As A Horror Fan, I'm Pretty Disappointed With The 2026 Lineup So Far

New year, more upcoming horror movies! As a fan of all things scary movies, I’m always marking my calendar for what films are going to terrify me next. But, I have to say, since giving the 2026 movie schedule a looksie, I find myself not as pumped for this year in the genre as I have in previous Januarys. Let’s talk about it.

There’s Too Many Horror Sequels In 2026 For My Taste

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there aren’t any horror movies I’m excited for in the coming year. There are a few on my radar that I’m interested in seeing opening weekend, but when I look at the lineup so far, I have a big problem with it. There are just too many horror sequels for my taste – and many of them are for franchises I’m not necessarily jumping out of my seat to go back to.

This year, we’re getting sequels for 28 Years Later, Scream, Silent Hill, Ready or Not, Resident Evil, Terrifier, Scary Movie, Evil Dead, Insidious and The Strangers. My goodness, that is a lot of 2026 sequels!

By contrast, going into last year, we knew we were getting Sinners, Weapons, Bring Her Back, Companion, Together and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and sequels were a more balanced ratio with Final Destination, The Black Phone, Conjuring, 28 Years Later, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Five Nights At Freddy's followups to balance the calendar out.

After such a strong 2025 for horror movies, I’m sad to see a list of releases that lack some inspiration as a whole. The major original scary movies coming this year, as of right now are really don’t have much buzz around them coming into these next twelve months.

Here's The Scary Movies I Have The Highest Hopes For Right Now

Regarding sequels on the way, I am very excited for Ready or Not 2 in particular. It’s been seven years since the first movie, and the trailer looks like a load of fun. There’s a lot of legacy characters on board for Scream 7 and the fact that the Resident Evil movie is being helmed by Weapons filmmaker Zach Cregger makes me perk up more than I usually would for a reboot of the video game adaptation.

It’s also worth noting that Sam Raimi’s first horror movie in over 15 years is coming this month with Send Help. I’m also over-the-moon hyped for The Bride! with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, and Robert Eggers’ take on werewolves in Werwulf after his last movie, Nosferatu. The most intrigued I am for an original horror movie this year is probably Hokum, which stars Adam Scott in a haunted house movie from Neon.

Hey, hopefully I’m looking back at this article a few months from now with a few great horror movies that I’ve seen that will turn my frown upside down, but for now, I wanted to get honest about how I’m feeling about this year’s array of horror releases, and it's a bit of a shrug as is.