Editorials
Snowed In: 10 Chilling Winter Set Horror Movies!
There’s something about horror movies set in winter that makes for an added layer of dread. The dreary, sunless skies could be a factor in setting a grim mood. But it probably has more to do with the fact that the harsh winter weather makes for an added serious threat. It’s one thing to fight off an unrelenting killer with a pickaxe in a summer camp, but it’s even trickier when the battle is smack in the middle of a blizzard. If the killer doesn’t finish you off, the freezing temperatures surely will. These 10 chilling winter set horror movies make things extra difficult for the protagonists and will make you want to burrow under a warm blanket.
The Shining
The Shining is a worthwhile watch any time of year, including the 4th of July. But the very setup, in which Jack Torrance and his family take up residence in the Overlook Hotel to watch over it during the harsh winter months, means that the snowy winter months are peak viewing conditions. The Torrance family is isolated inside, slowly terrorized by the hotel’s ghosts within, while the outside world is cut off from them due to major blizzards. The unrelenting snowfall factors into the third act in a major way, making you feel the cold from the comfort of your couch.
Curtains
Six young actresses are spending their weekend at a remote mansion enduring what may be the most eccentric audition for a movie role. Naturally, it’s the perfect setting for a masked killer to start picking them off one by one, and it just so happens to be winter. There aren’t very many slashers set in icy weather, and Curtains takes full advantage of its winter setting. The most memorable kills involve the creepy masked killer using the weather against the victims, including the film’s best death sequence set on a frozen pond. Sickles and ice skating equal bad news.
Blood Glacier
Sometimes winter set horror is too bleak. Enter Blood Glacier, an Austrian horror comedy about the discovery of a strange liquid leaking from a melting glacier in the Alps, and its bizarre affect on local wildlife. As in, that red liquid is turning everything into deadly mutated creatures. This is pure camp that doesn’t take itself seriously, and delivers spit-taking lines like, “Stop eating that banana while you’re crying!” Memorable characters, monstrous creatures, and an icy mountain setting means Blood Glacier is a winter wonderland of silly horror meant to be consumed among friends.
Storm of the Century
The residents of Little Tall Island are trapped without outside access thanks to a dangerous blizzard that only continues to worsen. Trapped with them is an ominous stranger, who quickly makes a statement by murdering a long-time neighbor. Penned by Stephen King, Storm of the Century builds suspense as the stranger continues to dangle his motivations out of reach while exploiting the darkest secrets of the residents. The outside world may be dangerous thanks to harsh weather conditions, but sometimes inside is even more dangerous.
Ghost Story
Based on Peter Straub’s beloved novel, Ghost Story tells of two generations of men haunted by the same woman. The snowy New England winter setting is perfect for this tale of the supernatural; it chills inside and out. There’s an old tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time, and while this isn’t a Christmas movie, it is a great example of why the tradition exists in the first place. Alice Krige owns this movie, and legendary artist Dick Smith’s special makeup creations are worth the price of admission alone.
Frozen
Often in winter set horror, the setting keeps the characters trapped in place with the killer or supernatural entity closing in around them. Adam Green refreshingly makes the weather the thing to fear in his survival thriller Frozen. A weekend getaway at a ski resort in New England becomes a harrowing fight for survival for three skiers when they’re trapped on a chairlift high off the ground. An incoming storm has the resort shut down, with no one aware that anyone was left behind. Worsening conditions means time is an urgent matter as the trio face frostbite, wolves, each other, and death. This one will make you rethink going outside during winter.
Trollhunter
Before director André Øvredal unnerved with The Autopsy of Jane Doe, there was this fantastic twist to Norwegian folklore. A group of students venture into the frigid forests to investigate a series of unusual bear killings, but find something much more dangerous is responsible. The landscape plays a major factor into this stunning world, and Øvredal quickly establishes an eye for detail. The fascinating mythology and great special effects make this a fun watch, and gives a new spin on the found footage subgenre.
Cold Prey
A group of five friends snowboarding in a secluded area of the mountains in Jotunheimen are forced to find shelter when one breaks their leg. They take refuge in a deserted lodge, completely abandoned save for the homicidal maniac dubbed the Mountain Man. Cold Prey is a fantastic modern slasher with a stunning snowy backdrop that does factor into the group’s fight for survival. Suspenseful, brutal, and with one of horror’s most underrated final girls in Jannicke. Cold Prey 2 is also great, and borrows heavy story cues from Halloween II. So, make it a double feature.
We Are Still Here
Similar to Ghost Story, this too is a ghost story set in 1979 New England winter, though this particular supernatural haunter is more closely aligned with the works of Lucio Fulci. Couple Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig) move into a new home in a rural area after the loss of their only son. Deep depression in a dreary winter would be enough for any couple to contend with, but their new home happens to be the cursed Dagmar house and its just awoken from a 30-year slumber. It’s hungry for blood. We Are Still Here takes a quiet haunted house story and revs it up to an explosive, gory finale.
The Thing
Of course, no winter set horror list could exist without the pinnacle of movies set in sub-freezing temperature. John Carpenter’s The Thing is pure paranoid perfection. A shape-shifting alien flees from a Norwegian research station and finds solace in the American research station in Antarctica, before viciously consuming its victims and assuming their appearance in this glorious special effect driven spectacle. The sub-zero setting means there’s no place to flee, and the crew soon turn on one another as it becomes less clear who is still human. Even if they can defeat the monstrous entity, surviving the elements is far less certain.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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