Kane Parsons made no secret that he's a big fan of Portal on the press run for his new movie, Backrooms. He spoke openly about how the legendary puzzler franchise was a huge influence on his work, which started on YouTube and led to the acclaimed Backrooms, a thriller set in the liminal spaces of a furniture showroom.

There were some reports that he was considering directing a movie based on the IP, too, and now it seems like we've got our biggest tease yet that it could be happening. Posting on his Instagram, Parsons shared two images of himself at Valve HQ.

He didn't add a caption to his stories, but in light of what he's been teasing about his love of Portal, it has set speculation alight among fans. Posting on Reddit, one wrote: "He's gonna get to make his Portal movie.. Bet." Another agreed, adding: "He's gonna propose his Portal movie project to them, isn't he?"

Speaking earlier this year, Parsons said that Portal 2 was his biggest inspiration for his horror movie Backrooms. "Portal would be the earliest influence," he told Letterboxd. "It's like the strongest influence over, like, everything I've done in my entire life. It's a two-game series.

"So, if anything, I would say Portal 2 is the bigger inspiration for me... It's inherently comedic and absurd, and that’s what I like about it. So many bleak creative choices come from an inherent humor."

All signs are looking positive for a new movie. Watch this space. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming confirmed video game movies on the way.

It sounds like a new writer has joined the next Five Nights at Freddy's movie.

That's according to star Skeet Ulrich, who has shared that some new blood is onboard for the third film.

"We're waiting on the third script to make the third film," Ulrich said at a Spawn of ScareFest Q&A. "The guy who wrote It and It Follows is writing it right now. Apparently, it's a lot of [Matthew Lillard] and I." Check out the comment below at around the 27:24 time stamp.

Now, this comes with a few caveats. For one thing, the screenwriter of It and It Follows are different people – David Robert Mitchell wrote It Follows, while three writers are credited for the 2017 It movie: Chase Palmer, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman. So, Ulrich probably misspoke, and means either It or It Follows.

Plus, it's unclear whether the new writer is actually taking over from franchise creator Scott Cawthon, or if they're working on the script with Cawthon, or rewriting a draft of his. Cawthon has been on writing duties for both films so far: the first film was written by Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback, and Emma Tammi, from a story by Cawthon, Chris Lee Hill, and Tyler MacIntyre, while for the sequel, Cawthon is the only credited writer. So, if Cawthon is not contributing to the script for the third film, it would be a franchise first.

How a new writer affects the franchise remains to be seen, though Five Nights at Freddy's 2 holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 17%, down from the first film's 33%.

"Despite Five Nights at Freddy's 2 slightly bettering its predecessor in terms of scares and impressive animatronics, the sequel fails to understand that less is more. By stuffing as many storylines and characters as possible into its relatively brief runtime, the sequel feels messy and inconclusive, leaving FNaF fans shortchanged," reads our Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review.

There's no release date for Five Nights at Freddy's 3 just yet. While you wait, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies.

Just days after announcing that Blumhouse is finally moving forward with its Dead by Daylight movie adaptation, led by Icelandic filmmaker Thordur Palsson, CEO Jason Blum has had to defend the movie's director against fans who don't think he's up to the job.

"No one had heard of Emma before Five Nights at Freddy's, and that worked out pretty well," said Blum on Twitter. "Have faith, my friends."

Blum's Tweet is in response to Blumhouse's original post, which reads, "To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Dead by Daylight, we’re happy to share that Thordur Palsson will direct the film adaptation." Many Twitter users were quick to reply, "Who?"

It is true that those across the pond may not know much of Palsson, but the filmmaker has made a name for himself in Nordic cinema. Palsson is best known for his Netflix detective series The Valhalla Murders, which sits at an imprssive 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, and his 2025 monster movie The Damned, which scored 90%.

Just because Palsson doesn't have as much experience as others doesn't mean he isn't able to carry the adaptation. As Blum pointed out, Five Nights at Freddy's director Emma Tammi wasn't a household name before helming the 2023 video game adaptation. But Five Nights at Freddy's quickly became one of the highest-grossing video game horror movies of all time, and Blumhouse made a sequel in 2025.

Not much is known about the movie at this point, other than it is based on the Dead by Daylight video game franchise. The first game follows four survivor characters: office worker Dwight, an athlete Meg, a botanist Claudette, and a survivalist Jake, who must complete tasks in order to escape before they are murdered by the fifth player, known as the killer. To win, the killer, who takes shape as a number of different horror-themed monsters, must pick off the survivors and feed them to The Entity.

Although no cast announcements have been made just yet, the movie is said to start filming sometime in 2027. Crawl scribe Alexandre Aja and The Conjuring 2's David Leslie Johnston-McGoldrick are penning the script.

The Dead by Daylight movie does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our guides to the best video game movies and upcoming video game movies.

As Curry Barker's indie horror hit Obsession continues to dominate the box office one month after it released in theatres, the director says he has an idea for another movie, but he's not in a rush to make a sequel.

"I don’t want to go straight into Obsession 2," said Barker to The Hollywood Reporter. "I have such a cool idea for it that I won’t say. I’m not saying it has to be five, six years from now. But I think people would be just as excited for it if it came a little down the road. It’s a whirlwind, and I’m trying to figure it out."

Obsession follows a shy young man named Bear who buys a novelty wishing branch and wishes for his crush, Nikki, to love him more than anything in the world. Surprisingly, the wish works, but turns his true love into a crazy, obsessed succubus. Though the story may be over for a handful of Obsession characters, there is still a lot to explore in that world, especially when it comes to other users of the One Wish Willow.

At an early screening of Obsession hosted by GamesRadar+, Barker discussed the possibility of an Obsession series. "What really is exciting to me [would be doing] an anthology, like a one-hour episode," said Barker. "Each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails. Maybe I'll direct the pilot with the same DP, and then you could invite other filmmakers to give their spin at it. That would be really cool."

However, Barker seems to have his plate full at the moment. The director is currently editing his next film, titled Anything But Ghosts, starring Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul and Jurassic World's Bryce Dallas Howard. After that, Barker is making a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie for A24. Although he hasn't written the script yet, he told GamesRadar+ that he wants to focus on Leatherface's family.

Beyond that, the industry is Barker's oyster. "The opportunities were just unbelievable. I realized I can do whatever I want now," said Barker to THR. "The big conversation is: Do I want to do an IP movie? Or do I want to do my original? I have an idea for my original, but I have so many ideas for Chainsaw as well. I have a lot to weigh, and that’s where the stress really comes from. I don’t know what to do next."

Obsession is still out in theatres. For more, check out our guide to the best horror movies, and keep up with other exciting upcoming horror movies on the way.

The Dead by Daylight movie is finally moving forward at Blumhouse, as the studio officially greenlights the film, bringing on board a horror director to lead the project.

Alongside James Wan's production company Atomic Monster and video game developer Behaviour Interactive, Blumhouse has tapped Thordur Palsson to direct the film (H/T Variety).

Palsson is best known for his Netflix detective series The Valhalla Murders and 2025 monster movie The Damned.

In a statement, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum said, "Thordur is the filmmaker we trust to carry ‘Dead by Daylight’ from the screen you play on to the big screen you watch in theaters."

Earlier this year, the project found its writers in Crawl scribe Alexandre Aja and The Conjuring 2's David Leslie Johnston-McGoldrick.

Not much is known about the movie at this point, but it is said to start filming sometime in 2027. The movie adapts the hit multiplayer game of the same name, which follows four players who must complete tasks to escape. However, five players take part, and one is selected as the killer. The killer's goal is to trap each survivor and sacrifice them to The Entity one by one.

In the original game, the survivor characters consist of former office worker Dwight Fairfield, super speedy athlete Meg Thomas, clever botanist Claudette Morel, and survivalist Jake Park. The killer characters consist of a Grim Reaper-like ghoul known as The Wraith, Leatherface-like chainsaw-wielder The Hillbilly, and a bear-trap-laying villain called The Trapper (kind of like Friday the 13th's Jason).

No cast announcements have been made at this moment, but fans have already been casting their favorites.

So far, fans seem to want either Joseph Gordon Levitt or Andrew Garfield to play Dwight, Evil Dead star Jane Levy or Margaret Qualley as Meg, Teyonah Parris or Zoe Kravitz as Claudette Morel, and either Steven Yeun or Osric Chau as Jake Park. In terms of the killers, fans think someone strong should play The Trapper, such as Henry Cavill, and think Jamie Lee Curtis should voice the Entity.

The Dead by Daylight movie does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our guides to the best video game movies and upcoming video game movies.

The Evil Dead franchise is known for not holding back when it comes to gore, but it sounds as though the next installment may be the most gruesome yet, as Evil Dead Burn director Sébastien Vaniček says one scene was so violent, he had to cut it out.

"There is a scene that is not R-rated," Vaničekin said in the latest issue of SFX magazine (which has House of the Dragon season 3 on the cover). "It’s a really, really hard scene. And I have to cut it, unfortunately, so you just won’t experience it as brutally as it is right now because I need to have the R-rated movie. So we are trying to find a good balance."

At the time of the interview, Vaniček was in the middle of getting the movie rated by the Motion Picture Association. The goal was to achieve an R rating in the US (which equates to a 15 or 18 age rating in the UK), in line with the rest of the franchise.

Vaniček didn't give any clues on what the scene entailed, but if it was too much for an R-rating, we can only imagine the level of gore. Evil Dead Rise contained a scene where a possessed victim grated their face with a cheese grater, and the 2013 Evil Dead remake showed a girl cutting her own arm off with an electric carving knife. Still, both movies managed to earn an R-rating in the US and an 18 rating in the UK. So, the cut Evil Dead Burn scene must have been extremely graphic.

Evil Dead Burn follows a grieving woman who has recently lost her husband, and in search of comfort, visits her in-laws at their secluded family home. However, the family reunion soon turns into the trip from hell as the Book of the Dead transforms them into Deadites one by one. Evil Dead Burn does not act as a sequel to Evil Dead Rise, but the first trailer did contain a cheeky nod to the 2023 movie.

However, fans of gore may still be able to see the cut scene one day, as Vaniček is already thinking about releasing Director's Cut later down the line. "The director’s cut will be way more violent than what we will have in the theater," said the director, who promised that the movie heading to theaters will still have its fair share of carnage.

Evil Dead Burn releases on July 10. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Unexpected horror breakout hit Obsession is still proving hugely popular at the box office.

With a gross of $234.5 million globally, the film has broken into the top 10 highest grossing movies of 2026, coming in at number nine (Backrooms, another viral horror sensation, is at number 10).

Plus, Obsession has made it into IMDb's ranking of the best movies ever, currently sitting in 248th place with a rating of 8.1 from 83 thousand viewers.

According to TheWrap, Obsession also made more domestically on its 25th day in theaters than Avengers: Endgame, The Force Awakens, or Spider-Man: No Way Home. The Star Wars movie made $3.1 million on its 25th day, while Endgame made $3.2 million, and Spider-Man: No Way Home made $2.4 million. In comparison, Obsession made $4.2 million (though, of course, in total, the Star Wars film and Endgame both grossed over $2 billion globally, while No Way Home made $1.9 billion worldwide).

Obsession revolves around a man named Bear who, after breaking the magical One Wish Willow, forces his crush Nikki to fall obsessively in love with him.

"Obviously I have a couple more things that I'm excited about next, but I do see Obsession 2 maybe, or even… What really is exciting to me [would be doing] an anthology, like a one-hour episode," director Curry Barker previously told us. "Each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails. Maybe I'll direct the pilot with the same DP, and then you could invite other filmmakers to give their spin at it. That would be really cool."

Obsession is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the best horror movies to scare yourself silly.

It has been eight years since Ari Aster's Hereditary blew horror fans away, but the director has revealed that he has plans for more movies set in that universe and has even written a prequel.

"I wrote a prequel to this," said Aster during a Herediary Q&A at The American Cinematheque’s annual Bleak Week (Gold Derby). "It never feels like the right time. It’s a prequel, not a sequel, so I don’t know where this goes."

The 2018 movie centers on a family cursed by their late grandmother, who promised the family's firstborn male to an ancient demon. But the film concluded in tragedy, so a prequel would make a little more sense. Especially if Aster wanted to invite back star Toni Collette. Who knows, the prequel might focus on the witchy grandmother's (Kathleen Chalfant) dark past, just as Zach Cregger's Weapons prequel is set to follow Gladys' origins.

One thing is for sure, though, the original will be hard to top. Hereditary is often considered one of the greatest modern horror movies, ushering in a new era for the genre. Many think of it as 'elevated horror', which is not a term Aster uses himself. "I hate the term elevated horror, especially because it’s sort of a box that I was put in, and horror fans took umbrage. 'Who do you think you are?' I didn’t say it, I didn’t say it," added Aster. "I was just trying to make a really good horror movie."

Nevertheless, the movie was a breath of fresh air and a celebration of original horror. However, it seems as though we are going through a bit of a horror renaissance right now, with Curry Barker's $750,000 indie horror Obsession and fellow YouTuber turned movie director Kane Parson's Backrooms currently taking over the box office. Aster has noticed the change in the genre.

"This is a really interesting month with Curry and Kane. I hadn’t seen Kane’s shorts until Backrooms came out. He’s really interesting. He’s 20 years old... I think, he’s clearly following a vision. I’m thrilled to see that," said Aster. "That’s so exciting." You can read more on the trend in our feature about how Hollywood is benefiting content creators swapping social media for filmmaking.

For more, see where Herediatry places in our guide to the best horror movies of all time, and keep up with upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Backrooms director Kane Parsons, fresh off his horror sensation storming the box office, is seemingly considering a Portal movie in his future.

This all stemmed from an interview on The Town, wherein Parsons noted how he wasn't interested in taking on IP next "barring one or two things" from his childhood – and early talks are happening.

Speculation soon intensified that Parsons may have been talking about Portal, the legendary puzzler franchise from Valve, Kim Swift, and Erik Wolpaw that sees players navigate increasingly nefarious test courses using portals.

Soon, The New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan chimed in with his own scoop: "I’ve seen people speculate that Kane Parsons is referring to a potential Portal movie here," Buchanan began on Twitter. "I asked him in early May if he’d be interested in directing that and he said he was already looking into it 'with a lot of caution and a lot of curiosity.'"

Whatever comes next there is, understandably, considerable buzz around 20-year-old Parsons, who became the youngest filmmaker to ever reach number one at the U.S. box office with Backrooms.

Backrooms, which navigates the unique horror of liminal spaces bolstered by a cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, has already grossed almost $150 million at the box office from a reported $10 million budget.

Portal, meanwhile, has largely laid dormant as a franchise since its 2011 sequel, save for guest appearances or Easter eggs in other titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Minecraft. But maybe we'll be thinking with portals once more?

For more, check out the upcoming horror movies heading your way. Then dive into the new PS5 games on the horizon before the packed Summer Games Fest schedule invariably adds dozens more.

Backrooms director Kane Parsons has made no secret of how much he likes Valve's games, calling Portal 2 the single "biggest inspiration" for the instant-hit film. In a new interview, he says the whole house of Steam is a creative touchstone for him, praising Valve's commitment to artistic intent.

Speaking with Matt Belloni on his show The Town, Parsons clarifies that "there's no one path that I look at and personally say, 'I want that for me,'" when it comes to other creatives. Rather, he has more of a "desire to take things one step at a time."

If he had to distill things down to a creative philosophy, he'd take a page from Valve's book. "The closest comparison that I would call a north star would be the way that Valve conducts themselves with their projects," he explains. "Obviously, that's on the game side of things. But I think the integrity they've expressed with a lot of their, I guess, philosophy of, don't make it if there's not a meaningful reason motivating it behind the scenes".

In its history as game developer, hardware manufacturer, and Steam shepherd, Valve has repeatedly argued the importance of new projects accomplishing something new and, in particular, having a bespoke reason to make new games. Half-Life: Alyx is probably the clearest example. (Shoutout to Artifact, too.)

The first Half-Life game in years not only wasn't Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2: Episode 3, it was a VR exclusive that told a fairly different story. Around its reveal, Valve staff like level designer Dario Calasi said that Alyx was made, in large part, to tackle the challenges and opportunities of VR – and in the end, Valve produced arguably the greatest VR game ever made.

Belloni compares Parsons' description of Valve to recent remarks from Spider-Man star Tom Holland, who argued that the Christopher Nolan approach to filmmaking could serve some of the Marvel films. "We need to know why we are making this movie beyond the fact that it’s Spider-Man 4 and they make loads of money and we're going to just have a big summer," Holland said.

Parsons reckons that should be a "baseline" for creatives on any project. "But I also think that Valve specifically, they take it to such an extreme where it's obviously motivated by the hardware and the tech aspect," he continues. "So, I'm not solely into film. I just like media curation in general. I like creating experiences for people by whatever means necessary. I do a lot of music work as well and I'd love to look at games in the future."

A24's Backrooms leads to a surge in players for two co-op horror games inspired by the viral creepypasta.

Scary Movie 6 brings back the Wayans family after 25 years away from the franchise. Directed by Michael Tiddes and written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans, and Rick Alvarez, the movie is being billed as a legacy sequel to the first two films – but does it live up to expectations?

Unfortunately, reviews for the horror parody have been decidedly negative, debuting to a low 20% Rotten Tomatoes score. While it's not being called an all-out failure, several critics have been lukewarm in their critiques, saying few jokes land and the parody doesn't always feel timely. This being said, there is a fair amount of praise for the surprise celebrity cameos and this is not the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in the franchise, either.

Empire gave the movie two stars, writing that "the posters – inspired parodies of recent horror films – are wittier than the film, suggesting that maybe next time get those ad creatives into the writers' room." Their critic Kim Newman added that it's only in the last 10 minutes that the movie "almost start[s] to be funny".

IndieWire criticized the movie for not being cutting enough in its parody. "Nobody should be looking to Scary Movie for nuanced geopolitical analysis, and only a dumbass would be genuinely offended by what the Wayans didn't mock in this movie," reviewer Alison Foreman wrote. "But great satire is often defined as much by what it excludes, and refusing to engage with any actual controversy at Paramount (outside of one very weak line involving Neve Campbell), Scary Movie 6 manages to come across as thoughtless and toothless at the same time."

Variety was lukewarm on the sixth movie in the franchise, citing it having fairly few funny gags. "I didn't laugh out loud too much at Scary Movie, which is a lot less funny than last summer's Naked Gun reboot, though it's got the relentless energy of a mad-dog comedy," critic Owen Gleiberman wrote. "The majority of the jokes come off as more asserted than delighted."

Deadline's Pete Hammond says the jokes "feel as old" as the 25-year gap that the franchise has been without the Wayans family as writers. "We get a flat-footed and predictable satire that looks like the Wayans just threw whatever tired ideas they had at the wall to see what still sticks," he writes in his review.

The Wrap's William Bibbiani writes: "Sucky or not, Scary Movie is still a broad comedy, and a lot can be forgiven if it's funny. It's frequently funny. Some of the jokes backfire, horribly, and others are so tired they're pathetic, but one out of every four punchlines hits hard. The celebrity cameo in the pre-credits sketch is inspired."

For more upcoming movies, check out our guide to all the new horror movies arriving in 2026 and beyond.

Backrooms director Kane Parsons has slammed generative AI.

The new horror film is one of the surprise breakout hits of the year, already standing at around $135 million at the worldwide box office.

"I think I'm in the same boat as most well-adjusted people," Parsons told The Australian (via Deadline). "If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me."

Though Parsons acknowledges the potential for AI to help with some VFX tasks, he explained "right now it's difficult to discuss objectively because there's so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening."

It sounds like AI has sparked ideas for what Parsons wants to do next, however. "What interests me more is interrogating it artistically," he shared. "We already live in a world where you walk outside and there are billboards and signs that are obvious AI slop. That's become part of our visual reality. To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot.

"I'm interested in using that iconography in art – not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents," he added. "I definitely want to explore it further in future projects."

Backrooms is an A24 horror movie based on the internet creepypasta, and it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, and Finn Bennett.

"I didn't have any thoughts, really, about the viral nature of it," Ejiofor told GamesRadar+ recently. "I just thought that it was a fascinating world to explore, [with] fascinating characters."

Backrooms is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the best horror movies to scare yourself silly.

It looks like original horror is taking over the big screen, as in addition to Obsession having another successful weekend, Kane Parson's Backrooms has smashed an A24 record during its opening.

After hitting screens on Friday, May 29, Backrooms grossed a whopping $81.4 million during opening weekend in the US, and over $118 million worldwide, as per BoxOfficeMojo. This marks the biggest opening for an A24 movie ever, almost tripling Civil War's $25.7 million opening. Not only this, but as Backrooms is now the number one movie in the world, meaning that at 20 years old, Parsons is the youngest director ever to hold this title.

As for Obsession, Curry Barker's feature directorial debut continues an almost unprecedented run at the box office. After beating its opening weekend with an impressive second weekend on the big screen, the indie horror has done it again, bringing in $26.4 million in the US during its third weekend. This is a 10% rise from last week, bringing its domestic total to over $104.7 million and $148 million worldwide.

This is bad news for The Mandalorian and Grogu, as despite the new Star Wars movie being the number one film in the US last week when it first premiered, it is now sitting in third place behind Backrooms and Obsession. The new film, which just so happens to be the first Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker seven years ago, saw a 69% drop during its second weekend, pulling in $25 million in the US after earning $81.6 million on opening weekend.

What makes two original horror movies outperforming a major Disney blockbuster even more impressive is that both movies had much smaller budgets. Obsession cost just $750,000 to make, meaning it has made almost 200 times its budget back, making it one of the most profitable movies of all time. Backrooms had a reported budget of $10 million, so it has made just under 12 times its budget back. The two horror movies were also shown in far fewer theaters than the Star Wars flick.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, on the other hand, reportedly cost Disney and LucasFilm $165 million to make, according to Collider. Despite the film earning a huge $246.5 million so far worldwide, its big budget means it has only made its budget back 1.5 times over so far.

For more, check out our guide to movie release dates for 2026, and keep up with new movies and upcoming horror movies heading your way this year and beyond.

Director Kane Parsons says Portal 2 serves as the biggest inspiration for the upcoming horror movie based on his viral YouTube series of the same name.

"Portal would be the earliest influence," Parsons said in an interview with Letterboxd. "It's like the strongest influence over, like, everything I've done in my entire life. It's a two-game series. So, if anything, I would say Portal 2 is the bigger inspiration for me... It's inherently comedic and absurd, and that’s what I like about it. So many bleak creative choices come from an inherent humour."

Portal is a first-person puzzle game that first debuted in 2007. Portal 2 was released in 2011. In both games, you play as a test subject trapped in the Aperture Science Laboratory, taunted as you complete puzzles by an evil (but very funny) computer overseer. The lab seems to be a death trap with no way to escape – until you start finding hidden spaces where you're not "supposed" to go.

You can definitely see the influence on Parsons' viral YouTube series, which centers on a '90s company called The Complex, which is essentially a web of liminal spaces where people go missing after being pulled in.

"The general set construction of the Portal games has been in my brain for so long. I frequently have dreams where I’m just in the [game]," he continued. "By the second game, [the environment] is rotting and totally falling apart but it's vast. It feels like an eternal indoors that goes on in all directions that is just absurd in its scope. It’s very similar to Backrooms on that front. You can probably tell [those games are] special to me because I won’t stop rambling about them." You can check out the full interview below.

Directed by Parsons, the movie sees a therapist (Renate Reinsve) venture into an otherworldly dimension in search of her missing patient (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The cast includes Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia. The screenplay was penned by Westworld writers Robert Patino and Will Soodik.

Backrooms hits theaters on May 29. For more scares, check out our list of upcoming horror movies.

Backrooms is already lining up to be a huge hit for A24 as the new horror movie directed by Kane Parsons tracks for a big box office opening. Based on the creepypasta internet theory about a space called The Backrooms and a YouTube web series, the new sci-fi horror stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve as they navigate an otherworldly dimension of never-ending office spaces.

This is director Parsons' debut film at the tender age of just 20 and as a result there have been some unfounded internet rumors circulating about his role. This is especially the case because the film is produced by several well-known filmmakers, including Insidious' James Wan, Deadpool and Wolverine's Shawn Levy, and Longlegs' Osgood Perkins.

One of the film's stars Mark Duplass has now responded to these, calling out a Twitter user who wrote: "Promising but we all know Kane Parsons absolutely didn’t direct this movie. But the needle is moving in the right direction."

He replied on the social media site, "Hmmm, with all due respect I don't remember seeing you on set. When I was there, Kane was 100% in control. More so than many directors 3x his age."

Speaking in an Instagram video, Duplass then elaborated more on this. "So a lot of takes going around right now about whether Kane Parsons at the tender age of 19 actually directed the Backrooms or whether it was more ghost directed by one of his more experienced producers," he said. "I was there, I suspect one of the reasons I was hired is because I mentor a lot of young filmmakers and they may have thought it would be good to have someone there who is sensitive to that and I was prepared to help out."

The Morning Show star then continued: "What happened was he didn't need any of us. He was intensely prepared. He spent the last five years of his life building out one of the most detailed mythologies I've ever been a part of, worked incredibly closely with his crew, particularly his DP and shot design, and was very sensitive and calm and smart dealing with actors. So for those of you who have all these thoughts, were you there?"

Ahead of the new movie, star Reinsve opened up to GamesRadar+ about the creepy set of the horror and actor Ejiofor shared what it was like working on something with such a viral following.

Backrooms is released on May 29. For more scares, here's our round up of all the upcoming horror movies to have on your radar.

After hitting screens on May 15, Curry Barker's Obsession managed to earn over $17 million across the US and $27 million worldwide during its opening weekend, which is a pretty big feat, seen as though its reported production budget falls under $1 million. This made Obsession the cheapest movie to top the box office in 17 years since the first Paranormal Activity in 2009, according to Forbes.

However, its second weekend went even better, as Obsession managed to pull in $22 million from US theaters ($28.2 million if you count Memorial Day on Monday, too), as per BoxOfficeMojo. This means that Obsession has so far generated over $58 million in the US and $74 million worldwide. That's over 74 times its production budget, making it one of the year’s most profitable releases, as found by Variety.

What makes Obsession's success more impressive is that it is writer and director Curry Barker's first feature film, as the YouTuber moves from short social projects to the big screen. The horror movie follows a young man who wishes that his crush would love him more than anything in the world. But he soon gets more than he bargained for when his wish invites sinister forces into his love life. The film stars Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette.

It seems as though original horror is taking over 2026, as the best-rated scary movies on Rotten Tomatoes this year all seem to bring something different to the table, including Sam Raimi's work trip gone wrong, Send Help, Damian McCarthy's witchy folk horror Hokum, and animal attack gore-fest Primate. Obsession tops the list, currently standing at a 95% score.

Luckily for horror fans, Barker isn't done with the genre yet. Next up for the young director is A24's Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. In an interview with GamesRadar+, Barker teased his interpretation, "I want to do something that's different, but not stray too far from what we know," adding, "There's some really messed-up stuff happening at that farm. It's untapped."

The director has also shown interest in revisiting Obsession. At an early screening of Obsession hosted by GamesRadar+ and Total Film, Barker teased a sequel and an anthology series based on other people's wishes. "What really is exciting to me [would be doing] an anthology, like a one-hour episode. Each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails," said Barker, "Maybe I'll direct the pilot with the same DP, and then you could invite other filmmakers to give their spin at it. That would be really cool."

Obsession is out now. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Spanning 25 short films, Kane Parsons' popular YouTube series Backrooms has amassed a whopping 197 million views since the first video dropped in 2022. When filming the live-action adaptation, though, star Chiwetel Ejiofor felt no pressure to live up to fans' expectations.

"I didn't have any thoughts, really, about the viral nature of it," the Marvel actor tells GamesRadar+, ahead of the horror film's release. "I just thought that it was a fascinating world to explore, [with] fascinating characters.

"As you were saying before, [it] had this deep psychological resonance. [It's] almost that thing that you feel that's on the tip of your tongue, you know? It's an emotion that you haven't quite articulated. [Director] Kane [Parsons] is sort of reaching around in this area that's a combination of memory, emotion, past, successes, failures, and all of the things that you carry with you. I just thought it was remarkable. It was sitting in that that I was really about when we were doing it, and Kane felt like he was completely in control of that."

Helmed by the now-20-year-old, Parsons' big-screen Backrooms follows Ejiofor's "complicated" Clark, who's been living in his furniture store in Santa Clara Valley since his wife kicked him out of their house. When the power in the shop starts flickering one night, Clark ventures down to the sub-level to check the circuit breaker and stumbles across a creepy, corner-filled dimension that seemingly goes on and on and on.

Much of Parsons' original series centered on random people accidentally "no-clipping" into said realm, as a mysterious organization called Async investigates its origins and purpose. There's a little of that in the movie, but for the most part, it explores Clark's psychological response to the titular space AKA The Complex – and how he involves his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who's navigating her own traumatic past, in his manic search for answers.

"He was really taking care of all the details. I remember hearing him talk about the wires and the specificness of the lighting, the specific color of the wallpaper," Reinsve says of Parsons. "Everything was so thoroughly worked through. So it actually felt very led by [Kane], and [we] could relax and just focus on the emotional journey."

Backrooms releases on May 29. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

In Kane Parsons' upcoming horror movie Backrooms, it's not just the titular space – known to fans of his original viral shorts as 'The Complex' – you have to fear. Though it's definitely the thing that creeped Renate Reinsve out most during production.

"I was a little concerned that I would actually go a little bit insane in there, and that would be good for the character," the Oscar-nominated actor tells GamesRadar+ when we ask how the 30,000 square-foot set impacted her performance. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone that excited when I came on set. [Kane] was just, like, tripping, seeing what he had built on his computer, built around us – and it was truly a scary, eerie place to be. I wouldn't actually go alone anywhere."

In Backrooms, Reinsve plays Dr. Mary Kline, a therapist whose client list includes down-and-out furniture shop owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Since his wife left him, Clark has been sleeping at the store, and one evening, he stumbles across a yellow-wallpapered, seemingly endless dimension. All corners, uncanny-looking household goods, and not-quite-right signage, the only thing keeping him company in there is the buzzing of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Well, that's what he thinks initially, anyway...

Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell round out the supporting cast.

"It's surprisingly existential on a lot of different levels. I think you can read it into a lot of things, the way culture and AI and technology is developing," continues Reinsve, cautiously trying to avoid slipping – or should we say, no-clipping? – into spoiler territory. "There's this extrapolated world, where you don't see an ending to it, that is scary. [But] it's also about the psychology of these characters and how things can get distorted but kind of look the same, and how you sometimes can only make sense of something irrational with something else that is irrational. It has a lot of layers."

Backrooms releases on May 29. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Director of the new Resident Evil movie Zach Cregger has opened up about the mixed reaction to the upcoming movie's first trailer. The movie tells a new story in the zombie universe, taking place parallel to the events of the second game. However, Weapons director Cregger has been clear he doesn't want to bring in game characters to his film.

Speaking in a new interview with Obsession director Curry Barker, Cregger opened up about his new adaptation, admitting that the response to its trailer has surprised him. "I feel great about it," he explained. "I really like the movie a lot. It's been a wild week since the teaser came out to see the divided reaction online."

He added: "There's so many people that clearly really want the video game, meaning the characters and story from the video game, and anything different than that is really not welcomed. I didn't realize how passionate some people were about that."

However, the director went on to say he thinks he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't stick to the games. "If I did that I don't think I'd be creatively fulfilled, and I don't even think they would enjoy it," he added. "If I just did the story of the games, I think the most diehard fans would be bummed. So I don't know what to do about it."

Speaking to us during our set visit last year, Cregger confirmed that it takes place "on the periphery" of the second game. "You know, where Raccoon City is having its big night, but tell just another story that could be happening in parallel to that."

Starring Austin Abrams as a courier on the worst shift of his life, Resident Evil takes place over the course of a night. Abrams' Bryan is tasked with delivering a medical package when he starts encountering some terrifying creatures.

Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. Check out our guide to the other upcoming video game movies to add to your watchlist.

One month after the Longlegs sequel was announced, Nicolas Cage has finally broken his silence on the upcoming horror movie.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cage suggested that he wouldn't want anyone else playing the eccentric serial killer. "I guess you could say I have the pride of ownership of that character," said Cage. "That character is personal to me because I was influenced by my mom – not that my mom was crazy like that, she wasn't satanic, but I don't want someone else playing my mom, so if they're gonna do it, you're doing it with me."

Directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs follows Maika Monroe's troubled FBI Agent who is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case linked to the occult. However, as she gets closer to finding out who the elusive killer is, she begins to uncover personal connections to the case. Cage plays the dollmaker slash serial murderer known as Longlegs, who shook audiences with his striking look and rather odd behaviour.

The horror movie was a huge success and became an overnight social media sensation, striking an impressive 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Perkins, who has since extended his filmography with Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, will return to write and direct Longlegs 2. Despite the first movie being released under Neon in 2024, Paramount is backing the sequel.

Plot details are under wraps, with Cage admitting that he doesn't "know what the story is." According to THR, the "mystery project" isn't being billed as a sequel, but another movie set in the same universe as the first Longlegs.

However, since Cage's killer died in the first movie, it is not clear how the star will return this time around. That being said, the first movie is set around curses and unexplained happenings, so it wouldn't be too surprising if Longlegs were to be brought back from the dead. The sequel could also explore his past and what kick-started his killing spree.

Longlegs 2 is set to hit screens on January 14, 2028. Next up for Cage is Amazon's Spider-Noir series, which will hit MGM+ and Prime Video on May 25 and May 27. For more, check out our guide to the best horror movies, and keep up with upcoming horror movies on the way.

Hideo Kojima has shared his verdict on Return to Silent Hill – and he says a lot with very few words.

"Watched 'Return to Silent Hill' on Amazon Prime," he wrote on Twitter. Ouch.

Kojima is known for his long, poetic reviews for movies he loves, but he never posts a negative review. When he posts shorter, sparser summaries, then, fans immediately assume he hates what he's just seen (by contrast, for example, Kojima's glowing review of Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk clocked in at 219 words).

And he wouldn't be the only one to have a less favorable view of Return to Silent Hill. The movie has a score of only 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, with our own Return to Silent Hill review giving the film 1.5 stars. Our reviewer criticized "a confusing plot, mediocre visual effects, and over-the-top acting" in director Christopher Gan's new take on the franchise.

Loosely based on the 2001 video game Silent Hill 2, Return to Silent Hill stars Jeremy Irvine as James Sunderland. The movie does what it says on the tin, as James returns to the town of Silent Hill after he receives a letter from a former lover. But, when he gets there, he finds that the town is now covered in fog and most of its inhabitants have left or died due to a mysterious disease.

Return to Silent Hill is now available to rent at home. For more, check out our guide to the best upcoming video game movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

Markiplier's Iron Lung adaptation is getting an exclusive YouTube release very soon.

The film stars Markiplier, AKA Mark Fischbach, and it's also written and directed by him. It grossed over $50 million against a $4 million budget.

Markiplier himself announced at a Cannes Film Festival panel moderated by Deadline that Iron Lung will be available for purchase on YouTube on May 31, and it's an exclusive release. That's no surprise, considering Markiplier made his name as a YouTuber. "I'm pretty loyal to it," Markiplier said during the panel.

"It's releasing exclusively on YouTube Movies, because I figured you guys are already here anyway," Markiplier also explained in a YouTube video. "It made the most sense. They were the people that would talk to me, because I don't know how many other companies would've, or even give me a chance at doing something like this."

Iron Lung, adapted from the video game of the same name, stars Markiplier as a man trapped in a submarine, traversing through an ocean of blood.

Markiplier has previously indicated that the movie will be available for physical purchase. "We're still getting the wheels turning for you to get it at home," he said back in February. "The whole translation thing is going to take some doing… But as far as getting it ready and packaged up for a home release, DVD, Blu-ray, and having it be purchasable, that is all underway."

While you wait for Iron Lung, check out our guide to all the upcoming video game adaptations worth getting excited about.

Soon, we will finally see YouTuber Kane Parsons' popular Backrooms universe expand as the A24 horror movie hits the big screen. However, Parsons isn't forgetting how he got here, as the director promises that the feature will respect the web series' lore.

"For where I wanted to go, I have a lot of loyalties to my online fanbase and the people who have already invested in the story," said Parsons in the latest issue of SFX Magazine. "So it was non-negotiable that whatever happened had to be in strict continuity with that."

In 2022, Parsons kick-started his found footage YouTube series titled The Backrooms based on the creepypasta of the same name. Much like the original story posted on 4Chan in 2019, Parsons' series explores the concept of liminal spaces and what happens when people get lost in never-ending rooms that harbour sinister secrets.

The movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, who one day finds a door to a liminal world. But when he starts to explore the wide yellow rooms, he finds out that it's really easy to get lost in the Backrooms. However, just because the concept is heading to the big screen doesn't mean that Parsons is going to spell out what the Backrooms really are or where they came from, which those online have been trying to crack for years.

"It comes down to who is authorised to give answers. I have immense faith in audience members to piece things together contextually," he continues. "I don’t personally believe in true answers. You can describe just about anything in a way that feels like one – and people need that, they appreciate that, they look for it, and they obsess over it. "And, generally speaking, in the Backrooms there’s always been more of a focus on that obsession than on the answers themselves. Not to say there aren’t any."

Parsons is just the latest YouTuber to jump ship. In 2022, Michael Philippou and Danny Philippou seemed to kick off the trend with their movie Talk to Me, and since then, Curry Barker and Markiplier have followed suit. However, as explained by Ejiofor, working with a director who knows the source material inside out, as Parsons does with Backrooms, makes for a completely original filmmaking experience.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Ejiofor said, "I don't know if I've ever worked with somebody who's built the world that they're exploring; who gets every nook and cranny. Who's built that world in such a granular way. From the ground up. It was really exciting to know you're working with somebody who's literally the only person on the planet who knows how to tell this story. It was pretty remarkable."

Backrooms releases on May 29, 2026. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.

With reviews so rave it's earned 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, nerve-shredding horror Obsession is currently the highest rated movie of the year so far. But director Curry Barker isn't relaxing just yet when it comes to its follow-up projects: Anything But Ghosts and a new Texas Chain Saw Massacre flick.

"Even now I'm stepping into bigger shoes than I'm used to. Every movie has kind of been like a step for me," the 26 year old, who made a name for himself making horror-comedy shorts on YouTube, tells GamesRadar+ at our exclusive screening and Q&A. "I really try not to think too much about the pressure of it all, because when I made The Chair or Warnings or whatever, if it sucked, I just probably wouldn't post it. Or I would post it and just be like, 'Well, I didn't get as many views as this one', right?

"But, now, everyone's gonna see this movie, and they're gonna say, 'What's Curry Barker's next movie? What's that like?' There's this new pressure of, like, 'It has to be good'. You really can't focus on that because the moment you do, you'll crush under the pressure. I just try to keep it creative and try to take as many risks as I did back then."

Starring Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston, Obsession combines sinister storylines from The Simpsons and Fairly Odd Parents, as it sees shy guy Bear get more than he bargained for when he wishes his crush liked him back. Megan Lawless and Cooper Tomlinson round out the supporting cast.

Elsewhere in our chat, Barker said he'd love to return to his roots and make an action comedy, though he's quick to insist that he doesn't feel boxed in by horror. "Even if I did an action comedy, it would have so many dark elements to it that people would probably call it a dark comedy," he laughs. "The horror genre is so vast; you could do a Western horror, sci-fi, you could do anything. I would just make it darker anyway."

Obsession releases in cinemas on May 15. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Curry Barker's long-hyped horror Obsession may have not released in theaters yet, but the YouTuber-turned-filmmaker already has big ideas on how to expand on the movie's mythology.

If you're here, you're presumably aware of what goes down in the movie: shy guy Bear (Michael Johnston) wishes on a retro-looking toy that his big-time crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) loves him back. Turns out, the One Wish Willow isn't just a novelty trinket... and Bear quickly comes to regret the flippant, morally questionable request.

Early on in the flick, when Bear buys the One Wish Willow, the store clerk jokes that people who've been buying them have frequently come back to complain. "What? Because it doesn't work?" Bear laughs nervously, to which the assistant replies: "Or, because it did? Ruined their lives... made them wish they were dead..."

"I mean, it's kind of a plothole," chuckles Barker, when we ask him whether he ever pinned down the unseen wishes behind the scenes during GamesRadar+'s exclusive Q&A. "It's something I don't like to think about too much, because it totally doesn't make sense. If there's a world of people just making wishes, it really doesn't make any sense at all.

"If the One Wish Willow actually works, which it does in this lore, and people are just making wishes left and right, there would be some crazy… like, dragons would exist, right? There's none of that. The world is pretty normal from what we see in this movie. So it doesn't really make sense. I try not to [think about it], but no one ever says that. Now you said it..."

Barker goes on to say that he suggest that "every time someone makes a wish, they enter into an alternate reality." With that, no one experiences anyone else's wishes but their own. For spoiler-heavy reasons we won't go into here, though, he quickly shuts down his own theory: "Yeah, it's broken!"

"But no, obviously I have a couple more things that I'm excited about next, but I do see Obsession 2 maybe, or even… What really is exciting to me [would be doing] an anthology, like a one-hour episode. Each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails. Maybe I'll direct the pilot with the same DP, and then you could invite other filmmakers to give their spin at it. That would be really cool."

We agree, very Twilight Zone-esque. It'd be especially neat if he does a Ryan Murphy or Mike Flanagan, too, and brings back Johnston and Navarrette to play different characters in said premiere. "I would love to work with Curry [again]," Navarrette tells us in a separate interview. "As we grow and as he grows, I would like to see how things evolve and how he finds his pockets and rhythm. I think that would be super cool, because we already got the opportunity to see the beginning. It'd be super cool to work with him [again] down the line."

Obsession releases on May 15. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

"Every video we did was helping us build up to making a film," the Philippou brothers said in an interview with GamesRadar+ back in 2022. The duo was just about to burst onto the big screen with buzzy Aussie horror Talk to Me, having previously made a name for themselves via their stunt-heavy YouTube channel therackaracka – and in the four years since, a whole bunch of content creators have followed in their footsteps.

2026 has already seen big box office success for game vlogger Mark 'Markiplier' Fischbach's self-funded Iron Lung adaptation. Now May is set to mark the release of both Curry Barker's Obsession, which sparked a fierce bidding war between Focus Features and A24 at TIFF last year, and Kane Parsons' Backrooms. Far beyond that, there's Dylan Clark's Portrait of God movie, a sci-fi thriller from Together's Michael Shanks, and Sam Evenson's Mora, as well as a Talk to Me sequel to look forward to. The new wave of horror filmmaking talent is here, and they were raised on creepypasta.

"We all had the same cultural references," actor Inde Navarrette smiles, reminiscing about Obsession's high-energy crew. "Our version of horror was similar, and we all had a lot to prove. [Curry] knew what he wanted but, at the same time, he allowed us this freedom. Since he comes from a comedy background, he knows how much fun improv can be. It was just phenomenal working with somebody who let us breathe but also gave us structure. It was a really good balance."

Outside of their low-budget savvy (Barker wrote Obsession as a film he could still make with his buddies if the studio's greenlight fell through) and established fanbases, it's no wonder YouTubers are catching the eyes of Hollywood executives; it's clear they're tapping into what modern audiences want. The most widely accessed video streaming app in the US, the platform generated over $60 billion in revenue in 2025, largely through ads and new sign-ups to YouTube Premium. In comparison, Netflix made $45 billion while the global box office is estimated to have pulled in $33.5 billion, a 12% increase over the previous 12 months.

According to Hanna Kahlert, a senior analyst at Midia Research (via BBC), YouTube is "one of – if not the – most-used of all digital offerings, with over 70% of international consumers using it weekly, and over 50% using it daily." These vloggers are well-versed in high-volume, high-speed production. Combine that with the knowledge that Gen Z is the most active theatergoing generation, as pointed out by a 2026 Fandango survey, and that 91% of that group engages with YouTube, and the crossover potential is stronger than M3GAN vs. Chucky.

"It seems to be an attempt of people from one branch of the entertainment industry sort of capitalizing on another branch, without bringing them together quite as fully as they were in the comic book movie boom, says University of Bristol lecturer Dr. Pete Falconer. "But who knows, in a few years' time, maybe something similar will have happened."

Fresh frights

Huge financial gains don't seem to be the only appeal for studios, though – and it's not like it's guaranteed anyway. Talk to Me, which cost around $4.5 million to make, may have racked up $92 million worldwide, but other horror titles made by YouTubers haven't been so fiscally successful. Together bagged Neon $34.5m, despite being fronted by A-listers Dave Franco and Alison Brie, while Chris Stuckmann's Shelby Oaks made $8.1m. (For reference, big-budget sequel The Conjuring: Last Rites earned almost $500m).

A profit is still a profit, however, and horror is notably one of the most reliable, least expensive genres to produce films in. While Focus Features acquired distribution rights for $15m and spent a small fortune on its marketing, Obsession was brought to the big screen for just $1m. As it stands, it's tracking a $7-10m debut, with Backrooms projected to pull in double that from a $10m budget.

Numbers aside, horror titans Jason Blum, who executive produced Obsession, and James Wan and Osgood Perkins, who backed Backrooms, seem genuinely eager to boost the careers of those finding fresh ways to send shivers up people's spines. Starring Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston, the former movie centers shy guy Baron 'Bear' Bailey, who wishes that his crush Nikki "loved him more than anyone in the entire f***ing world"... and soon comes to regret it.

It's a genuinely nerve-shredding flick that flirts with themes of consent, identity loss and weaponised affection, and is packed full of eerie sound design and uncanny visuals.

"I'm always chasing uncomfortability," says Barker, who wrote, directed, and edited the film, when we ask how he honed his unique sense of scary. "To me, the modern jump scare is three or four moments where I can make the audience go, 'That was weird. I didn't like that. I don't want to see that.' I kind of discovered my voice through [short films] The Chair and Warnings, and even Milk & Serial – and my bread and butter is making you feel weird. That feeling of unease when something is just slightly off? That really excites me."

Hear from Backrooms' Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve on working with Kane Parsons:

Parsons' Backrooms, which is based on his viral series of shorts, is a similarly strange affair. It follows Chiwetel Ejiofor's furniture store owner Clark, who's struggling to make ends meet. One evening, self-destructive Clark stumbles on a yellow-wallpapered, eerily infinite space connected to the shop. Reinvigorated by the discovery, he embroils his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), in his frantic, and sometimes bloody, search to find out all he can about the titular dimension.

"You want a director to deeply understand the world they're exploring," Ejiofor notes. "[It] makes the difference in a project – and I don't know if I've ever worked with somebody who's built the world that they're exploring; who gets every nook and cranny. Who's built that world in such a granular way, you know? From the ground up. It was really exciting to know you're working with somebody who's literally the only person on the planet who knows how to tell this story. It was pretty remarkable."

Community vibes

It may seem surprising that many YouTubers, even the ones who started out in comedy, have graduated to cinematic horror movies, but it's worth remembering that a key corner of the platform was founded on spooking people. Videos that build to a jumpscare, otherwise known as 'screamers', were an early trend on the site before giving way to arguably the most popular type of upload: the reaction video.

Initially, there'd be reaction videos of people being subjected to screamers, which were played for fright-laced laughs. Later, subscribers would regularly tune in to see what their favorite internet personalities thought of the latest trailers or plot twists in Game of Thrones – and well, it's no secret that horror movies spark the most visceral of reactions. "My screen time has been exponential these past couple of weeks because I just love seeing people reacting to it," Fischbach told BBC Newsbeat, when asked what he made of the reception to his directorial debut, Iron Lung.

Horrors tend to be the films that people most want to watch collectively, too, so it's not that bizarre of a transition; YouTube is all about community, after all.

For Parsons and Barker, specifically, creative control doesn't come at the expense of collaboration. "We all gave 110%... you know, working really late. Curry had such a playful energy on set," says Johnston, who plays Obsession's Bear. "The film is so heavy but behind the scenes, everything was so chill and fun. It just gave us that extra boost that we needed to push ourselves."

As Navarrette points out, a lot of the movie's crew were made up of Barker's pals, all of whom were under 30 years old. It also co-stars Cooper Tomlinson, who launched YouTube channel That's A Bad Idea with Barker in 2018. "Cooper grounds me," says Barker, "because it was a little intimidating at first. I remember the first day, the set designers were putting wallpaper on the wall. They were putting picture frames up. Then I go downstairs to the camera department, and they're putting together all these monitors. And I'm just like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm in charge of this whole thing? This is crazy'. But then it's like, 'Oh, this is the guy I do stuff online with,' you know? Then it's so normal for me. You're just constantly reminding yourself you've been doing this for a while."

As A24's youngest-ever director at just 20 years old, Parsons is a little less experienced, so he was keen to soak up as many tips as he could during production. "[Kane] was so humble. At the end of every day, he would ask, 'What could I do better?'" Reinsve recalls. "Because it was his first time directing actors, and I heard him ask that to everyone on set. So he was a great leader in pulling us through his specific world and his vision, and also very [acknowledging] of being in the process of learning how to make a movie. It was very inspiring to watch."

Attention to retention

In our 2022 chat with Danny and Michael Philippou, the duo remembered sweating in the edit room when Talk to Me's runtime started creeping over the hour-and-a-half mark. "I think we do still have that YouTube mentality. The film only runs for 89 minutes... 94 minutes with credits, ha! We cut 20 minutes out." They got braver with their follow-up, Bring Her Back, which comes in at 104 minutes, but it's evident they're not in the business of crafting bladder testers like Midsommar or The Substance, which clock in at close to two-and-a-half hours each. Barker admits to feeling the same pressures and how content creation made him hyper aware of attention span drop-offs. When you're not competing against a plethora of thumbnails and someone's actually sat down with popcorn to watch your movie, though, he likes to believe you can let your movie "breathe" a little bit.

Almost in response to all the schlocky remakes – The Ring, House of Wax, and The Hills Have Eyes to name a few – that permeated the 2000s, the horror genre saw an uptick in more serious, slow-burn or socially satirical offerings in the 2010s. Think Get Out, The Witch, and Hereditary.

Perhaps it's less that YouTubers are reinventing horror, then, but rather reacquainting the genre with the delights of the fast-paced thrillride. "There is an appetite for shorter, punchier, less self-important movies, but I'd argue that that appetite has remained within the fandom fairly consistently," says University of Bristol lecturer Dr. Pete Falconer. Some horror fans, myself included, have been turned off by the kind of pretensions of elevation. There's stuff to be said for a lot of 'elevated' horror movies. But the term itself is kind of offensive to the genre, and the 90-minute genre movie remains, I think, the ideal."

Maybe there'll come a day when content creators aren't reliant on studios to fund their flicks. Fischbach, whose YouTube channel has over 38.6 million followers, coughed up the $3m Iron Lung cost to make personally – and despite its mixed reviews, it managed to make $51.2m.

"It is a win for YouTubers because it's like, the more that this happens, the more normalised it becomes," he proposed to Newsbeat in February.

For now, though, it seems like the majority of YouTubers-turned-horror filmmakers are opting for a more traditional pipeline. Parsons has teased Backrooms follow-ups, while Barker has just inked a first-look deal with Blumhouse and is writing a new Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie.

"What's interesting to me is that my journey doesn't feel that different [from] David Fincher or Steven Spielberg's," Barker tells GamesRadar+ with a grin. "The only difference is that I used YouTube as a platform that helped spread [my work], right? So what I think it really comes down to is YouTube [being] a really helpful tool to get your work out there. We're lucky enough to have that in our day and age." We'll like and subscribe to that sentiment.

Obsession releases on May 15, while Backrooms lands in theaters on May 29. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Curry Barker isn't a fan of conventional jumpscares. The director of upcoming horror Obsession, which is already being hailed as one of 2026's best movies, is so against them in fact that he's trying to invent whole new ways to send shivers up cinemagoers' spines.

"[This is] not something that people say, I'm just making this up, but I have kind of my own modern jump scare that I try to pursue – but it's not a jump scare at all. It's just, like, my version of a jump scare is," Barker tells GamesRadar+. "It's like, if you have two or three, even four, moments in your movie where you can make the audience go, 'Oh, I didn't like that. That was weird. That made me feel… To me, that's a modern jump scare."

Starring Michael Johnston, Megan Lawless, Inde Navarrette, and Barker's longtime collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, Obsession follows shy guy Baron 'Bear' Bailey, who wishes on a retro toy that his crush Nikki liked him back. Or, more accurately, "loved him more than anyone in the entire f***ing world"... and quickly comes to regret it.

Bear's dream quickly turns into a nightmare as Nikki's new unrelenting devotion not only threatens to ruin his life but those of everyone around him, too.

It's a genuinely nerve-shredding flick that's packed full of uncanny visuals and strange sounds – and feels like it has the potential to usher in a new kind of genre flick. If you've watched any of Barker and Tomlinson's short films over on their YouTube channel That's A Bad Idea, especially The Chair or Warnings, you'll already have an idea as to the kind of chills to expect.

"Jump scares can be kind of predictable, and sometimes unearned, you know?" Barker continues. "Someone opens a closet and a ball falls out but because the music is loud, it's supposed to be a jump scare? A modern audience kind of rolls their eyes [at that], right? I mean, I do. I can only speak for myself, but I'm a huge audience for horror, so I try to ask myself, 'How would I react?' If I don't think it would be good, then I wouldn't put it in my movie.

"You won't see it coming," he grins. "Because what's the point of a jump scare you can see coming, right? My job is to trick you, and that comes from comedy. Tricking someone is kind of how you make someone laugh. You make them think that something's going one way, and then if you surprise them, you'll usually get a laugh."

Obsession releases on May 15. While we wait, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Upcoming horror spin-off Insidious: Out of the Further is set to introduce a new villain to the long-running franchise, star Lin Shaye has revealed.

The demon, named Cyrus, will be brought to life by A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms actor Sam Spruell on the big screen – and unlike the dialogue-less Red Face Demon that terrorized Dalton and the rest of the Lambert family in earlier movies, he's "disarmingly funny" and "sort of like Dracula."

Fear not though, genre fans, frights are still in abundance. "[He] was truly scary," Shaye told Entertainment Weekly, as she recalled seeing Spruell in costume for the first time. "When I met him on the street, I had a visceral response, which was crazy. So it's a whole new catalog of people and ideas."

"There's this enfolding and this bigness. I did say to [Spruell] it feels like Shakespeare," she continued. "It feels very otherworldly, bigger than life, but very rooted in reality. I think that's a perfect combination for an antagonist who is gonna be really awful."

Directed by Come Play's Jacob Chase, Insidious: Out of the Further follows Gemma (The Haunting of Bly Manor's Amelia Eve), a single mother who discovers she can bring lost souls dwelling in the titular realm back into the real world. Her unusual and unwanted gift catches the attention of Cyrus, who uses it to blur the lines between dimensions.

Shaye reprises her role as medium-turned-spirit guide Elise Rainier in the movie, honoring the tradition of her appearing in every installment despite Elise being killed in the 2010 original. Island Austin, Laura Gordon, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers (DC's Legends of Tomorrow) round out the supporting cast.

Insidious: Out of the Further releases on August 21. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Legendary director James Cameron is eager to revisit and re-release Aliens in 3D.

"We are thinking about converting Aliens [to 3D], because I know now that the tools are so much better than they were for creating depth maps," Cameron told Letterboxd. "We're probably going to wind up converting Aliens, which will be a fun experience."

Speaking on the film's longevity, a sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, and Lance Henriksen, Cameron said, "That film seems to be evergreen. People still go back to it a lot. If people remember a movie that I did 38 years ago, I think I've already won [an] argument."

Cameron has been one of the leading figures in 3D cinema, most notably helping pioneer and popularize the format to a global audience with his work on 2009's Avatar and the subsequent sequels.

The director has also dipped into his back catalogue in the past for 3D re-releases of classics Titanic and Terminator 2, but there's no set timeline yet for when Aliens – an action-heavy masterpiece – might roar into cinemas.

Alien fans can rest easy that, even if we don't get an Aliens 3D release, there's plenty of xenomorphs still nestling in the shadows.

An Alien: Isolation sequel is in the works from developers Creative Assembly, with a new tease being released as recently as last week. Alien: Earth season 2 has been greenlit, while a sequel to Alien: Romulus is on the way, too.

For more, check out the new horror movies getting ready to scare you silly very soon.

The full Evil Dead Burn trailer is here – and it looks to confirm a major crossover with Evil Dead Rise.

After the teaser caught horror fans' attention with its nod to Ash vs. Evil Dead, the 2-minute redband promo features a more explicit link to the wider franchise, with several shots of a deadite that looks exactly like Jessica, the ill-fated vacationer from the start of the previous movie. Check it out below...

If the bloody, drenched summer dress wasn't enough to convince us it's the same character, the lakeside setting of her scenes makes it pretty undeniable. What's more, New Zealand-based actress Greta van den Brink appears in the cast list for Evil Dead Burn and, well, she was a stunt double for Jessica in Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise. In short, all signs point to the latest flick being the first non-standalone film in the series since Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness in 1992.

While the red band trailer sees Jessica terrorize a man on a boat, the less gruesome green band version sees her cause the car accident that kills protagonist Alice's husband Will (George Pullar).

Directed by Sébastien Vaniček (Infested), Evil Dead Burn follows Alice (Souheila Yacoub), as she visits her in-laws in the wake of Will's death. The family reunion takes a hellish turn, though, when they start getting possessed by violence-loving demons. Tandi Wright, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, and Wednesday's Hunter Doohan round out the supporting cast.

Jessica's not the only reference to previous chapters, either. If you keep your eyes peeled when Alice is rifling through the Necronomicon in the trailers, you'll see a news article headlined, "Four bodies found in cabin fire", which is sure to mean Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), and David (Shiloh Fernandez) from Fede Álvarez's Evil Dead.

Evil Dead Burn releases on July 10. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

If you have questions about Resident Evil lore, you ask TheBatman – a mega-fan who once put together a 2700-page document all about the canon timeline of the Capcom horror series (H/T Eurogamer).

The series' unofficial loremaster, though, is preaching patience for those concerned about the timeline and conflicting canon of Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie.

Already, there has been controversy over Resident Evil being set parallel to the game events of Resident Evil 2, despite there being snow and smartphones in Raccoon City.

Speaking to IGN, TheBatman commented, "To be fair to Zach Cregger, he admitted early on that his movie would not abide to the strict storyline or canon to the games and the trailer certainly reinforces that. It is evident his focus is on recreating the feeling of being in a Resident Evil game or playing one for the first time rather than adapting any storyline… I think this is going to be largely unrelated to any of the games."

They added, "I would urge people not to get riled up about 'canon' and just enjoy the ride."

Resident Evil follows Austin Abrams' Bryan through, as the first trailer shows, a mad dash across a Raccoon City populated by the undead. Those nasties even include creatures pulled from the controversial Resident Evil 6, often derided by fans as the weakest mainline entry in the series.

"You'll see a lot of Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 6," production designer Tom Hammock says during a set visit attended by GamesRadar+. "So Zach and I went through and pulled specific creature elements that we like from the games, whether it's tentacles, the teeth integration, and then tried to take that language and move it over to these creatures."

Resident Evil hits cinemas on September 18. For more, check out our list of upcoming video game movies.

Zach Cregger has revealed Resident Evil will be "structurally unique" – and now I'm super intrigued by his gun-upgrade comments.

In a resurfaced Screen Rant interview, the filmmaker promises his take will be "weird" and that fans have "never seen a movie like what we're going to do" with it. "I've never seen the [existing adaptations], so maybe I'm wrong, and [they] do this, but I don't think so," he continues. "It's more like I'm obsessed with the game and wanted to give the experience I have with playing these games to the big screen. That's the goal, and I think we're gonna do that."

Given his previous horror hit Weapons, which explored the different perspectives' of various different characters within the same story, it's hardly surprising to learn that Resident Evil will play fast and loose when it comes to chronology. What's curious, though, is how that'll work as Austin Abrams' lead Bryan arms himself against virus-infected enemies.

"A lot of the references to the games, if you don't know them, they're just gonna go right over your head," Cregger told GamesRadar+ during our set visit last year. "The pacing of the games is very much in the movie. But if you don't know the games, that's not going to penetrate; you won't realize it... and the graduation of guns. You start with a pistol, you graduate to a shotgun, and then by the end, he's holding a machine gun. All the gamers are going to understand exactly what's happening, but if you've never played it just won't register."

Weapons built to a satisfying conclusion, as Julia Garner's Justine and Josh Brolin's Archer closed in on witchy antagonist Gladys (Amy Madigan), so I'm choosing to trust Cregger for now. But I'm admittedly a little dubious as to how the concept of steady progression will land in a non-linear story...

Also starring Paul Walter Hauser, Severance's Zach Cherry, and True Detective: Night Country's Kali Reis, Resident Evil releases on September 18. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

The Resident Evil movie has dropped its first trailer, and it teases a spooky ride that, according to director Zach Cregger, is set alongside Resident Evil 2.

But, some fans of the horror game aren't so sure, and are questioning if the film is going to be a major departure from the game lore. "So this is supposed to be Raccoon City during RE2 and RE3? Then why the fuck is it snowing?" questioned one fan – Resident Evil 2 takes place on one night in September, while Resident Evil 3 takes place just after that game finishes on October 1. Snow in September and October is fairly unseasonal.

Then, that same fan spotted another detail that raises questions, "Okay so I was vibing with the trailer, but saying its set in Raccoon City during RE2 where there's this shot of the protag with a smartphone flashlight already has me questioning how much it's DRASTICALLY deviated from the OG lore," they wrote. Resident Evil 2 takes place in 1998, so long before the smartphone era.

"Resident Evil 2 is set in September 1998. Aside from looking super modern (he has a smartphone at some point). It wasn't snowing in Raccoon City. There are mutations of the virus that are completely made up. It just feels like a zombie movie they decided to add Resident Evil to the title as an afterthought," says another fan.

"I think my only legitimate gripe with the Resident Evil movie is that it takes place in tandem with the events of RE2 (which is in '98) and he has a smartphone," says someone else. "I wish they kept it of the time and not made it a modern timeline."

"Seriously though why does that new Resident Evil movie have a very modern iPhone 15/16 Pro in it, feels extremely out of place for something that's supposed to take place during the events of Resident Evil 2 (according to the director)," thinks another person.

But, many fans are also taking a stance against nit-picking. "Resident Evil is a franchise where you have to put a diamond into the eyes sockets of a statue to get a key to open the door of a police station, and your suspension of disbelief is ruined because it's snowing?" points out one person.

In a recent interview, Cregger told us that the story takes place "on the periphery" of the second game. "You know, where Raccoon City is having its big night, but tell just another story that could be happening in parallel to that."

My guess is just that the timeline has been shifted ever so slightly, which shouldn't be a huge issue. Cregger has already said he won't be sticking exactly to the canon, after all. "I am a gigantic Resident Evil game fan. I've played them all. I don't know how many times I've just looped [RE4] again and again. I just love it. I'm definitely not trying to be completely obedient to the lore of the games," he shared.

The Resident Evil movie arrives this September 18. While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming video game adaptations coming soon.

Although Adam Scott's most recent contribution to pop culture is his excellent turn as grieving widower Mark Scout and his cheery workplace counterpart Mark S. in sci-fi thriller Severance, he's best known for his comedy work.

His resume includes playing former child mayor Ben in sitcom Parks and Recreations and movies like Step Brothers or Hot Tub Time Machine 2, but now he turns his sights to horror in creepy new flick Hokum. He plays an author who travels to Ireland to spread his parents' ashes, but realizes the place he's staying in might be haunted. This isn't Scott's first foray into the supernatural, either, and it got us wondering – what is it that makes comic actors and filmmakers cross the line into horror? Scott isn't the only one, and plenty of A-listers who cut their teeth on laughs have turned to screams as their careers progressed.

Both genres are built on tension, pay-off, and audience reactions, so they're not as dissimilar as they might appear on the surface. So, in light of Hokum's release, we've picked out five other horror flicks with comedy stars involved, whether that's in front of or behind the camera.

Obsession

Hokum isn't the only new horror release with a comedy star at the helm. Director Curry Barker made a name for himself doing sketch comedy on YouTube, but his sophomore feature follows a man who bites off more than he can chew when he wishes for his childhood crush to fall in love with him.

That's not the only comedy link, either – Andy Richter, best known for his work with Conan O'Brien, also has a supporting role in the film. You'll have to wait a little longer to find out how things go down in this one, though, as Obsession doesn't hit theaters until May 15.

Together

Dave Franco and Alison Brie are best known for their work in comedies like 21 Jump Street and Community, but their comic chops translate perfectly to outlandish body horror Together. The IRL married couple play Tim and Millie, two 30-somethings in a stagnant relationship who find themselves drawn closer together (literally) by mysterious forces lurking outside their new rural home.

"My first foray into being more physical did start with physical comedy, and then I realized how much I love involving my body in my work and I've basically just amped it up ever since," Brie told GamesRadar+. "In comedy and horror, there's no place for vanity."

The Blackcoat's Daughter

Sure, you've seen Longlegs, but have you seen Osgood Perkins' directorial debut? Despite being descended from Psycho star Anthony Perkins, 2015's The Blackcoat's Daughter was his first foray into the genre after starting his career in comedy with roles in Legally Blonde and Not Another Teen Movie.

Starring scream queens Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka, The Blackcoat's Daughter follows a troubled woman as she travels to an isolated school where two students are stranded and facing a sinister and mysterious force.

Barbarian

This is a similar deal to The Blackcoat's Daughter – you've almost definitely seen Weapons already, but did you catch Zach Cregger's directorial debut when it hit theaters back in 2022? Like Perkins, this was Cregger's first foray into horror after co-writing and co-directing the 2009 sex comedy Miss March with Trevor Moore, a fellow member of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U' Know.

In Barbarian, Tess checks into an Airbnb the night before a job interview in a new city only to find that the property has been double booked. Her fellow guest turns out to be the least of her troubles, however, when she uncovers some horrifying secrets in the basement of the house.

I Saw the TV Glow

This one is another supporting turn. Jane Schoenbrun's heart-rending psychological horror I Saw the TV Glow also has a sense of humor, which comes in the form of a final act Conner O'Malley jumpscare. The film follows Justice Smith's Owen, an isolated and scared kid as he journeys through life and tries to come to terms with his queerness and gender through his favorite TV show, The Pink Opaque, and his best friend Maddy. When Maddy disappears and just as suddenly reappears, several years later, Owen is left to question everything he knows to be true.

As the movie progresses into Owen's adulthood, he finds work at a family arcade, where his boss Dave is played by O'Malley. He's known for his satirical, surreal comedy, in which he often plays aggressive, outlandish characters. It's a shock to the senses in I Saw the TV Glow's final act, but one that works incredibly well.

Hokum is out now in theaters. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.

The new Resident Evil movie will take inspiration from one of the video game franchise's more controversial installments: Resident Evil 6.

"You'll see a lot of Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 6," production designer Tom Hammock says during a set visit attended by GamesRadar+. "So Zach [Cregger, director] and I went through and pulled specific creature elements that we like from the games, whether it's tentacles, the teeth integration, and then tried to take that language and move it over to these creatures."

"I spent a lot of time in medical research libraries, so everything comes from nature," he adds. "But we also went as far as diseases. I used to work as a virologist long ago, so just having access to medical libraries gave us a really grounded starting point for all the creatures. And then you try to mix that with, you know, the insanity."

Released in 2005 and 2012, respectively, the fourth game is widely considered a classic (and was remade only a few years back), but the sixth installment was a more controversial entry in the franchise (GamesRadar+'s own Resident Evil 6 review criticized the game's "mostly terrible boss battles" and "nearly nonstop quick-time events").

The game was a maximalist effort that contains four different storylines, so there's plenty to wrap your head around in the creature department. Based on what GamesRadar+ saw on the movie's set, creature FX designers Legacy Effects seemed to be cooking up some messed-up monsters that could be drawing from the HAOS and Ogroman. Still, we'll have to wait until the movie hits the big screen to get a proper idea of just how it takes inspiration from Resident Evil 6.

As for Resident Evil 4, Cregger has already pointed out a subtle nod to that game that eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed in the first Resident Evil trailer. "I took the green herb from Resident Evil 4 and replicated the bucket exactly… which is probably the game I've played most out of the series," he said.

Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. In the meantime, check out our list of the other best upcoming video game movies.

Think Resident Evil and you probably think of one or two things: either the body horror nasties that populate the sewers, prisons, and basements of Raccoon City, or the desperate search for herbs, ammo, and ink ribbons in a bid to survive.

While there's been plenty of discourse about how authentically Resident Evil Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie actually is, the director has more than proven he knows his stuff by pointing out a couple of fascinating details you may have missed in the new trailer.

In one moment, Austin Abrams' Bryan is frantically searching for resources in a house – all while being hunted by the undead.

For Resi fans, it's a moment that perfectly captures the spirit of the games (personally, I'm still reeling from creeping through the hospital with Grace as Requiem while Chunk prowls the corridors). Cregger, though, knows that cuts deep with players.

"One of the things that is so integral to playing Resident Evil is you're constantly searching for healing items and ammunition, right?" Cregger said to IGN. "That's what he's doing in these scenes where he's going through the drawers: he's found a shotgun; he's got no shells, he's gotta find the shells. He's gotta comb this house for vital bits of ammunition. You can't do a proper love letter to the games without that."

But if you're still on the fence about whether Cregger is the right person for the job, the fact he somehow snuck in an impossibly deep cut Resident Evil 4 Easter egg and placed it into the movie speaks volumes about his passion for the franchise.

"I took the green herb from Resident Evil 4 and replicated the bucket exactly… which is probably the game I've played most out of the series."

For more, we have the intel from our Resident Evil movie set visit, as well as confirmation from Cregger himself that the Nemesis won't be popping up in his movie.

Nobody could have quite predicted the cultural impact of Weapons' red-haired antagonist Aunt Gladys, which culminated in an Oscar win for actor Amy Madigan – least of all Zach Cregger. With a new horror movie on the way, this time an adaptation of the Resident Evil video games, does the director think lightning could strike twice?

"That was kind of an amazing moment with Amy and I think we were all surprised at how much it resonated with people," Cregger says in an interview attended by GamesRadar+. On top of an Academy Award win, Gladys spawned many, many Halloween costumes, memes, and Oscars host Conan O'Brien even dressed up as her for the show's opening skit (and, most prestigious of all, GamesRadar+ named her our villain of the year for 2025.

"I think I would be deluding myself if I thought that was something I'd be able to just recreate at will," he continues. "So who's to say? But there are some very unique adversaries in this [movie] that I think are really fun and that people haven't seen before, that still kind of belong in the world of the games. They're going to fit in. They're not going to break the lore of Resident Evil. But I also think that they're new.

"And so I'm excited to see how people respond to those, but I think that Austin [Abrams] is going to be what people really, really resonate with. Because, for me, what's so fun about this movie is that the character that Austin's playing is very much like an avatar for me, and how I would behave and how I would respond if I was dropped into a Resident Evil game. I am not a badass at all. I don't know how to use guns very well. I miss 99% of the shots I take, and I would be running in terror and cussing my face off at every encounter. And I think it's going to be really fun to be following somebody through this gauntlet that is not, like, SEAL Team Six-level prepared, you know. And so I think that's going to be something that hopefully people will really get a kick out of."

Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier and original character who finds himself swept up in the chaos of Raccoon City during a job gone wrong. "I never wanted to tell the story of any of the characters from the games," Cregger tells us.

"I figure if I am honoring the games, I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing in the world of the game, but I'm not stepping on the toes of any of Leon's storyline. I'm not recasting Leon, god forbid. You know, I'm letting Leon stay Leon. And I feel like that's the most respectful thing I could do."

The Resident Evil movie arrives in theaters on September 18. While we wait, check out our guide to all the other upcoming video game movies on the way.

Zach Cregger may have revealed that his new Resident Evil movie takes place "on the periphery" of Resident Evil 2, but don't expect a familiar big bad to show up.

"My favorite [creature in the movie] is kind of the big baddie that sort of evolves and changes and follows [Austin Abrams' Bryan] over the course of the movie," Cregger says in an interview attended by GamesRadar+. "And I don't want to say too much about it, but it's not a Nemesis. So I know people are going to read this and be like, 'He's putting a Nemesis in there.' No, there's no Nemesis."

The film, which tells an original story centering new character Bryan, is set in the same timeline as the second game in the video game franchise. "You know, where Raccoon City is having its big night, but [we're telling] just another story that could be happening in parallel to that," he explains.

That story entails medical courier Bryan biting off more than he can chew when a fateful job takes him into the heart of zombie-infested Raccoon City.

Of course, the Nemesis appears in Resident Evil 3 rather than 2 but, as that game takes place concurrently with the second installment, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to wonder if the Tyrant might feature in this movie too.

The Nemesis, used as a trench coat-wearing weapon by the Umbrella Corporation, is highly intelligent and stalks the player through the game, and has become somewhat of a fan-favorite villain over the years.

Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. While we wait, get up to speed with our guide to all the other upcoming video game movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

Resident Evil is returning to our screens later this year with a new reboot from the mind of Weapons director (and Resi superfan) Zach Cregger. However, while this will be the eighth movie in the franchise, it acts as a new start for the game on the big screen. This means it won't be linked to Paul W.S. Anderson's movies nor the panned 2021 film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Instead, Cregger's version tells an original, fresh story set in the game universe.

Don't expect to see Resident Evil legend Leon S. Kennedy then, as this version introduces new characters to the franchise. Weapons star Austin Abrams leads the cast as a previously unseen hospital courier, and is joined by Paul Walter Hauser and Zach Cherry in the mysterious new story. So for everything we know about who they're playing – as well as what the new trailer reveals – we've compiled a comprehensive guide to the Resident Evil movie below.

This features details on the cast and plot news, as well as when exactly the movie will hit our screens. We've also got a whole load of exclusive insight from Cregger himself from our set visit last year to help you get up to speed. Read on for all the zombie-filled fun – and while you're at it, check out our guide to the best Resident Evil games.

Resident Evil movie release date

Resident Evil will be released in theaters on September 18, 2026.

Zach Cregger first got involved in the movie in 2024, signing on as a co-writer and director with casting happening that summer. Filming on the movie took place in Prague in October 2025 with post-production in full flow by early 2026, making it a pretty quick turnaround to its release later this year.

Resident Evil movie cast

The Resident Evil movie cast has been confirmed, but don't expect any familiar characters to appear. The film tells an original story in the franchise meaning we won't be getting Resi legends like Leon or Jill Valentine on screen, despite being key figures in the games.

"Leon exists in the games. I don't want anyone to ruin that for me," Cregger explained to GamesRadar+. "I figure if I am honoring the games, I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing in the world of the game, but I'm not stepping on the toes of any of Leon's storyline. I'm not recasting Leon, god forbid. You know, I'm letting Leon stay Leon."

Instead, the movie features a cast list of relatively well-known actors, including Weapons breakout Austin Abrams in the lead role. Check out the full list below.

• Austin Abrams – Bryan, a medical courier
• Zach Cherry – Dave, a scientist
• Kali Reis – Pauline, an ex-military character
• Paul Walter Hauser – Carl
• Johnno Wilson – Max

Resident Evil movie plot

The Resident Evil movie follows Bryan (played by Austin Abrams) who is a hapless medical courier tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital in Racoon City. However, he soon encounters more than he bargained for when he gets trapped in the snowy mountains en route to the medical center amid a terrifying outbreak. The story follows him as he attempts to survive the night as zombies close in from all around.

Although it is an original story, Cregger has confirmed when it takes place in the game's timeline. Speaking to GamesRadar+ on our set visit in 2025, he explained that the story sits "on the periphery" of the second game. "You know, where Raccoon City is having its big night, but tell just another story that could be happening in parallel to that," he said.

It seems like the movie will also feature a whole load of references for fans of the Resident Evil games too as Cregger is a massive fan of the franchise. "A lot of the references to the games, if you don't know them, they're just gonna go right over your head, and they're not gonna waste your time," he promised when we quizzed him on what would be included.

Is there a Resident Evil movie trailer?

Yes, the first trailer for the Resident Evil movie has been released, and you can watch it above. The snow-filled teaser introduces Austin Abrams' Bryan as a courier tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. It begins with the character arriving at a house in search of a phone after landing himself in a "seriously messed up situation".

However, things soon start going wrong as we see him encounter a moving corpse, bloated bodies in a sewer, and a whole load of disembodied limbs moving of their own accord. It certainly seems like Cregger's horror won't be skimping on zombie scares…

We expect a few more trailers will be released in the coming months ahead of the film's release in September. We'll keep you posted when these drop as we break down what exactly they reveal, too.

For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way and our round-up of all the upcoming video game movies in the works.

GamesRadar+'s visit to the set of the Resident Evil movie does not quite go to plan. Just after we arrive at the cavernous Jordan Studios on the outskirts of Prague on a cloudy December afternoon, everyone else starts to leave. Director Zach Cregger is unwell, and filming has been shut down for the day. Instead of housing its usual hive of activity, the sound stages are abandoned, and I'm tempted to call out, "Hello? Is anyone there?", final girl-style, as I embark on an eerily quiet walk through the deserted warehouse from the press tent to the bathrooms. Here be zombies, after all.

In Cregger's new take on the survival horror franchise, rather than video game mainstays Leon S. Kennedy or Chris Redfield, it's Bryan who takes on the undead. He's a hospital courier on a job from hell, as he encounters horrors even worse than the gig economy over the course of one fateful night. Played by Weapons breakout Austin Abrams, Bryan is an original character with no link to the Resident Evil games. "I never wanted to tell the story of any of the characters from the games," Cregger tells us over Zoom a few months later.

"Leon exists in the games. I don't want anyone to ruin that for me," he continues. "I don't think that me telling a story that's not about Leon is a violation of the Resident Evil world, because the games do that all the time. Leon's not in 7 or 8. So I figure if I am honoring the games, I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing in the world of the game, but I'm not stepping on the toes of any of Leon's storyline. I'm not recasting Leon, god forbid. You know, I'm letting Leon stay Leon. And I feel like that's the most respectful thing I could do."

Return to Raccoon City

Back in Prague, everyone, including leading man Abrams, is incredibly apologetic about the disruption on set, but there's still plenty to see, and people are still busy behind the scenes – including our guide for the day, production designer Tom Hammock. "I play video games, but I'm not… I mean, Zach is obsessed," Hammock, who worked with Cregger on Weapons, tells us with a laugh as he shows us around. "I remember being in college in '96 and my roommate got Resident Evil 2, and I'd come home and he'd be playing in the dark and completely petrified himself. That's what Zach wants to capture. The first time you played the game, you didn't know what was going to happen, so he's trying to recreate all the scares, the flashlight work, the amount of darkness, the tension as you move through these spaces."

Don't be fooled by the film's first trailer, which sees Bryan arrive at a creepy remote farmhouse in need of a phone: Raccoon City is still on the map. "It takes detours," says Cregger. "The whole point of the movie is he's got to get from hospital A, through the mountains and into Raccoon City to deliver something to hospital B. And as he's going over this mountain pass, things turn bad." There's no hint of rural America in Jordan Studios, though: we've touched down in Raccoon City.

Hammock gives us a tour of a handful of sets: a dark, damp sewer, a hospital ward (sticky with the residue of 500 gallons of fake blood), and a few floors of a skyscraper, complete with working elevator, all built from scratch. We also venture into the production design office, which is a veritable treasure trove of storyboards, models, and a "creature wall", which does what it says on the tin, showcasing mock-ups of zombified rats, dogs, and more. "You'll see a lot of Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 6," Hammock says, gesturing to the creature wall. "So Zach and I went through and pulled specific creature elements that we like from the games, whether it's tentacles, the teeth integration, and then tried to take that language and move it over to these creatures.

"I spent a lot of time in medical research libraries, so everything comes from nature," he adds. "But we also went as far as diseases. I used to work as a virologist long ago, so just having access to medical libraries gave us a really grounded starting point for all the creatures. And then you try to mix that with, you know, the insanity."

Although this movie may be a standalone piece, Cregger explains that the story occurs "on the periphery" of the second game. "You know, where Raccoon City is having its big night, but tell just another story that could be happening in parallel to that."

That extends to the production design, too. "We really designed the city based on Resident Evil 2, trying to get that look," says Hammock. "Lots of brick, lots of texture, lots of rain, and then the only change we really made was going heavier with the snow. We even found somewhere that looks exactly like the police station, by chance here, by the Opera House, which is pretty exciting."

But the hardest part of recreating Raccoon City in Prague? "It sounds so foolish, but one of the hardest things on the movie is Zach had me make Raccoon City manhole covers for the top of the sewers," Hammock says. "So hard to do. Everybody made their manhole covers, like, 50 years ago. It's not such a thing anymore."

Cregger reiterates that the movie is a "very simple and self-contained" story that doesn't depend on the viewer being as big a fan of the games as he is – but, if you are, there'll be some fun extra nuggets. "A lot of the references to the games, if you don't know them, they're just gonna go right over your head, and they're not gonna waste your time. I don't spend a whole lot of time talking about stuff that's only in the games," he explains. "The pacing of the games is very much in the movie. But if you don't know the games, that's not going to penetrate; you won't realize it. And the graduation of guns. You start with a pistol, you graduate to a shotgun, and then by the end, he's holding a machine gun. All the gamers are going to understand exactly what's happening, but if you've never played it just won't register."

Along with the pacing, Cregger says he also pays homage to the visual "vocabulary" of the Resident Evil games. "Sometimes I jump into first person, sometimes I use standard coverage if he's having a conversation with someone. But I really, really wanted to embrace that immersive feel that I get when I play the games, and so I feel like, to use their visual language… why wouldn't I do that? It's so cinematic anyway," he says, after flicking through a hardbound book of the movie's storyboards for us. "People who love the games are going to feel seen in a lot of ways, I hope, when they watch this movie, but I hope that the visual vocabulary is something that's really going to punch."

Away from the PlayStation, Cregger notes that he took inspiration from movies as far-reaching as Son of Saul and Evil Dead 2, but he wasn't thinking about any of the previous Resident Evil adaptations (six movies were released between 2002 and 2017, with a reboot following in 2021) – because he hasn't seen them. "Frankly, the reason I didn't see them is because I was such a fan of the games, and they just didn't look like the games to me, you know? And it was so obvious that they were not the games that I was like, it's not for me," he says. "Maybe they're great. I have no idea. But I just wasn't interested in that, because I feel like what's great about the games is they're shrunk down into this single perspective, and it's about this pacing and this horror, and those movies just didn't look like horror things to me."

Labor of love

If the work of Legacy Effects is anything to go by, however, Resident Evil certainly will look like a "horror thing." The Legacy team, who have worked on everything from Avatar to The Mandalorian, has set up camp in what appears to be a dressing room, lined with lightbulb-studded mirrors and furnished with makeup storage, but instead of lipsticks and powders, they're covered with displays of "messed up" models. Legacy is showcasing their favorite creations from the shoot for us: a mottled stretch of life-like skin, freakishly long limbs, something with three eyes. "I suppose it's a compliment when people think it's all done with computers," creature FX designer Shane Mahan (an industry veteran whose career began four decades ago with The Terminator) tells us amidst this gleefully gory tableau.

"Within the first two minutes, the audience should not be aware what they're looking at and just believe what it is," he adds. "Otherwise, there's no fun in that. If you don't believe that it's really there, there's no fear. Part of the fun is being frightened."

Some of these creatures will appear in a scene in a hospital ward. But, this is Resident Evil, after all, so this hospital has huge, fiberglass egg-like membranes and an assortment of tentacles clinging to its walls, and Hammock points out some cleverly concealed holes when we walk through the plasticky smell of fake blood to take a closer look at the set.

"There's a whole steel structure above with grids and pulley rigs. And what's going to happen is stuntmen, upside down, have been training to hold their breath so they're there against that membrane," he explains. "They pour, like, 50 gallons of slime in with the stunt guys, and it oozes down. And then the membrane breaks, and they fall into the sets, in-camera, which is pretty cool… It took, like, 15 people two weeks to glue the tentacles. Every one is hand-cut and then glued, and then held up. So it's this labor of love."

Lastly, we're taken to see a real, working elevator built on a sound stage, a short drive from the rest of the set. Construction is still underway, and Hammock has to raise his voice to be heard above the drilling and hammering. After climbing a flight of metal stairs, we find ourselves in a fresh paint-scented corridor with six doors on it. Cregger noticed that there are "too many doors" in Resident Evil, Hammock notes, and is working with "misdirection" in this set piece. "Just like in the game, you go to the side [just] to have something burst out of the other door, out of your peripheral vision."

Now we're inside the skyscraper itself, which is based partly on Guy's Hospital in London (the tallest hospital in the world), partly on a brutalist Swiss ski resort, and partly on '20s Czech cubism as "an homage to where we're shooting." Climbing a flight of concrete stairs, we get a better look at the elevator itself. The team has modified a sports stadium-style cable camera to operate vertically. "It goes all the way up and down, so it could track next to Austin as the elevator moves with him." It really is a fully functioning elevator, built from scratch, which will be involved in an action-packed set piece that we're not allowed to allude to further.

While it seems there's going to be some pretty gruesome stuff in this movie, Cregger says he never had any pushback from the studio. "They gave me the keys of the car, and I got to drive it where I wanted to drive it," he says. "And honestly, the person I feel the most responsible to is the [person] who loves the games, so that really was who I'm trying to please with this."

Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other upcoming video game movies to add to your watchlist.

After debuting behind closed doors at CinemaCon, the first trailer for the new Resident Evil movie is finally available to watch online. Directed by Weapons helmer Zach Cregger, the film serves as a reboot to the beloved survival horror franchise, bringing an original story and characters to Raccoon City.

The trailer opens with a man walking through the snow up to a quiet house. He knocks on the door to no answer, and walks inside. "Hello?" he calls out. "I had a little bit of a problem on the road, I was wondering if I could use your phone?"

That man is Bryan, played by Weapons breakout Austin Abrams. Per the movie's official synopsis, he's "a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos." The supporting cast includes Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, and Zach Cherry.

But back to the trailer. "Hey, babe. I'm sorry that we got disconnected earlier, but some things have, uh, happened," Bryan says, once he gets his hands on a phone. "I'm, like, in a seriously messed-up situation right now, and it looks like we might not get to talk to each other again. I just wanted you to know, I love you."

With an eerie dial tone soundtrack in the background, we see Bryan running through the snow to a barn and trying to get some keys off the belt of a corpse... that suddenly moves. In another shot, he falls through a manhole into a sewer, where he's confronted by a bloated corpse, while disembodied limbs jump around of their own accord, and zombies fall from buildings onto the city streets. There's also a particularly creepy sequence in a hospital.

"I never wanted to tell the story of any of the characters from the games," Cregger said in an interview attended by GamesRadar+. "Leon exists in the games. I don't want anyone to ruin that for me. I don't think that me telling a story that's not about Leon is a violation of the Resident Evil world, because the games do that all the time. Leon's not in 7 or 8. So I figure if I am honoring the games, I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing in the world of the game, but I'm not stepping on the toes of any of Leon's storyline. I'm not recasting Leon, god forbid. You know, I'm letting Leon stay Leon. And I feel like that's the most respectful thing I could do."

Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. In the meantime, check out our guide to the other biggest upcoming video game movies on the way in 2026 and beyond.

It's only been one week since he was officially tapped to direct it, but Curry Barker says he already "has a lot of ideas" for A24's upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot.

In an exclusive interview, the filmmaker, who admits his introduction to horror was the Jessica Biel-fronted 2003 remake, tells GamesRadar+ that he'd be keen to have his take "lean into the uncomfortability" of Leatherface's family. "I want to do something that's different, but not stray too far from what we know," he adds. "There's some really messed-up stuff happening at that farm. It's untapped."

Elsewhere, during our Q&A for his upcoming flick Obsession, Barker heaped praise on Tobe Hooper's 1974 original – but claimed that the eight chapters that followed didn't tackle things he believes they should've...

"Listen, I love the original, and I think that that one is so raw and was really good for its time. I actually think the 2003 remake is quite good, too, but I know there's a nostalgia there," Barker explained. "I know there's a lot of remakes, and I've seen some of the comments on announcements I'm doing [another] that are like, 'Are people excited about this?' And a lot of people are excited about it, but a lot of people are like, 'There's so many. Put this thing to bed. It's all been done... I beg to differ!"

"Seriously, I really think that the potential for that series has not been fully realized. I actually feel like a lot of the remakes went the complete opposite direction that then it should have gone," he continued. "I'm really excited to do a Texas Chainsaw Massacre that's not just about a guy chasing some people around with the chainsaw. [One] that has some heart to it, you know? Where you care about these characters, and you want to see them survive, but you know... is still brutal."

While Barker's outing will mark the 10th installment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, only a handful have really delved into the dysfunctional, cannibalistic Sawyer family introduced in Hooper's iconic slasher. The 2003 film reinvented them as the Hewitts, which the 2006 stuck to, too, while 2017's Leatherface and Netflix's 2022 reboot explored Leatherface's individual origins, presenting him as more of a solitary figure.

Before we'll get to see what he's cooking up with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Barker is set to release Obsession. Having debuted to an impressive 100% Rotten Tomatoes score at TIFF in September 2025 (and settled on an equally impressive 96% since), it centers on shy guy Bear (Michael Johnston), who's sweet on his coworker Nikki (Inde Navarrette).

Scared to wreck their decades-spanning friendship, though, he doesn't have the courage to ask her out. Desperate, he uses a mysterious item called a One Wish Willow to beg that Nikki "loved him more than anyone else in the f***ing world" – and, well, soon comes to regret it. Bear can't match up to Nikki's unrelenting devotion once the reckless request takes hold, and as Nikki's affections start having increasingly dark consequences, his dream quickly turns into a nightmare.

Obsession arrives in theaters on May 15. While we wait for more news on Barker's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

Mike Myers hasn't been on our screens much over the past few years, but he's eyeing up some future projects. The Shrek and Austin Powers star recently made a cameo in the Michael Jackson movie Michael. When promoting the film, he was asked what project he'd like to do next – and he had the perfect answer.

"I've never done a horror movie," Myers replied to Lionsgate Horror. "And my name is Michael Myers so it's a little weird that I have thus far avoided it." Of course, Michael Myers is the serial killer in the Halloween franchise and has appeared in all of the spin-offs. He's been played by several actors over the years too so the Austin Powers star could even end up behind the mask himself.

As for a full-on horror movie, we'd love to see what Myers would bring to that. While he's a great comedian, we've had glimpses of his dramatic acting chops too in movies like Terminal and his cameo in Inglourious Basterds. He also dipped his toe in horror comedy in the 1993 movie So I Married an Axe Murderer where he played a man who suspected his girlfriend of being a serial killer.

Next up for Myers is Shrek 5, which has been confirmed for 2027. The original cast are all coming back for that, including Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, alongside newcomer Zendaya. Though, Antonio Banderas's Puss in Boots isn't confirmed yet.

For more upcoming movies, check out our guides to all the new horror movies and the new superhero movies coming out in 2026 and beyond.

If you've watched all of the DCU so far, you may be a little confused by the introduction of Clayface in the animated series Creature Commandos and the upcoming Clayface horror movie.

But wonder no more: DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has 'liked' a post theorizing that these iterations of Clayface are one and the same, with IGN even showing Gunn's confirmation that the Clayface movie is "canon" to troubled actor Matt Hagen's appearance as part of the Creature Commandos.

That's aided by Gunn's previous confirmation that Clayface is going to be set before Superman (and, by definition, Creature Commandos) as an origin story for Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries.

In Creature Commandos, Clayface (voiced there by Alan Tudyk) formed part of Amanda Waller's ragtag crew of creatures and miscreants, with his powers of impersonation being used to good effect.

The character has also, notably, been part of the Harley Quinn series – but that's set in a different universe (and, in one moment, even featured a cameo from Gunn himself).

The first Clayface trailer teased a body horror spectacle from director James Watkins and writer Mike Flanagan, but many are still wondering whether Batman will show up given all the Gotham nods in the initial reveal.

Elsewhere in the DCU, Gunn – in his spare time during filming for Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow – has given a handful of updates on various projects. They include Themyscira-set series Paradise Lost (in "extreme development", apparently) and Booster Gold. The Authority movie, though, is currently not happening.

Catch up on what else is happening with our guide to DCU Chapter One.

Resident Evil's Leon game actor Nick Apostolides says he's "cautiously optimistic" about Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie, despite being disappointed by the franchise's spotty big screen record.

I've been let down [by Resident Evil movies] in the past. But if there's one director who is not going to let me down, I think it's going to be [Zach Cregger]," Apostolides told Radio Times Gaming.

"I love Cregger's work and I trust he is going to make a good film first and foremost and it will have Resident Evil elements in it. I'm very curious, actually."

Cregger – who has already proven his Resident Evil fandom by beating Requiem twice not long after release – is set to debut his take on the franchise later this year.

At CinemaCon, the Barbarian and Weapons director declared it would "stay true" to the games, while producer Roy Lee previously told Collider it would be a "roller coaster ride of nonstop action."

That sounds worlds away from the six live-action Resident Evil movies either directed or produced by Paul W.S Anderson, nor the panned 2021 offering Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

Now, the future of Resi seems much brighter. Requiem was well received by fans, and has propelled itself close to the top of the franchise's best-selling list in the US after just a few months. Capcom's hot streak, including Pragmata, shows no signs of slowing down, with the game studio declaring "we're not done with 2026 yet." Exciting times, indeed.

Resident Evil, starring Austin Abrams, hits cinemas on September 18.

For more, here are the upcoming horror movies poised to scare you silly.

DC Studios boss James Gunn has confirmed Clayface's surprising spot on the DCU timeline.

In response to a fan on Threads asking whether the upcoming DC horror takes place before or after Superman, Gunn wrote, "Before. It's the first DCU film out of chronological order."

In a separate post, Gunn added that Clayface is "very connected" to the wider DCU story, but that "the standalone story is what's most important."

If you're keeping score, Clayface is set before Superman, with Supergirl taking place after the events of both. How Matt Hagen's gory body horror Batman villain will factor into the overall universe, however, remains to be seen.

Clayface, which Gunn has previously described as a true horror film rather than a hybrid superhero horror, stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, an actor who undergoes a startling transformation after a vicious attack – and can seemingly morph into anyone at will. Excitingly, it's also penned by Mike Flanagan, who scared us all silly with the likes of The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass on Netflix.

The first Clayface trailer certainly wore its horror heart on its sleeve, even featuring plenty of Gotham-centric Easter eggs that had fans wondering if Batman has a presence in the James Watkins-directed movie.

Elsewhere in the DCU this year, Supergirl flies onto the scene this June – including a cameo from David Corenswet's Superman. Lanterns, starring Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler, is coming to HBO Max this August.

For more, check out all the latest on DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

The first trailer for Clayface was certainly an electric debut for DC's body horror, but that hasn't shaken off one big question that remains unanswered: will Batman show up?

You don't have to look very far to see why.

Matt Hagen (played here by Tom Rhys Harries) is a prominent Batman villain, with another iteration of Clayface – in Batman: The Animated Series' seminal 'Feat of Clay' – also serving as a heavy influence for DC Studios' horror.

But even the trailer itself is filled with Batman-adjacent nods and references. There's Amusement Mile, a look at GCPD's finest, and the Narrows, each suggesting that Hagen's transformation will take place on the streets of Gotham. Whether a certain Caped Crusader is waiting in the wings, however, remains to be seen.

Previous Clayface set photos have also made sure to let us know it's deeply embedded in a world where Batman should be roaming around, including Easter eggs for Wayne Manor, ACE Chemicals, and the Iceberg Lounge.

It's certainly led to plenty of fans on Reddit speculating that The Dark Knight could have Clayface in his crosshairs by the movie's end, especially as we spy the villain's iconic clay-mace attack silhouetted on a Gotham street corner.

"It's just a great horror movie that is a great, smart, fun horror movie which is in a genre that I happen to love, which is body horror," Gunn said of the James Watkins-directed movie on the DC Studios Showcase podcast, as if you needed any more reason to be excited – Batman or no Batman.

Batman's role in the DCU hasn't yet been unveiled, however. The character showed up in Creature Commandos season 1 extremely briefly, though standalone movie The Brave and the Bold has not yet reached the development stage since it was first announced.

The Mike Flanagan-penned Clayface, also starring Naomi Ackie and David Dencik, hits cinemas on October 23.

For more, check out our guides on DCU Chapter One and upcoming DC movies.

Damian McCarthy's new horror movie Hokum may be set in a creepy hotel but it couldn't be further from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, the writer-director insists.

In the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Stranger Things: Tales From '85 on the cover, the Irish filmmaker recalled how he actively tried to avoid being inspired by the acclaimed Stephen King adaptation – and that he initially found it dangerously "tempting" to lift certain scenes and scares.

"It was almost like, 'We really can't do anything that was done in that because it's been done. It's got its own voice.' It was one we were trying to avoid," McCarthy noted.

While The Shining sees Jack Nicholson's writer Jack Torrance driven mad by the remote resort he's been employed at over the winter, Hokum centers on Ohm (Adam Scott), a horror novelist who travels to rural Ireland to scatter his parents' ashes. Unfortunately for him, though, the inn in which he's booked to stay is supposedly haunted by an ancient witch – and is a hub for some of the area's most peculiar locals, too. Peter Coonan (Bad Sisters), Will O'Connell (Game of Thrones), David Wilmot (Bodkin), Florence Ordesh (Foundation), and Austin Amelio (Fear the Walking Dead) round out the supporting cast.

It follows up McCarthy's previous genre hits Caveat and Oddity, the latter of which debuted to a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score in 2024.

"There are some brilliant horror films, and I love them, but they're very heavy, and I don't know if I'm going to be in a hurry to revisit them," McCarthy added in the feature, explaining that Hokum has an unlikely comedic edge underneath its dark, horrifying surface. "I definitely try to keep my films entertaining as well as scary. With Hokum, I would hope audiences get a good scare along with a few laughs – and hopefully there's something in there to revisit."

Hokum releases on May 1. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.

The Evil Dead Burn trailer has been unleashed, and it promises exactly the kind of murderous mayhem we've come to expect from the horror franchise. It also hints at a potential tie-in with TV spin-off Ash vs. Evil Dead, which would make it the series' first non-standalone film in 34 years...

Directed by Infested's Sébastien Vaniček, the film is rumored to follow Alice (Souheila Yacoub), as she visits her in-laws in the wake of her husband's death. The family reunion takes a hellish turn, though, when they start possessed by blood-thirsty demons. Shown before screenings of Lee Cronin's The Mummy (and, more recently, shared online by Warner Bros.), the promo rolls out in one continuous scene, as a bloodied Alice tries to crawl out of harm's way as snarling (and levitating!) Deadites throw bodies like adult-sized ragdolls all around her.

The film, as evidenced in the clip above, looks to be set in Ruby's house from Ash vs. Evil Dead. See that unique-looking stain-glass window, Evil Dead nerds? In the small-screen show, Ruby (Lucy Lawless) created the Necronomicon AKA The Book of the Dead, and her home is essentially a hub in Deadite lore. We're guessing then that in Evil Dead Burn, Alice and her nearest and dearest learn of its dark history the hard way...

Cronin produced the new flick alongside Rob Tapert, Sarah Spurway, Jose Cañas, Romel Adam, Bruce Campbell, and Sam Raimi. Luciane Buchanan, Tandi Wright, George Pullar, and Wednesday's Hunter Doohan round out the supporting cast.

"I told the studio that I wanted to make a nasty film, a film that hurts, from which you come away tested," Vaniček previously said of his offering. "I'm going to put all the horror I have inside, it will be cathartic, and if I haven't ruined my career and I can continue to make films behind it, I will move on to something other than horror!"

Despite Lee Cronin's The Mummy being rated R, it seems like the above teaser is pretty tame in comparison presented to CinemaCon attendees just a few days prior. On Wednesday, April 15, guests were treated to an alternative sizzle reel that saw a woman waking up in a car having been struck in the face by a headrest, another woman drinking a lit candle, and a man falling face-first onto a knife-filled, open dishwasher. Gnarly.

Evil Dead Burn releases on July 10. In the meantime, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.

After taking over Christmas 2024 with vampire picture Nosferatu, director Robert Eggers is claiming winter 2026 with Werwulf, and by the sounds of what was shown behind closed doors at CinemaCon, the upcoming horror movie may be even scarier than its predecessor.

During Focus Features' presentation at CinemaCon 2026 on April 15, Eggers took to the stage to present the first Werwulf trailer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the trailer is mostly in black and white, and opens with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily Rose Depp as a peasant-type couple living in a village with their children.

The clip continues with quick flashes of violent images and a horse running through the forest as a voice whispers, "Do not dread the darkness." The trailer ends with a close-up of Taylor-Johnson screaming in horror. Whilst teasing the creature feature, Eggers called it his "most terrifying picture yet," which is a big claim coming from the Nosferatu and The Witch helmer.

The trailer does not show the titular monster, which isn't a huge surprise, as Eggers kept Count Orlok's appearance a secret right up until Nosferatu hit screens. However, Deadline suggests that Taylor-Johnson might be the monster, and the last shot of the actor's face could be a snippet of his transformation into a werewolf.

Not much is known about the new horror movie, apart from the fact that it is set in 13th-Century England, where a mysterious creature from folklore stalks a rural community. Eggers is no stranger to creating historically rooted horror films. All of his past features have been set hundreds of years ago, including The Lighthouse and The Northman.

Alongside Taylor-Johnson and Depp, Werwulf also stars Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. Eggers penned the script with Icelandic novelist Sjón.

Werwulf hits cinemas on Christmas Day. For more, check out our guides to the best horror movies of all time, and keep up with upcoming horror movies coming soon.