Editorials
6 Horror Fan Films That Are Worth Your Time!
For the longest time, I didn’t really get fan films. While I can understand loving a franchise so much that you want to be an official part of it, the idea of investing blood, sweat, and tears into a project that doesn’t even belong to you never made any sense to me.
That was until I did a deep dive into the strange world of fan films and discovered a treasure trove of movies made by folks who only care about story and characters, not the financial bottom line. In fact, there are some beloved franchises that were kept alive for decades through fan-made projects alone, and in honor of unofficial sequels like the upcoming animated film Never Hike Alone: Ghosts in the Fog, I’ve decided to come up with a list recommending six of the best horror fan films that are worth your time!
While this list is purely based on personal opinion, I’ll be making an effort to highlight movies that actually feel like an official part of the cinematic universes that inspired them. Of course, don’t forget to comment below with your own fan-made favorites if you think I missed a particularly entertaining example.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Krueger: Tales From Elm Street (2017)
This 40-minute compilation of Chris R. Notarile’s Krueger webseries may not boast the same production value as some of the other fan-made movies on this list, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining! In fact, I think Notarile’s lo-fi creation is some of the best media to come out of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise since Freddy vs Jason.
A prequel of sorts where we follow Freddy’s exploits before he became a dream demon, this uncomfortably dark anthology explores the child-killer’s vicious M.O. in ways we’ve never seen before. This collection also serves as proof that the Elm Street films can continue without input from the legendary Robert Englund, though it’d be even better if the original Freddy were also involved!
5. Halloween Inferno (2019)
While I enjoy 2018’s Halloween, I feel like it should never have spawned a trilogy. Slashers work best as intimate thrillers with low stakes and relatable characters, so the idea of having Michael’s final killing spree turn into an epic three-part battle against the Strode family never sat right with me. That’s why I really appreciate James and Vincent Coleman’s fan-made sequel to the 2018 movie, with this 45-minute indie project serving as a low-budget coda to David Gordon Green’s film.
The acting and cinematography may not be comparable to Green’s Halloween, but Inferno more than makes up for this with sheer passion for the franchise as well as a moodier take on Michael that I think really works within the confines of a smaller story. This flick is also notable for intimidating Blumhouse while they were working on the official sequels (leading to the full cut of the film disappearing from the internet for a while), which is another reason why I’d recommend it to hardcore Halloween fans.
4. Spawn: The Recall (2014)
I don’t think the 1997 Spawn adaptation is as bad as most people say; it just has the rotten luck of existing in the same world as HBO’s near-perfect animated series that even managed to improve on the source material. However, if we ever get to see Todd McFarlane’s hellish hero in live action again, I hope the project will look something like Michael Paris’ 2014 short.
A passion project with impressive production value for an independent Fan Film, Spawn: The Recall is more of a dark mood piece than anything else, with the story of a mother looking for her lost child serving as more of an excuse to reintroduce us to a different kind of caped crusader lurking in the shadows.
3. Bloody Carnaval 2 (2026)
Out of all the major slasher franchises, Scream is the one best suited for fan projects. After all, Ghostface is more of an idea than a character, and anyone, anywhere can don the mask and voice changer in order to murder a fresh group of unsuspecting teenagers. That’s why there are countless Scream-inspired Fan Films from all over the world, though today I’d like to recommend one that’s a little more familiar to me, personally.
Shot in my hometown of Curitiba, Brazil, Bloody Carnaval 2 (Carnaval Sangrento 2 in the original Portuguese) improves on nearly every aspect of its predecessor. In fact, I’d recommend skipping the first one entirely and diving straight into Renan Cordeiro’s standalone sequel, where a new Ghostface killer uses the costume parties of Carnaval to blend in as they target a fresh batch of victims.
2. Hellraiser: No More Souls (2004)
Some ideas are simply too risky for Hollywood, and that’s why I appreciate it when Fan Films take an established IP and build on it in ways that we know we’ll never get to see on the big screen. A great example of this is Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s Hellraiser: No More Souls, an unofficial short film where the special effects maestro asks a single unnerving question: what happens to the cenobites after the world ends and there are no souls left to torment?
This simple yet eerie yarn is made even better by the fact that Tunnicliffe would one day get to helm his own official Hellraiser movie, with 2018’s Judgement actually being one of the better straight-to-video releases of the franchise despite clearly needing a bigger budget to tell its large-scale story.
1. Never Hike Alone 2 (2023)
The first Never Hike Alone movie was already a kick-ass love-letter to Jason Voorhees, featuring the return of Tommy Jarvis himself, Thom Mathews, as well as a snowy rendition of Crystal Lake that made the setting feel even bleaker. However, a larger budget and a better overarching narrative make the film’s sequel a superior experience, with Never Hike Alone 2 maintaining everything that made the first one work while also feeling a lot more like a proper Hollywood movie.
Hell, the only thing keeping this ambitious project from being an official Friday the 13th movie is approval from Paramount, as I’d argue that it’s actually more fun than several of its “real” inspirations. That’s why Never Hike Alone 2 remains the gold standard for Fan Films, as it’s hard to find this precise combination of filmmaking prowess and love for the source material among fan projects.
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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