Our Most Anticipated Horror Movies and TV Shows at TIFF 2026
From a Friday the 13th prequel to Mike Flanagan’s Carrie miniseries
by Alex Kaan 9 September 2026
Sony Pictures Releasing
The Toronto International Film Festival returns in its 51st edition with a thrilling horror-heavy line-up. From Mike Flanagan’s modern-day update of Carrie to Brad Caleb Kane’s (It: Welcome to Derry) Friday the 13th prequel series, this fall’s biggest horror TV shows are having their world premiere at the festival, not to mention the Josh Hartnett-led Netflix sea monster series Below and the supernatural mystery YAGA starring Hudson Williams of ‘Heated Rivalry’ fame.
On the film front, scream queens Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) and Jane Levy (Evil Dead) team up for a slasher, Cole Sprouse (Lisa Frankenstein) leads a gruesome action horror, and Kristine Froseth (Her Private Hell) stars in a new chiller from The Love Witch director Anna Biller.
TIFF runs from September 10th to 20th.
Carrie
Prime Video
Arriving 50 years after Brian De Palma’s classic film adaptation, Stephen King’s debut novel about a bullied girl (Summer H. Howell) with telekinetic powers is getting a modern reimagining from The Haunting of Hill House showrunner Mike Flanagan. Matthew Lillard co-stars.
Crystal Lake
Peacock
From It: Welcome to Derry writer Brad Kane, this 1950s-set psychological horror prequel series follows the original Friday the 13th film’s villain, Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), as she gets revenge on Camp Crystal Lake after negligent counsellors cause the tragic death of her son, the infamous Jason (Callum Vinson).
River
IFC & Shudder
When two embittered sisters, played by scream queens Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), and their younger brother (Max Mattern of Cape Fear) take out the family motorboat to scatter their father’s ashes, a masked killer turns the cathartic trip into a nerve-shredding slasher nightmare.
YAGA
Sky
With sex, witchcraft, and an atmospheric coastal small-town setting, this eerie horror mystery follows a detective (The Vampire Lestat’s Noah Reid) investigating the disappearance of the young heir to a powerful fishery (Hudson Williams of Heated Rivalry fame). Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) also stars.
Below
Netflix
In this Netflix limited series, Josh Hartnett (Trap, The Faculty) returns to the horror genre as a fisherman who must defend his small coastal Canadian town from a terrifying sea monster. Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) and Mackenzie Davis (Speak No Evil) also star.
The Face of Horror
Courtesy of TIFF
Adapting the Japanese ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan for medieval England, the latest from Anna Biller (The Love Witch) follows a wronged woman (Kristine Froseth) as she plots her revenge on her devious knight husband (Jonah Hauer-King) in this gory, campy Hammer Horror-esque fable.
Vintage Violence
Courtesy of TIFF
After making Stranger Things’ Joe Keery a murderous wannabe internet personality in Spree, Eugene Kotlyarenko returns with another genre film about a livestreamer. This time, Cole Sprouse plays an American whose discovery of rare vintage jeans thrusts him into a bloody battle with the Yakuza.
Inherit
Courtesy of TIFF
In this psychological thriller from Thai horror filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, The Medium), a wealthy family discover the horrific secret behind their grandmother’s (Davika Hoorne) striking beauty and youth: she is possessed by a centipede demon, and it wants a new host.
Stuffed
Courtesy of TIFF
In this offbeat body horror musical starring Jodie Comer (28 Years Later) and Harry Melling (Pillion), a taxidermist develops a twisted romance with an oddball who offers to help fulfil her dream of stuffing a human.
The Unknown
Courtesy of TIFF
In this psychological body horror directed by the Oscar-winning co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall, a Parisian photographer (Niels Schneider) finds his life irreversibly changed after encountering an entity that makes its victims swap bodies after sex, forcing him to live as a German actress (Léa Seydoux).
The Spiral
Propaganda Italia
On a dark and stormy night, Alice’s (Romana Maggiora Vergano) life is upended when her mother (Jasmine Trinca) knocks on her door to deliver a terrible secret about a Faustian bargain made 27 years earlier. Paolo Strippoli’s psychological horror follows last year’s The Holy Boy, the Italian director’s acclaimed Wicker Man-esque folk horror.
Ken Russell’s The Devils (4K Director’s Cut)
Warner Bros. Clockwork
One of the most controversial and censored films of all time, this 1971 horror drama follows a sexually repressed nun (Vanessa Redgrave) who incites a witchcraft trial in a 17th-century Catholic Church. Warner Bros. Clockwork is finally releasing a 114-minute 4K version billed as “The Director’s Cut”.
BONUS: Obsession’s Curry Barker & Inde Navarrette in conversation
Focus Features
After its TIFF world premiere one year ago, indie horror Obsession has become a global phenomenon, grossing $500 million worldwide. With Oscar buzz already in the air, writer-director Curry Barker and breakout star Inde Navarrette return to the festival to reflect on the smash hit.