Editorials
Bad Idea, Right? The Scariest and Most Toxic Friends in Horror
We’ve all got that friend. The one who convinces us to push our boundaries or take that crazy risk, even though we have a hunch we’ll probably get hurt. They’re exciting, they’re cool, maybe even supportive, but they tend to lead us down the road to trouble, only to duck out when the consequences roll around. Film has a long history of these toxic troublemakers. Looking back, the Horror/Thriller genre was practically built on the backs of these smiling devils, who lure us in with their fun-loving wiles, then lead us off the side of a cliff.
Director William Oldroyd plays with this treacherous archetype in his adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel Eileen. At first, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) seems like a breath of fresh air to Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie). She’s the glamorous new educational director at a boys reformatory, who encourages Eileen to stand up to her alcoholic father. But when one holiday celebration pushes their relationship to the edge, Eileen finds herself spiraling towards disaster. The friendship that once led her to empowerment might ruin her life.
Rest assured, Hathaway’s Rebecca isn’t the only toxic friend on screen; she joins a terrifying rogues gallery of vicious BFFs. As we’re wont to do, Bloody Disgusting has rounded up the faces that’ll make you second guess the next friend you bring into your life.
Chris Hargenson – Carrie (1976)
One of horror’s original mean girls, Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen) rules the hallways of Bates High School with an iron fist. Rich and beautiful, she thrives on cruelty and spends her days torturing lonely outcast Carrie White (Sissy Spacek).
When this shy teen unexpectedly gets her first period in the girl’s locker room, Chris participates in an especially heartless prank, and then becomes enraged when she’s asked to atone for her actions. She convinces her sheep-like friends and dimwitted boyfriend to orchestrate an elaborate prank designed to humiliate Carrie at the senior prom.
Unfortunately, Carrie chooses this mortifying moment to unleash her telekinetic powers and uses the sprinkler system and electrical equipment to set the gym ablaze. Chris slips out the door just in time to watch as Carrie roasts the senior class alive. Not only do Chris’ friends pay the ultimate price for following her lead, but this cruel prank eventually winds up destroying the entire town.
David and Eden – The Invitation (2015)
The only thing worse than going to a dinner party and having to sit through a surprise sales pitch is realizing the offer your friends are extending leads to enrollment in a suicide cult. Will (Logan Marshall-Green) accepts an invitation from his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) in hopes of reuniting with old friends and finding a way to move past the devastating death of their young son.
Unfortunately, Eden and her new boyfriend David (Michiel Huisman), have become involved with a dangerous group obsessed with the spirituality of death. They deliver an awkward and upsetting presentation that features an assisted suicide, then invite their dangerous new friends to give their own uncomfortable testimony.
The trouble continues as David and Eden serve poisoned wine to their guests, hoping to take the whole group with them on a murder-suicide mission. The evening devolves into carnage and mayhem as Will and his friends try to survive the dinner party from hell.
David – The Lost Boys (1987)
Few people on earth can make the party lifestyle look as effortlessly cool as Kiefer Sutherland. Joel Schumacher’s cult classic follows Sutherland’s David — and his group of disaffected teen vampires, mind you — as they wander the beaches and piers of Santa Carla, California. Together, they stir up trouble, all while feeding on unsuspecting locals. New in town, Michael (Jason Patric) finds himself drawn to David, channeling his own adolescent angst into the vampire’s devil-may-care lifestyle.
Perhaps sensing a kindred spirit, David courts Michael with powerful visions and membership in his crew of “bloodsuckers.” Meanwhile, Michael’s little brother Sam (Corey Haim) falls in with a pre-teen duo of would-be vampire hunters determined to take David down. Caught up in the town’s complicated ecosystem, the brothers must find and kill the head vampire before Michael becomes a permanent member of David’s undead gang. So, win-some, lose-some in this scenario.
Hedy – Single White Female (1992)
Finding an apartment in this hellish housing market can be murder. Software designer Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda) is still reeling from a painful breakup when she realizes she must find a roommate to supplement her ex’s half of the rent or she’ll lose her coveted apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
After placing a personal ad and conducting a series of disastrous interviews, Allie meets Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a shy, young woman with a tragic past. At first, the new roommates seem like a match made in heaven, but Hedy’s devotion to Allie takes a dark turn. Not only does she intercept contrite messages from Allie’s ex, she fills her closet with a duplicate wardrobe.
When Hedy gets a carbon copy of Allie’s signature haircut, the frightened woman decides to rid herself of this clingy new friend. Unfortunately, this proves easier said than done, and Hedy will not exit Allie’s life without a fight. Struggling to reclaim her identity, Allie must evict this sociopathic “friend” before Hedy takes over her life for good.
Ben – The Innocents (2021)
Most of the toxic friends on this list may be adults, but Eskil Vogt’s chilling Norwegian film proves that children can be just as dangerous and sometimes even more frightening. Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) and Ida (Rakel Lenora Petersen Fløttum) are young sisters spending the summer wandering around the grounds of their large apartment complex. Along with neighborhood kids Ben (Sam Ashraf) and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), Anna develops telekinetic powers that appear to strengthen when the foursome is together.
Initially, the kids have fun exploring the limits of these newfound gifts, but the troubled Ben begins to use his psychic abilities to harm others. He delights in torturing animals and begins to overpower the rest of the group. When Ben’s playful games take a deadly turn, the sisters must band together to defend themselves against his invisible strength. The playground turns into a warzone as Ben decides that the only way to maintain his dominance is to take out his former friends once and for all.
Juno – The Descent (2005)
Juno (Natalie Mendoza) is definitely that girl. She’s not only incredibly beautiful and athletic, she’s a natural leader who excels at anything she tries to do. She also happens to be sleeping with the husband of her best friend Sarah (Shauna Macdonald). One year after a devastating accident, Juno leads Sarah and their adventurous friends on a challenging spelunking trip in the Appalachian Mountains. Unbeknownst to the group, she’s actually taken them to an undiscovered cave in hopes that they will explore the new system and name it for themselves.
Her plan goes awry, however, when the women stumble upon a clan of humanoid monsters who’ve lived for centuries in the pitch-black darkness, feasting on the flesh of previous explorers. If that weren’t enough, unresolved trauma rears its ugly head and the women find themselves warring with each other, in addition to the killer cave-dwellers. It would appear that Juno has finally pushed her luck too far, and her bright idea may end up costing her friends their lives.
Eileen is currently playing in select theaters. Get your tickets now.
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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