Our Most Anticipated August Horror Releases
by Alex Kaan 31 July 2026
MUBI
As the summer heat continues to swelter, we’ve curated a list of 22 bone-chilling horror releases to help you cool off. Join Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson at Camp Miasma, take a wrong turn with liminal horror It Ends, and run from dinosaurs with Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in The End of Oak Street.
With queer horror galore (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, The Shards), B-movie spoofs (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence), and a never-before-seen horror-heavy director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, find out what horror movies and TV shows to add to your watchlist before the summer is up.
SOULM8TE (August 1st)
Universal
An erotic thriller set in the world of M3GAN, Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s latest follows an engineer who programs an AI android to be a perfect soulmate, only for her to develop needs of her own and embark on a vicious rampage. Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise), David Rysdahl (Alien: Earth), and Claudia Doumit (The Boys) star in the sci-fi horror, which is now receiving a straight-to-digital release.
The Shards (August 5th)
FX, Disney+
American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy teams with American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis for this autofictional queer horror series adapted from Ellis’ bestselling 2023 novel. The FX show follows a group of elite students in 1981 Los Angeles as a serial killer known as The Trawler looms over the city.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (August 7th)
MUBI
Described by director Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire set in a Friday the 13th sequel”, this queer horror romance follows a young director (Hannah Einbinder) rebooting a slasher franchise who becomes obsessed with the original movie’s Final Girl (Gillian Anderson).
The Last House (August 7th)
Netflix
In this Netflix sci-fi horror survival thriller, a family of four, led by Greta Lee (Past Lives) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent), are suddenly sealed inside their home. As years pass, they’re forced to reckon with the mysterious threat keeping them trapped.
Big Baby (August 7th)
Brainstorm Media
When a struggling horror screenwriter starts having visceral dreams of a serial killer in a baby mask, he decides to turn the nightmares into a screenplay. But reality soon begins to blur as he realises Big Baby’s rampage may be more than just fiction. Brandon Scott (Dead to Me) and Krsy Fox (Terrifier 3) star.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence (August 7th)
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Rebooting the B-movie parody franchise that began with the cult 1978 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, this new instalment sees horror cinema’s most vicious fruit return to wreak havoc on a modern world dependent on AI.
The End of Oak Street (August 14th)
Warner Bros.
In this Spielbergian cosmic horror adventure, a family, led by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, finds their suburban town transported into an unknown reality infested with dinosaurs. David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake) directs.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn (August 14th)
Disney
Premiering on Hulu and Disney+, Chris Carter’s all-new R-rated director’s cut of the 2008 X-Files film, which reunites Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they try to solve a string of disappearances, restores the darker horror elements that were excised for the original PG-13 cut.
Train to Busan (August 14th)
Well Go USA Entertainment
10 years on, Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 action horror epic returns to the big screen. Unfolding on a train from Seoul to Busan, the film follows a neglectful, workaholic father (Gong Yoo) whose efforts to spend more time with his daughter are upended by a zombie outbreak.
Hellcat (August 14th)
Shudder
When Lena (Dakota Gorman) wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrific wound, she’s told by the driver (Todd Terry) that they have one hour to get her to a doctor. But with no memory of how she got there, Lena must decipher the stranger’s intentions and survive at any cost in this single-location thriller premiering on Shudder.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (August 18th)
Dark Sky Films
Returning to cinemas 52 years after its original release, this horror classic and proto-slasher follows a group of friends on a hot summer’s road trip. When they stumble upon a decrepit house hoping to find some gas, they unwittingly encounter a family of cannibals.
Insidious: Out of the Further (August 21st)
Sony Pictures Releasing
In this sixth instalment of the hit horror franchise, the demonic astral plane known as the Further begins to bleed into the real world. Amelia Eve (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Brandon Perea (Nope) star, while franchise veteran Lin Shaye returns.
It Ends (August 21st)
Neon
A hit at SXSW, this Neon-backed liminal cosmic horror follows a friend group of recent graduates who go for a late-night drive as a final gathering before their lives diverge. But when they take a wrong turn, they find themselves stuck on a never-ending, two-lane hellscape.
Buffet Infinity (August 21st)
Shudder
Unfolding entirely over a series of hazy low-budget TV ads, this surreal cosmic horror comedy follows a rivalry between two small-town restaurants that escalates into a sinister tale of cults, sinkholes, and apocalyptic consequences. The offbeat genre film is coming to Shudder after an award-winning festival run.
Hot Spot (August 21st)
Focus Features
Set in a near-future society ruled by sentient AI, a private eye investigates a murder case only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord. Noomi Rapace and Andrzej Konopka star in the sci-fi thriller from The Silent Twins director Agnieszka Smoczyńska.
Blood Shine (August 21st)
Dark Sky Films
When a troubled horror filmmaker (Emily Bennett) retreats to upstate New York to finish his screenplay, he is taken captive by a religious zealot, finding himself at the centre of her increasingly disturbing spiritual practices.
Bury the Devil (August 21st)
Blue Finch Film
Presented in a single continuous take, this gruelling possession horror follows a nurse (Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez) trapped inside the home of her dementia patient (Dawn Ford). As she unravels the mystery that keeps her stuck in the house, she must go beyond her standard duties and perform an exorcism.
The Whisper Man (August 28th)
Netflix
In this harrowing serial killer thriller, a feature adaptation of the best-selling Alex North crime novel of the same name, a widowed writer (Adam Scott) must partner with his estranged father, a retired former police detective (Robert De Niro) with a connection to a child killer known as The Whisper Man, to track down his missing son. Michelle Monaghan and Hamish Linklater also star.
Buddy (August 28th)
Roadside Attractions
Asking the question What if Barney was evil?, Casper Kelly’s (Too Many Cooks) demented horror comedy follows a group of children who must escape a kids television show when their orange unicorn co-star turns violent. Cristin Milioti, Keegan-Michael Key, Topher Grace, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Shannon star.
Colony (August 28th)
StudioCanal
Hitting theatres after a Cannes premiere, Colony sees Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho put a hive-mind spin on his favoured zombie subgenre with this film about a biotech conference sent into chaos by the outbreak of a rapidly mutating virus. Jun Ji-hyun and Koo Kyo-hwan star.
Penny Lane is Dead (August 28th)
Shudder
In this 1986-set Ozploitation throwback premiering on Shudder, three best friends’ sapphic girls-only getaway is disrupted by uninvited guests. Part queer love story and part rape-revenge thriller, the film spirals into gory, practical effects-driven chaos.
Dark Matter (August 28th)
Apple TV
Returning for a second season, Apple TV’s multiverse sci-fi series follows a physicist who is warped into an alternate version of his life when a variant of himself abducts him. Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly star.
Possession (August 28th)
Sky
In this Sky Original supernatural thriller, an ambitious young lawyer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) travels to Jamaica to challenge an inheritance claim. But her trip takes an unexpected turn when she discovers the estate, a former plantation, is the same ominous house that has been haunting her dreams.