May 2026 is already considered a landmark month for horror, if not the future of movies altogether, after “Obsession” and “Backrooms” set box office records and left the likes of “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” in the dust in more ways than one. With horror and its new young creators like Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, it seems this is a time when horror has never been taken so seriously before, but the last two Oscar seasons were already strong proof of that.
After the awards season success of “The Substance” in 2024 and then “Sinners,” “Frankenstein,” and “Weapons” in 2025, it stands to reason that if 2026 really is a landmark year of horror, it would further prove it by showing up at the Oscars for a third straight year.
The long-standing narrative was that the Academy and “serious” voters have long been biased against horror, despite the occasional one-year blip for undeniable crossover hits like “The Exorcist,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Get Out,” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” if that qualifies as horror. But even after “Get Out” seemed to launch the current golden age of horror in 2017, subsequent hits and genre favorites like “Hereditary,” “Us,” “Midsommar,” and many more were ignored by the Academy, no matter how much critics and pundits pushed such films and their performers.
2024 marked the first time since “Get Out” that a horror film and its star were recognized by the Academy, as “The Substance” made Best Picture and Demi Moore got the Oscar nomination that instantly iconic horror performances like Toni Collette, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Pugh, Mia Goth, and fellow 2024 horror standouts Naomi Scott and Lily-Rose Depp couldn’t. But that was nothing compared to the collective surge in 2025, as “Sinners” pushed “One Battle After Another” to the limit for Best Picture and won four other Oscars, “Frankenstein” made Best Picture as well and won three Oscars of its own, and “Weapons” narrowly missed a Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nomination while Amy Madigan joined “Sinners’” Michael B. Jordan as a horror movie acting Oscar winner.
Two months later, it appears the runaway word-of-mouth success of “Obsession,” the smash opening weekend of “Backrooms,” and the introduction of 20-something auteurs Barker and Parsons is the next step in horror’s conquest of Hollywood. But does that double whammy, and the potential for other breakout horror hits in 2026, mean that the genre will stake a claim at the Oscars again as a collective reward?
“Obsession” already has online pundits and fans chomping at the bit to push Inde Navarrette for Best Supporting Actress if not Best Actress, just like Madigan, Moore, Jordan, and others before them. It was one thing to claim Navarrette should be the next Madigan when “Obsession” had a relatively modest opening weekend. Yet now that “Obsession” has crossed $100+ million domestic and could even wind up surpassing “Weapons’” $151+ million gross before long, it stands to wonder if “Obsession” can also reach the brink of other major nominations like “Weapons” did.
The narrative of a 26-year-old like Barker getting at least a Best Original Screenplay nomination would be massive. Yet with “Weapons,” Zach Cregger could fall just short in a top-heavy Best Original Screenplay category last year, the eventual field for 2026 would have to end up much thinner for Barker to do better. And as much as Navarrette will likely keep being pushed as a dream nominee all year, there’s a chance she might have to split the “breakout horror supporting actress” passion vote by the end of summer with “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’s” Gillian Anderson.
While “Obsession” and “Backrooms” dominated the American horror box office in May, the next possible cult horror sensation made its debut in Cannes, as Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” got some of the best reviews of the entire festival and the Queer Palm as well. If that bodes well for its wider release in August, it could become the next new wave horror film to generate massive online word of mouth and demand awards-season attention. Though, as a film from “The Substance” distributor MUBI instead of bigger mid-majors Focus and A24, and especially as a film from a non-binary director with much more of a deconstructive, satirical take on the slasher genre from a trans and LGBTQ+-based gaze, it may not have an “Obsession” or “Backrooms” type of wider audience for all kinds of obvious or unfortunate reasons.
But if it at least has some legs beyond the arthouse circuit, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” is bound to have some pundits and audiences pushing for the Academy to broaden horizons and take notice, as they did with “Obsession” and Navarrette. And since Navarrette can’t strictly be the next Madigan because she doesn’t have the long career, past Oscar nomination, or established Hollywood standing that helped Madigan defy the odds with “Weapons,” then maybe a TV and film veteran like Anderson would be a more fitting comparison, if she’s in a position to get a campaign later.
Wherever “Obsession,” “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” and their performers and creators stand down the line, they might be the horror genre’s best Oscar bets for 2026, regardless. “Backrooms” may have had the instant $80+ million opening weekend “Obsession” didn’t get for starters, and may have Parsons as an even younger new horror wunderkind. Yet its chances of crossing over as an actual awards-season prospect seem like a much longer shot.
“Backrooms” already has the most iconic set design of the year – at least until sets from bigger films and Oscar contenders like “The Odyssey,” “Dune: Part Three,” and other blockbusters are revealed – but that will probably be its only element to get sustained Oscar season attention. Even with past Oscar nominees like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve – the latter of which already has “Fjord” as her main push for Oscar contention this year – not much else from “Backrooms” so far has the kind of awards-related buzz that “Obsession” and Navarrette have already inspired, and that “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” could inspire later.
Beyond that, there’s a chance this is already the peak of horror in 2026, and not much after the summer will set Hollywood and awards voters on fire. The biggest, if not only, shot to do so in the fall will likely come from Robert Eggers, as “Werewulf” opens in the same holiday period “Nosferatu” did when it was a runaway hit and multi-Oscar nominee in 2024. Yet if “Nosferatu” couldn’t break Eggers and Depp into the major Oscar categories two years ago, when “The Substance,” Moore, and Coralie Fargeat had all the horror awards season attention covered, can Eggers’ new epic do better if other horror films are still in position to crowd him out again by December?
Horror may have become a legitimate Oscar season genre these last two years, at least more than it had in the previous several. It still isn’t at the point where it has to get at least one major Oscar nominee in per year, as 2024 and 2025 were really the first time it had such sustained awards success two years running. As such, asking it to repeat in some way for a third straight year might still be too big a stretch.
But if it really isn’t a stretch that a film like “Obsession” could have the biggest weekend-to-weekend non-holiday box office increase in a generation, or a film like “Backrooms” could have as big an opening summer weekend as a “Star Wars” movie, or a slasher homage from a non-binary director could be among the most acclaimed entries of the Cannes Film Festival, then what milestones are really a stretch for horror movies anymore? In that context, getting horror films into Oscar contention from 20-something newcomers, instead of already established auteurs like Ryan Coogler or Guillermo del Toro, somehow sounds like the next logical step.
If the likes of Navarrette, “Obsession,” “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” or anything else from horror are still remotely talked about in the fall, then either the rest of the 2026 Oscar field is thinner than we hoped – or horror might really have yet another historic year beyond box office in the making after all.
Do you think any of this year’s horror movies will be awards contenders? If so, which ones? Have you seen “Obsession,” “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” “Backrooms” yet? If so, what did you think? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars & Film on X @Robertdoc1984
