The 2026 horror movie slate from Robert Eggers' Werwulf to Julia Ducournau’s ALPHA. See the indie breakouts and auteur films poised to dominate.

Welcome to Horror Explorer, a curated column showcasing the month’s best movies, series, books and everything else spooky worth checking out. I’m William Earl, the executive digital director of Variety and the publication’s resident horror enthusiast.

With all of that in mind, more recently, Ari Aster 's Hereditary stands out as one of our great modern horror films, but what's truly shocking about it is that it was also Aster's debut feature film.

An unusual new indie game on Steam is completely free for players to download and try out, bringing a unique spin to the horror genre.

The world is terrifying sometimes. But one of the best ways to manage the horrors of the real world is to contain those extremes in a movie. Unlike life, horror movies actually end, and so, even if you're scared out of your mind while watching,

2026 has no shortage of horror movies releasing throughout the year, with some big-name directors and major franchises contributing to the lineup.

It may be hard to believe, but the best horror movie of 2025, according to Rotten Tomatoes, has slid over the finish line in the last week of the year.

But this year, it finally felt as if that grip was loosening. A trio of superb, high-profile horror movies — Sinners, 28 Years Later, and Weapons — achieved both artistic respectability and box-office success without needing to lean on the crutch of metaphor.

These horror games turn silence into a weapon, using atmosphere and tension to create fear far more unsettling than jump scares.

This isn't limited to one particular country or one particular era, either, as countless horror films from all over the world have gone on to influence horror in its entirety, with legacies spreading to all the corners of the globe.