The Best 2026 Horror Movies To Watch At Home For Halloween

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween season. The weather is getting cooler, you're already eating the candy you bought to give out to trick or treaters, and it's the perfect time to watch horror movies. Sure, you can watch horror movies any time of the year — lord knows I do. But there's something special about watching a scary movie during Halloween season. It just hits different, ya know?

Horror continues to thrive as a genre, and 2026 has unleashed several strong horror movies upon us, many of which are now available to watch from the comfort and safety of your home. Below, I've rounded up some of the best 2026 horror movies you can watch at home for Halloween. So carve a pumpkin, stuff some candy corn in your face, and get ready to get scary.

Two 2026 horror flicks just hit digital (meaning you can rent or purchase them via Fandango, iTunes, and other such sites) and they're both worth checking out. "Buddy," from "Too Many Cooks" filmmaker Casper Kelly, is a darkly funny and surprisingly disturbing film about children trapped in a Barney-like TV series, where the host — an orange unicorn named Buddy — is a demonic monster willing to kill to get his way. The idea is fun, but it also feels like it would be hard to sustain through a feature film. And yet Kelly pulls it off, creating an engrossing, upsetting film that goes to extremely dark places.

"Insidious: Out of the Further" is the latest entry in the seemingly never-ending "Insidious" series. These films can often be hit or miss — I love some of them, and think others are completely disposable. But "Out of the Further" is pretty successful as it takes the franchise lore to new places and brings in even more ghouls to freak us out. There's also a delightfully twisted scene set in a dentist's office that made me want to throw up, and I mean that as a compliment.

"28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" came out at the beginning of the year and underperformed at the box office, which has unfortunately erased the film from many people's minds. Thankfully, it's now on Netflix, and absolutely worth checking out as it takes the "28...Later" franchise to strange new places, anchored by an incredible, heartfelt performance from Ralph Fiennes. Please, give us the proposed third film in the new trilogy.

Meanwhile over on HBO Max, two of the year's best horrors await you. First is a film that needs no introduction: Kane Parson's "Backrooms" was one of the biggest hits of the year, taking the creepypasta phenomenon and grafting it onto a haunting liminal space nightmare. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the nasty, brutal, but frequently funny "Evil Dead Burn," loaded with gore, gore, and more gore. Fans seem a little mixed on how mean this movie is, but I dug it.

And then on Shudder, you can find "Faces of Death," one of the year's biggest surprises. Inspired by the infamous mondo movie of the same name, this smart meta slasher is about a serial killer drawing inspiration from the original "Faces of Death" to upload murders online.

The streaming horror keeps on coming. Over on Hulu, you can check out two different 2026 titles. First is "Hokum," a slow-burn ghost story that has the added bonus of being set during Halloween. Adam Scott plays a rude, troubled writer investigating a haunted hotel room, with creepy results. Sam Raimi knows a thing or two about giving you the creeps, but he also loves to make audiences laugh, and that's what he does with his delightfully crazy "Send Help," the second Hulu-streaming movie here. The always-welcomed Rachel McAdams is delightful as a mousy office drone who finds herself trapped on a desert island with her rude boss, played by Dylan O'Brien. A bloody power struggle ensues.

Of course, no list of 2026 horror would be complete without "Obsession," Curry Barker's funny, terrifying indie hit that made a star out of Inde Navarrette (who is destined for an Oscar nom; bookmark this for later). Navarette plays Nikki, who has long been the dream girl of her friend Bear (Michael Johnston). When Bear makes a wish for Nikki to love him, it goes horribly wrong. But Nikki isn't the monster here — Bear is. Believe the hype: "Obsession" is the real deal.

Finally, we have "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," streaming on Mubi. This extremely meta slasher from Jane Schoenbrun stars Hannah Einbinder as a filmmaker hired to remake a horror classic. She meets with the star of that film, played by Gillian Anderson, and an unexpected passion blooms. "Camp Miasma" is definitely a love letter to folks who grew up obsessed with the horror section in video stores, as well as horny freaks (complimentary).

Okay, so I know this is supposed to be devoted entirely to movies from 2026, but I wanted to give a special shout-out to the brand-new Lionsgate Limited release of "The Blair Witch Project," which includes a filmmaker-approved restored theatrical cut and festival cut newly restored from the original Hi-8 videotapes and 16mm film elements as well as the original 35mm theatrical exhibition version.

A phenomenon when it hit theaters in 1999, "The Blair Witch Project" changed movies forever and also experienced some backlash from those who felt it was overhyped. But history has judged the film kindly, because it absolutely rules. The film is lightning-in-a-bottle-stuff that's been often imitated, and yet it still maintains its power for inducing a genuine feeling of dread as a trio of amateur filmmakers slowly realize their impending doom after they get lost in the woods. Halloween season is the best time to revisit the film, and this new physical release gives you a perfect excuse to do so.