The summer of horror

The summer of 2026 is already shaping up to be the summer that changes horror… and possibly movies in general.

There’s a new generation of young directors making creative horror films such as Obsession and Backrooms, and especially with Obsession, there’s been a word-of-mouth popularity surge that really hasn’t been seen since probably The Blair Witch Project. It became the sleeper hit of the late spring season almost entirely because people kept telling other people to go see it. Audiences wanted to know what all the buzz was about, and once they got there, they thoroughly enjoyed it.

The movie is getting rave reviews and, more importantly, it feels different. That’s the key.

For too long horror has relied on remakes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist, and countless recycled ideas from the past. People grew tired of it. The villains that once terrified audiences during the late 20th century slowly started becoming pop culture jokes instead of actual horror icons.

But this new breed of horror filmmakers is giving audiences something fresh again.

Obsession is an absolutely perfect example of that. The movie reportedly only cost around $750,000 to make, yet it’s already tracking toward potentially making close to $100 million. The profit margins are insane, but it’s not just about profit. People are genuinely enjoying the art behind what this movie provided. They’re talking about it afterward. They’re debating it. They’re recommending it to friends.

And even more interesting than the box office itself is the demographic showing up to see it.

The audience is heavily made up of the 18-to-25 crowd.

When I went to see it, I felt like a geezer… and I’m not even that old. The theater was packed with teenagers, college kids, and younger adults. That means something. Younger audiences are actually returning to theaters when a movie feels worth leaving the house for. They’re sitting through the 25 minutes of ads and commercials and eventually, if you’re at AMC, that famous Nicole Kidman theater speech about why movies are better in a dark room with strangers.

For years people have cried that movie theaters were dying out, but maybe the formula was always simpler than we thought: people will still go to theaters for movies that are actually good.

And horror has always been on the cutting edge of culture.

Horror reflects the fears, anxieties, politics, and social atmosphere of its era better than almost any other genre. Saw probably would not have exploded in popularity during the 1980s, but during the War on Terror era it hit audiences at exactly the right moment. The same thing happens throughout horror history over and over again.

Oddly enough, professional wrestling and horror movies might be two of the greatest indicators of where society is emotionally at any given time. Both constantly evolve alongside culture, controversy, fear, anger, escapism, and public mood.

Unfortunately horror also gets a bad reputation because of the endless flood of cheap, lazy, ridiculous films pushed out simply to make a quick dollar. But there’s a new generation of filmmakers emerging right now with creativity, atmosphere, originality, and actual vision. They’re changing not only horror itself, but possibly the movie industry as a whole because their success is proving audiences still care deeply about cinema when it feels unique.

And now we’re on the verge of another major moment.

As this post is being written, all eyes are beginning to shift toward Backrooms, directed by young filmmaker Kane Parsons, known online to many as Kane Pixels. There’s a real possibility that this film pushes things even further and helps cement the summer of 2026 as a turning point for modern filmmaking.

For those paying attention, something historic honestly feels like it’s happening here.

You can feel it in the air.

Movies do not have to be what they once were in order to succeed. In fact, if you simply recreate movies exactly the way they used to be made, chances are audiences may not care anymore. People want something different. They want creativity. They want atmosphere. They want originality. They want filmmakers willing to take risks again.

And this new spirit of filmmaking is finally giving audiences that thing they’ve been searching for.

So cheers to good movies… and cheers to hopefully seeing full movie theaters again in your neck of the woods.

Because this weekend people will undoubtedly be lining up excitedly to see Backrooms… and maybe, just maybe, another horror film will make history.