Five Horror Films Still To Hit Theaters This Summer 2026

Two former YouTubers have owned the 2026 box office in a season when franchise horror usually does, and the five summer 2026 horror movies still to come now run against a different bar. Backrooms crossing $100 million domestically for A24 in six days and Obsession’s fifth weekend at the box office have rewritten the math. Two first-time directors with sub-$10 million productions have already taken the season’s two biggest horror wins, and the films opening between July 10 and August 21 are now running against a number studios did not expect to defend in summer.

From a veteran slasher to a Cannes-approved sensation with a perfect critic score, the rest of the slate is a different kind of season. Three of the five films open in wide release, two of them carry franchise risk, and one is a ten-year auteur return measured by a single festival premiere. Backrooms and Obsession are now the benchmark every new horror release is measured against.

The Summer So Far Has Been Owned by Sleeper Horror

Backrooms, from director Kane Parsons, opened to $81.4 million domestic and $118 million global in late May, the largest opening in A24’s history and the first A24 title to cross $100 million at the U.S. box office. Parsons, 20, became the youngest filmmaker ever to open a film at number one with a debut north of $100 million global. A24 financed the film with Chernin Entertainment for under $10 million, and the studio’s own internal polling said more than 50% of the opening crowd came because it was an A24 film, with another 30% coming for Parsons, a YouTube-trained first-timer with a built-in audience.

Obsession, from director Curry Barker, opened a few weeks earlier and has now passed Focus Features’ previous highest-grossing film. On a reported $750,000 budget, the film is sitting at $188.3 million domestic and $265 million global after five weekends in theaters. It has held better than any wide release in recent memory, and a Forbes tally of its fifth weekend has it beating “Scary Movie” and “Masters of the Universe” at the domestic box office, two films with much larger marketing budgets and a fraction of the legs.

Two sub-$10 million productions with directors under 30 have set the bar for what indie horror can do at the box office in 2026. Every film still to come this summer is running against that math.

• Backrooms: $81.4M domestic opening, $118M global opening (A24).
• Obsession: $188.3M domestic, $265M global on a $750K budget (Focus Features).
• Backrooms is now the highest-grossing A24 film in domestic history.
• Obsession is now the highest-grossing film Focus Features has ever released.
• Both directors, Kane Parsons at 20 and Curry Barker, are former YouTubers with first-time feature credits.

Ice Cream Man Brings Eli Roth Back to Slasher Mode

Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man release date is August 7, in more than 2,000 North American theaters via Iconic Events Releasing. The film is Roth’s first under The Horror Section banner, the company launched in March 2025, and his first horror feature since the holiday slasher Thanksgiving in 2023. Variety has the rollout landing in 2,000 venues, a wide release by the standards of any original horror IP in 2026 and a release pattern that mirrors the indie breakouts the season has already produced.

The setup is a small-town infection story. A mysterious ice cream man shows up in a suburban town, and the sweet treats he hands out turn children into homicidal maniacs. Ari Millen (Orphan Black) plays the ice cream man, and the wider cast includes Benjamin Byron Davis, Kiori Mirza Waldman, and three returning members of Roth’s Thanksgiving ensemble. Snoop Dogg is on the music side, and Nas is an executive producer through The Horror Section’s partnership with his Mass Appeal outfit. The trailers frame the film closer to a body-horror infection piece than Roth’s earlier Cabin Fever line, with bloody set pieces built around the murderous kids running through what the marketing calls a disgustingly gory massacre.

Can the Sixth Insidious Rebound From The Red Door?

Insidious: Out of the Further arrives August 21 via Sony, the sixth entry in the franchise and a direct sequel to 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door. The new film is directed by Jacob Chase, co-written by Chase and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and marks the first Insidious title to skip a returning lead writer from the franchise’s earlier run.

Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, the only major cast member back from The Red Door. The new story follows Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, and a fresh child at the center of the haunting. The trailer’s pitch is the franchise’s first in a few entries: Elise tells the new family the haunting lets them bring the demons back to the real world, and the rest of the film is her teaching them how to reverse it before things spiral out of control.

The Red Door, directed by franchise star Patrick Wilson, was poorly received by critics, and the production company is openly pitching Out of the Further as a rebound. The franchise now has to prove it can still open a season where indie horror has set the tone, and the only major voice back is the one who has been in every chapter.

Her Private Hell, Refn’s First Feature Since The Neon Demon

Nicolas Winding Refn returns to features for the first time in a decade with Her Private Hell, opening in 800 to 1,200 North American theaters on July 24 via Neon. The film premiered Out of Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, and the Cannes page on Her Private Hell frames it as “a hypnotic and sensory return, originating from a profoundly intimate experience.” Refn’s last feature was 2016’s The Neon Demon; in the decade since he has run a streaming series, a video game, and a couple of branded commercial projects.

Her Private Hell is set in a future metropolis. A group of actresses is staying at a posh hotel where they are set to shoot a Barbarella-like movie, and a serial killer called Leather Man is killing women in the city around them. The cast includes Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Dougray Scott, and Diego Calva. The Neon Demon’s two leads are gone, but the new ensemble leans on the same mood-first, narrative-light approach that has defined Refn’s late work, and the early critical read out of Cannes is divided in the way Refn’s films usually are. For the audience that has been waiting a decade, the release is the event; for everyone else, it is a question of whether the auteur’s reputation can still open theaters.

Camp Miasma Lands a Perfect Score and a Queer Palm

Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is in U.S. theaters August 7 via Mubi, after opening the Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on May 13 and winning the Queer Palm. The Camp Miasma teaser at Cannes dropped hours before the premiere, and the critical wave that followed is the strongest of the summer’s slate.

Schoenbrun wrote and directed, after I Saw the TV Glow. The film follows Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a queer filmmaker hired to direct a reboot of the Camp Miasma slasher franchise, and Billy Preston (Gillian Anderson), the reclusive final girl of the original film. The two end up in what the synopsis calls a “frenzy of psychosexual mania” as the production collapses. Alex G composed the score. The wider cast includes Amanda Fix, Jack Haven, Patrick Fischler, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Zach Cherry, Sarah Sherman, and Eva Victor.

On Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 53 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. Metacritic assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100 from 22 critics, a “universal acclaim” tag. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph rated the film 5 out of 5 stars, calling it “an extravagantly funny, recklessly bizarre and unsettling satire of/paean to ‘problematic cinema’.” The four shapes horror endings take are about to get a new addition.

Deadline’s Damon Wise called the film an “instant midnight-movie classic” in his review out of Cannes, and Time’s Stephanie Zacharek described Anderson’s performance as “sublime.” A 100% Rotten Tomatoes score on a horror film is the kind of critic signal that does not always translate to ticket buyers, and the film’s wider commercial test starts August 7.

instant midnight-movie classic

Evil Dead Burn Pushes the Franchise Deeper Into Gore

Evil Dead Burn hits theaters July 10 via Warner Bros, directed by Sébastien Vaniček and written by Vaniček and Florent Bernard. The Evil Dead Burn trailer breakdown shows the same blood-soaked, stripped-down direction that 2023’s Evil Dead Rise brought to the franchise, and the release date was moved up 12 days from an original July 22 slot. Vaniček’s last feature was the 2022 French creature film Infested, and he is the first director in the franchise’s theatrical run outside the Raimi and Alvarez orbits.

The cast: Luciane Buchanan, Hunter Doohan, Souheila Yacoub, and Tandi Wright. The plot follows a woman mourning the loss of her husband, who retreats to a secluded house with her in-laws, where the Deadites arrive next. Evil Dead Rise pulled the franchise away from cabin-in-the-woods comedy and toward urban bloodletting, and Burn looks to keep that direction with an isolated-house setup, the franchise’s most stripped-down setting in a decade. The Evil Dead franchise has not had a feature in theaters since Evil Dead Rise, and the new film is the first test of whether the 2023 reboot can sustain its own audience.

Five Films, Five Different Bets Against the Indie Bar

Each of the five films still to come is a different kind of bet, and each is now running against a bar set by two first-time directors in their twenties. Franchise sequels (Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further) carry the highest financial risk, since studios need the reboots to clear a number two YouTubers with sub-$10 million budgets have already set. The horror films that grossed 100 times their budget are a different kind of reference point, but the principle holds: a small spend with the right hook can still move the chart in 2026.

Her Private Hell and Camp Miasma carry the highest reputational risk, in different ways. Refn has not had a feature in a decade, and the early critical read out of Cannes is divided in the way his films usually are. Camp Miasma has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and a Queer Palm, and the test is whether that score translates into ticket buyers when the film opens on the same August 7 date as Ice Cream Man.

Ice Cream Man is the middle path. Eli Roth is a known horror brand, and Iconic Events Releasing is opening it on more than 2,000 North American screens. The bet is that Roth’s name plus a wide-release push can ride the same indie wave the season’s two breakout hits have already surfed, with a body-horror premise aimed at the same young crowd that packed the opening weekends of Backrooms and Obsession.

The summer ends on August 21 with Insidious: Out of the Further, the last slot, the franchise that has to prove the formula can still open against a season of underdogs. The Red Door, the 2023 entry, was poorly received, and the new film is the franchise’s first test of whether a returning Elise Rainier, the only major voice back, can carry the reset. From July 10 to August 21, every new horror opening is being read against the two YouTube-trained films that opened the season at the top of the chart.

• Evil Dead Burn: franchise IP against the indie tide, with a director (Vaniček) new to the franchise.
• Insidious: Out of the Further: returning voice (Lin Shaye’s Elise Rainier) to reset a wounded series after The Red Door.
• Her Private Hell: a ten-year auteur return measured against a Cannes premiere and a divided critical read.
• Camp Miasma: a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and a Queer Palm as commercial fuel.
• Ice Cream Man: a slasher trying to ride the indie wave on a 2,000-screen push.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Evil Dead Burn released in theaters?

Evil Dead Burn opens in U.S. theaters on July 10, 2026, via Warner Bros. The release was originally set for July 22 and moved up 12 days. It is the sixth theatrically released film in the Evil Dead franchise and the first directed by Sébastien Vaniček.

Who is directing the new Insidious movie?

Insidious: Out of the Further is directed by Jacob Chase, who also co-wrote the film with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Lin Shaye is the only major cast member returning from 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door, reprising the role of Elise Rainier. The film opens in U.S. theaters on August 21, 2026, via Sony.

What is Her Private Hell about?

Her Private Hell is Nicolas Winding Refn’s first feature in a decade, after 2016’s The Neon Demon. The plot follows a group of actresses shooting a Barbarella-like movie at a posh hotel while a serial killer called Leather Man stalks the city. Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, and Havana Rose Liu lead the cast. Neon opens the film in 800 to 1,200 U.S. theaters on July 24, 2026.

When does Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma open in U.S. theaters?

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma opens in U.S. theaters on August 7, 2026, via Mubi. The film opened the Un Certain Regard section at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on May 13, 2026, and won the Queer Palm. Jane Schoenbrun wrote and directed, with Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in the lead roles.

How much has Obsession grossed at the box office?

Obsession has grossed about $188.3 million in North America and $265 million globally on a reported $750,000 budget, making it the highest-grossing film ever released by Focus Features. As of mid-June 2026, the film is in its fifth weekend in theaters and has outperformed its opening gross of $17.2 million in each of the last four weekends.