malfitano’s Salt Along the Tongue. Making for a scrumptious double feature with Peter Hengl’s Family Dinner, the film contains countless frames of food being cooked, enjoyed, and communed over. Food connects us all, as they say. But food can also be weaponized for spell-casting of ill intent and for carrying out our hearts’ most disturbing desires. Malfitano walks a delicate line between the celebration of food and the destruction of the physical body. Psychological and emotional terror collide with the devastating reality that food can so often be used for evil. [Review]
11. Animals of the Land
Directed by Luke Jaden
Folk Horror can elicit terrible tremors of pure fear, unlike most other genres. Luke Jaden’s Animals of the Land, playing this year’s Fantaspoa, claws at the eyeballs. The writer/director needles to the very root of humanity, where a sick hunger for power lies in all its perverted glory. There’s something to be said about that brutal might that’s ignited countless wars throughout history, grabs for the patriarchal throne, and the destructive nature of oppressive systems. Within his story, Jaden picks apart these themes and presents them through a crafty, horrific lens that’ll leave your retinas completely scarred. [Review]
10. Find Your Friends
Directed by Izabel Pakzad
Bella Thorne doesn’t get enough credit as an actor. In last year’s Saint Clare, the starlet delivered one of her best performances to date, wrapping herself in themes of trauma, retribution, and morality. Find Your Friends, directed by Izabel Pakzad, sees Thorne doubling down in a similar fashion for an equally gripping performance in a story about what it means to be a woman moving in the world and how, when all is said and done, men are always the problem. Pakzad’s script feels lived-in, engaging with millennial and Gen Z culture that feels real and true. There’s no contrived “how do you do, fellow kids?” slang, or even the notion that the characters are anything but who they are. Find Your Friends is as horny as it is devastating; its swift genre-split feels earned, quickly raising the stakes with shock and awe. [Review]
9. Creature of the Pines
Directed by Chris Ruppert and Tyler Transue
Found-footage freaks will want to put Creature of the Pines on their watchlist immediately. Playing this year’s Panic Fest, the film, co-written and co-directed by Tyler Transue and Chris Ruppert, makes camping scary again. It’s easy to draw comparisons to The Blair Witch, but that’s simply reductive. Creature of the Pines uses its 1999 predecessor as a stepping stone, leaping into something far more interesting and, quite frankly, terrifying. There’s just something about the woods that the creative team utilizes that drives nails into your fingertips and makes you actually frightened that the crunch of leaves and sticks you hear comes from a real-life monster. [Review]
8. Forever, Liam
Directed by Guillermo de le Rosa
It doesn’t get better than Guillermo de la Rosa’s Forever, Liam. The crown jewel out of Panic Fest, the film tells the story about a Venezuelan family that harbors a deep, dark secret: their patriarch is very much dead, but they keep him very much “alive” (like a stuffed bird). But there’s something even more sinister at play, or is there? De la Rosa twists a haunted story about the burden of death and humanity’s desperation to live in the past. Forever, Liam is a relentless mind-fuck packed with some of the best scares out of any horror movie this year. [Review]
7. Frogman Returns
Directed by Anthony Cousins
Throughout horror history, many sequels far surpass the original: Evil Dead II, Child’s Play 2, Aliens, and Friday the 13th Part II—to name a few. Now, we can add Anthony Cousins’ ribbeting sequel, Frogman Returns, to the growing pile. The film, playing this year’s Unnamed Footage Festival, goes bigger and bolder in every possible way. Cousins methodically builds onto what he forged with 2023’s breakout hit, Frogman, and takes cues from several iconic horror films, including Evil Dead II. Frogman Returns could have arrived as a pale imitation of the first film, but that’s not the case here. Cousins, who co-wrote the script with John Karsko, knocks it out of the park with a natural progression to the story while also offering up something fresh, exciting, and absolutely outrageous. [Review]
6. Faces of Death
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber
The original Faces of Death existed as a cursed tape. People talked about it in hushed whispers in class, or snuck out their secret copy during a Saturday night sleepover. Banned in 46 countries, the film and its marketing made it seem as though the snuff footage actually contained real surgeries, beheadings, electrocutions, and scalpings. For many, seeing the 1978 cult classic as young kids or teens changed them forever and sent them careening down a path to all things macabre and nasty. It was only a matter of time before a filmmaking team would return to that grave and exhume a new vision of terror. Director/co-writer Daniel Goldhaber and co-writer/producer Isa Mazzei hadn’t seen the original film when they were approached about conceiving a new story. Well, that’s not entirely true. “When we went back and watched the original, it was a crazy experience. We started to realize that we recognized a lot of it,” corrects Mazzei. “We had just consumed it on the internet in little pieces over the years growing up. Even though the original was before our time, we realized that it had actually influenced us, as well, and that was a really exciting starting point to dig into the material.” [Interview]
5. The Bride!
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
I never expected Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! to affect me so deeply. When I watched it a few days ago, I was practically driven to tears. From the cold open, Jessie Buckley, as Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, there’s something eerily visceral and transcendent about the words pouring forth from her lips. “What I wanted to write. What I needed to say. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even think it. And I got a cancer of the brain, and I couldn’t write at all, so I died,” says Mary. She’s bathed in a lone spotlight and surrounded by darkness. It swallows her whole. The scene sets up the agonizing and brutal death of being trans and non-binary in the world. A world that hates you so much that it’d rather kill you than save you. And that’s the way of things in 2026. [Essay]
4. The Holy Boy
Directed by Paolo Strippoli
Paolo Strippoli’s The Holy Boy, which plays the 2026 Overlook Film Festival, bears a striking (emotional) resemblance to Rose Glass’ 2019 breakout, Saint Maud. Both films analyze modern religion, the exploitation of the vulnerable, and the role the hive-mind plays in perpetuating evil in God’s name. Strippoli co-wrote the razor-sharp script with Jacopo Del Giudice and Milo Tissone and brings the story to raw, pulsing life. Horror has a long-standing relationship with commenting on the plague of religious fanaticism. While it’s well-charted territory, The Holy Boy lights a match to the ground in such a way that destroys who we perceive as the real threat, and if destruction is sometimes warranted. [Review]
3. Victorian Psycho
Directed by Zachary Wigon
Maika Monroe reaches a creative pinnacle in Zachary Wigon’s Victorian Psycho. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Virginia Feito, is an exquisite portrait of a psychotic woman. Wigon brings the monstrous, Lizzie Borden-esque story to throbbing vitality through inventive camera work (think: the door-chopping scene in The Shining) and a throat-slicing performance from Monroe that makes for a horror all-timer, alongside the likes of Kathy Bates in Misery and Susan Tyrrell in Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker. Wigon and Monroe take great care with the material, offering up both thrilling irreverence and quiet veneration for womanhood. [Review]
2. Frankie, Maniac Woman
Directed by Pierre Tsigaridis
Toss Maniac (1980), Violation, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation into a blender, and you get Pierre Tsigaridis’ ferociously biting and bloody Frankie, Maniac Woman. Co-written with Dina Silva, who stars as the titular character, the film burns Hollywood’s obsession with body image (specifically, the grossly dated skinny white woman standard) to the goddamn ground. In the ash, Tsigaridis and Silva rebuild a mausoleum around themes of fatness, misogyny, and female rage. Frankie, Maniac Woman, playing this year’s Panic Fest, doesn’t just clobber you over the head; it takes a rusted machete and evicerates the system, letting all the guts spill out onto the floor. [Review]
1. Mārama
Directed by Toa Stappard
Taratoa Stappard’s Mārama gives voice to the voiceless. Born to an English father and an Indigenous Māori mother (Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa me Ngati Tuwharetoa), the writer/director excavates decades of brutality imposed against the Māori people. The film, which carries as much cultural and cinematic significance as 2019’s La Llorona, feels devastatingly raw and visceral in ways most horror-based films are not. Stappard pulls threads from a long history of trauma—specifically rooted in the colonized Aotearoa New Zealand—to create a story that will shake you to your core. Even if you don’t rattle easily, Mārama obliterates those barricades. [Review]
