With huge hits like Iron Lung, Obsession, and Backrooms, 2026 has been a watershed year for indie horror developed by filmmakers who originally started as online content creators. That’s why Hollywood has been desperately combing the internet for fresh talent capable of delivering the next billion dollar box office darling.
Of course, the internet is a pretty big place, and there are countless talented creators simultaneously competing for attention in a sea of algorithmically curated content. That’s why I’ve decided to come up with this list highlighting six viral horror shorts created by filmmakers that I think Hollywood should pay more attention to.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll only be considering shorts that have already earned their creators some form of notoriety and could possibly even be expanded into feature films. However, don’t let that keep you from sharing your own favorite viral horror videos with us in the comments below.
One more thing: while it definitely hasn’t gone viral and won’t be an official part of this list, I’d also like to plug my very own found footage short, Kelly, about a lonely man who builds himself a companion out of sticks and old clothing that’s now available to stream for free on HorrorHoundTV!
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. Trench Dogs (2026) by Saint Greaver
Formatted like an old-timey documentary/propaganda piece about the unfortunate canine soldiers on the front lines of a fictional war, Trench Dogs is one of the most immersive shorts on this list despite (or perhaps because of) its bizarre animated visuals. The short’s disturbing imagery was actually inspired by a combination of Cronenbergian body horror and real World War I footage, and the end result feels a lot like a particularly gnarly fever dream.
While the film is technically a part of Saint Greaver’s ongoing Ersatz project, a crowd-funded series chronicling an endless war between immortal soldiers, this standalone video is proof that Greaver’s penchant for grimdark storytelling could easily be adapted to Hollywood in either animation or live-action, provided that there’s a big enough budget for practical body horror.
4. Better The Devil You Know (2025) by Daniel Silverman
There’s something inherently otherworldly about old sitcoms. Maybe it’s the antiquated recording technology, or perhaps it’s the voyeuristic thrill of observing people who are a little too idealized to act like real people, but there’s definitely a treasure trove of potential horror in this familiar medium that few genre filmmakers dare to explore.
Daniel Silverman is one such intrepid filmmaker, with his 2025 short Better The Devil You Know using the ’90s sitcom aesthetic to explore a metatextual hellscape that only gets freakier the longer you watch. With the short garnering nearly a million views as fans continue to dissect this televised descent into madness, it wouldn’t be too surprising if a studio showed up and gave Daniel the chance to expand his idea into a feature presentation.
3. The God Man (2024) by Andrew Foerster
Another animated indie project, Andrew Foerster’s The God Man is more unsettling than it is scary, but this ambitious piece of cosmic storytelling still manages to be much more effective than its simple visuals would initially have you believe. After all, the mockumentary presentation lures you into a fascinating alternate reality where first contact led to more questions than answers.
Foerster’s clever subversion of common genre tropes has convinced me that he may very well be the next Gooseworx (creator of The Amazing Digital Circus), as the filmmaker also has a penchant for using simple animation as a tool to explore complex subject matter. That’s also why I wouldn’t be surprised if Hollywood producers picked up The God Man (or any of Foerster’s other projects) for big screen development in the near future. Of course, any future God Man projects should also bring Trevor Henderson back as the lead creature designer!
2. Curve (2016) by Tim Egan
Curve has actually gone viral several times since its debut over a decade ago, with different generations of internet-goers stumbling onto its agony-inducing visuals and setting and wondering: “why haven’t these filmmakers made it big in Hollywood yet?”
The premise alone here is pure nightmare fuel, with our unfortunate protagonist waking up on a curved precipice that appears to have been mathematically calculated to produce the maximum amount of anxiety in viewers. Of course, it’s Laura Jane Turner’s compelling performance and Tim Egan’s masterful use of suspense that make this such a memorable short and a project that could easily be adapted into something much bigger in the hands of the right studio.
1. There Is No Antimemetics Division (2024) by Adria Lang
I already reviewed the revised edition of Qntm’s mind-bending cosmic horror novel There Is No Antimemetics Division, but the author’s serialized story has been influencing the internet ever since that first fateful post on the SCP Archive all the way back in 2015.
In fact, before the standalone version of the book was even released, we had already seen a short film adaptation of one of its most memorable chapters. Starring Jasika Nicole and directed by Adria Lang, this trippy thriller was a huge hit with SCP enthusiasts and Creepypasta fans in general, and that’s why I think this entire creative team deserves a chance at bringing the Antimemetics story to life as a major motion picture.
Of course, there’s always a chance that they already made the movie and we simply forgot about it!
