Monday, August 3, 2026

A24’s BACKROOMS has climbed past a major Godzilla title on the all-time box office charts, another signal that the internet-born horror breakout is playing like a bona fide franchise-level hit.

Feature-debut horror-comedy Bad Karaoke lands a world premiere slot at Tubi FrightFest 2026, giving the title genre-festival visibility ahead of launch. Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr. direct.

Rosamund Pike is eyed for the female lead opposite Ryan Gosling in Marvel Studios’ Ghost Rider; Shawn Levy directs, with the supernatural MCU feature still targeting 2028.

Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay is already renewed for Season 2 and sits at 19 Emmy nominations, giving the horror-comedy a clear streamer and awards foothold. Sound mixer Kevin S. Parker breaks down the series’ on-set audio workflow and the genre-specific challenge of selling dread and jokes at the same time.

The Horror Section launches with Ice Cream Man as Eli Roth pushes a new horror-franchise play under his fresh banner; the splatter pic leans into parental-anxiety themes and stars Ari Millen.

Northamptonshire director completes production on an independent horror-comedy; further details on the film, cast, crew and release plans have not been disclosed.

Adam O'Brien's horror feature Bury the Devil opens in select theaters and on demand Aug. 21, 2026; nurse Julia gets trapped in a dementia patient's home as a demonic force breaks through the walls.

UK premiere lands Aug. 30 at Tubi FrightFest; Chris Schwab’s modern LA-set Dracula rework already won Best Feature at Portland Horror Film Festival. The indie vampire feature is using festival heat and a fresh trailer to widen its audience ahead of the London bow.

Neon’s Her Private Hell arrives at Cannes as Nicolas Winding Refn’s first feature in a decade; Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Kristine Froseth and Havana Rose Liu front a neon-drenched horror-opera package. The film’s long-gestating comeback gives Neon a prestige genre title with festival heat and auteur-facing market value.

GenreBlast marks its 10th anniversary in Winchester with 14 features, 75 shorts and its annual screenplay competition; the lineup spans world, U.S. and regional premieres across horror, sci-fi and exploitation.

Etheria Film Festival’s 2026 showcase features seven women-directed horror, sci-fi and fantasy shorts, including Superconscious, Visitors and Confession. Live screenings are set for Los Angeles on Aug. 28 and New York City on Sept. 9.

Midsummer Scream will mark the 30th anniversary of 1996’s Scream Aug. 7-9 in Long Beach. Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, Roger L. Jackson and other original cast and crew will appear, with panels Aug. 8-9.

John Carpenter widens Cathedral into his first graphic novel via Storm King Comics; the horror project lands Aug. 4, 2026, with a companion soundtrack album set for Aug. 7.

Wowow is producing a six-part live-action adaptation of Riku Onda’s The Aosawa Murders, starring Yukino Kishii; scripted by Naoko Adachi and directed by Go Furukawa and Hayato Kawai, it premieres Nov. 8 with weekly episodes.

Screambox lines up horror-comedy anthology Ragebait for Aug. 4, 2026; the Halloween-night curse story follows a live streamer forced through a reel of vanished creators' videos.

Dark Sky Films rolls out Tim Kasher’s surveillance-obsessed horror-thriller in select theaters and on digital September 18, 2026; Zachary Ray Sherman, Gracie Gillam and Olivia Luccardi star.

$434M in U.S./Canada weekend box office resets the all-time record as Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey combine for a historic double-header. The weekend pushes domestic annual grosses to the earliest $6B pace since the pandemic and underscores how event movies are still driving theatrical recovery.

Universal has surpassed $4B in 2026 global box office, its fifth such milestone and first since 2023, with $1.53B domestic/$2.48B international; The Odyssey has reached $911M worldwide after a $136.2M third weekend.

Mike Flanagan is in talks to exec-produce Amazon MGM Studios’ animated Warhammer 40,000 series; the project keeps the Cavill-led franchise expansion moving after Secret Level.

Netflix released the trailer for James Ashcroft’s The Whisper Man, starring Adam Scott as a widowed writer who teams with his estranged retired-detective father (Robert De Niro) to find his missing son and hunt a serial killer.

Untold Studios has hired Adrianna Cohen as global president of film and episodic VFX, overseeing strategy, operations and creative production across Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London and Mumbai. Her credits include Blue Sky, Fox Animation, Mikros and McKinsey.

Agnieszka Smoczyńska's near-future sci-fi thriller Hot Spot lands in theaters Aug. 21, 2026; Noomi Rapace leads a sentient-AI murder mystery that pushes the detective's identity into a breakdown.

Netflix’s eight-part Harlan Coben thriller has reportedly set a new record for the streamer, surpassing a previous benchmark; specific viewership figures and the series title are not provided.

Argentine first feature The Days Off world-premieres in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present; Inwave Films handles international sales on the Argentina/Brazil/Mexico/France co-production. Lucila Mariani frames the coming-of-age story as horror-adjacent, with tech and virtual-world themes baked into the logline.