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Horror Devours Oscars 2026: ‘Sinners’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Weapons’, and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Stake the Competition
The blood ran thick on the red carpet as Horror haunted the 2026 Academy Awards in an historic night.
With a record-breaking 16 nods, Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners staked four essential wins: Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay for writer-director Ryan Coogler; Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson (his third Oscar win and second with Coogler); and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first woman to win the award and the first woman of color to be nominated.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein stormed off with three creative wins, specifically Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Hair and Makeup.
Elsewhere, Amy Madigan kicked off the night’s festivities by winning Best Supporting Actress for Weapons in a tough-as-nails category.
While, to no one’s surprise, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters staked Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song for “Golden,” all in the wake of its recent sequel announcement.
Below is the full slate of the genre’s nominees in bold with winners in red.
Best Picture:
BugoniaF1FrankensteinHamnetMarty SupremeOne BattleSecret AgentSentimental ValueSinnersTrain Dreams
Winner: One Battle After Another
Best Director:
Chloé Zhao, HamnetJosh Safdie, Marty SupremePaul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After AnotherJoachim Trier, Sentimental ValueRyan Coogler, Sinners
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Actress in a Leading Role:
Jessie Buckley, HamnetRose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick YouKate Hudson, Song Sung BlueRenate Reinsve, Sentimental ValueEmma Stone, Bugonia
Winner: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Actor in a Leading Role:
- Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
- Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
- Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
- Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
- Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Winner:
- Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Actress in a Supporting Role:
- Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
- Amy Madigan, Weapons
- Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
- Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Winner:
- Amy Madigan, Weapons
Actor in a Supporting Role:
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After AnotherJacob Elordi, FrankensteinDelroy Lindo, SinnersSean Penn, One Battle After AnotherStellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Winner: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Adapted Screenplay:
BugoniaFrankensteinHamnetOne Battle After AnotherTrain Dreams
Winner: One Battle After Another
Original Screenplay:
- Blue Moon
- It Was Just an Accident
- Marty Supreme
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
Winner:
- Sinners
Costume Design:
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- Sinners
Winner:
- Frankenstein
Achievement in Casting:
HamnetMarty SupremeOne Battle After AnotherThe Secret AgentSinners
Winner: One Battle After Another
Makeup and Hairstyling:
- Frankenstein
- Kokuho
- Sinners
- The Smashing Machine
- The Ugly Stepsister
Winner:
- Frankenstein
Original Score:
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Winner:
- Sinners
Animated Feature Film:
- Arco
- Elio
- KPop Demon Hunters
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
- Zootopia 2
Winner:
- KPop Demon Hunters
Cinematography:
- Frankenstein
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
Winner:
- Sinners
Film Editing:
F1Marty SupremeOne Battle After AnotherSentimental ValueSinners
Winner: One Battle After Another
Original Song:
- “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless
- “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters
- “I Lied to You” from Sinners
- “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi
- “Train Dreams” from Train Dreams
Winner:
- “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters
Production Design:
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Winner:
- Frankenstein
Sound:
F1FrankensteinOne Battle After AnotherSinnersSirat
Winner: F1
Visual Effects:
Avatar: Fire and AshF1Jurassic World RebirthThe Lost BusSinners
Winner: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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