2026 is full of scary times. But if you like your horror confined to the screen, we've got you covered with a selection of the best that this year has had to offer so far.
Mashable's entertainment team has an insatiable thirst for all things horror. As such, we've not only seen the big flashy releases like Lee Cronin's The Mummy, Kevin Williamson's Scream 7, Nia Dacosta's 28 Year Later: Bone Temple, Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride!, and Sam Raimi's Send Help, but also indie offerings like Backrooms, Obsession, Iron Lung, and Hokum.
Whether you like to shiver for zombies, cackle for horror comedy, gleefully gag over gross-out scares, get goosebumps over serial-killer thrillers, or dream of surreal twists that'll ensure nightmares, we've got you covered.
Horror has a rich tradition of trapping characters in claustrophobic spaces and making them suffer, and Iron Lung cranks that premise up to 11. The film follows Simon (Mark Fischbach, aka YouTuber Markiplier), a convict in a post-apocalyptic future forced to trade prison for an exploratory mission down to the bottom of a blood ocean on an alien moon. The stuff of nightmares? Yes! And Markiplier (who also directs) amps up the tension with juddering submarine noises and occasional creepy X-ray photos taken by the submarine of its unpleasant surroundings.
This movie isn't perfect — at over two hours, it feels longer than it needs to be, and the characters aren't particularly fleshed out — but it's worth watching for one sequence near the end alone, which is cosmic horror at its most terrifying and blood-spattered. — Sam Haysom, General Assignment Editor, UK
Starring: Mark Fischbach, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Mick Lauer, Seán McLoughlin, and Isaac McKee
Fungal horror gets the chills in Cold Storage, an infectious film that knows its lineage. Directed by Jonny Campbell (Am I Being Unreasonable?), and
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave, Lesley Manville, and Liam Neeson
