The 2026 edition of SXSW Film Festival (March 12-18, 2026), taking place in Austin, TX, continues to pack its slate full of horror.

SXSW 2026’s first wave of programming unveiled buzzy Headliners including Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, The Trip remake Over Your Dead Body, and They Will Kill You, as well as a thrilling slate of Midnighters.

The highly anticipated Hokum is among the latest additions joining this year’s fest, along with Sundance faves Buddy and Leviticus. That’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Read on for the new genre titles included in SXSW 2026’s lineup:

HEADLINER
Big names, big talent featuring red carpet premieres and gala film events with major and rising names in cinema.

Pretty Lethal (United Kingdom)
Director: Vicky Jewson, Producers: Kelly McCormick, Mike Karz, William Bindley, Piers Tempest, Screenwriter: Kate Freund
An action-packed thriller where five ballerinas, stranded in a remote forest, take shelter at an unsettling roadside inn. They must weaponize years of brutal training, turning grace, discipline, and even pointe shoes into tools for survival. Cast: Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Uma Thurman (World Premiere)

MIDNIGHTER
Exciting after-dark features for genre lovers and the terminally curious.

Hokum (Ireland, United States)
Director/Screenwriter: Damian McCarthy, Producers: Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Derek Dauchy, Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, Mairtín de Barra
When novelist Ohm Bauman retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance forces him to confront dark corners of his past. Cast: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot, Florence Ordesh, Will O’Connell, Michael Patric, Siox C, Brendan Conroy, Austin Amelio, Ezra Carlisle (World Premiere)

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT
Unforgettable features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres.

Chili Finger
Directors: Edd Benda, Stephen Helstad, Producers: Sam Sandweiss, Jo Henriquez, Screenwriter: Stephen Helstad
When a small town lawyer discovers a severed finger in her chili, she blackmails the restaurant for a cash payout in an effort to regain control over her mundane life. The situation quickly spirals out of control, and her life descends into chaos. Cast: Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman, Sara Sevigny, Dann Florek (World Premiere)

Kill Me
Director/Screenwriter: Peter Warren, Producers: Nate Bolotin, Keith Goldberg, Natalie Metzger, Maxime Cottray, Mike Richardson, Charlie Day, Peter Warren
Jimmy didn’t try to kill himself. Or at least, he’s pretty sure he didn’t… With the help of a reluctant 911 operator, he sets out on a darkly comedic amateur investigation to solve whether he is being stalked by a killer or chasing himself. Cast: Charlie Day, Allison Williams, Giancarlo Esposito, Aya Cash, Jessica Harper, David Krumholtz, Tony Cavalero (World Premiere)

Normal
Director: Ben Wheatley, Producers: Marc Provissiero, Derek Kolstad, Bob Odenkirk, Screenwriter: Derek Kolstad
Director Ben Wheatley and John Wick creator Derek Kolstad pit a provisional sheriff against his constituents when the exposure of a small town’s sordid secret sparks a rip-roaring firefight. Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Brendan Fletcher, Reena Jolly, Peter Shinkoda, Jess McLeod, Derek Barnes (U.S. Premiere)

The Saviors
Director: Kevin Hamedani, Producers: Matt Smith, Dan Gedman, Nicholas Weinstock, Naomi Scott, Adam Scott, Divya D’Souza, Bradley Gallo, Michael Helfant, Screenwriters: Kevin Hamedani, Travis Betz
An estranged couple rents out their Airbnb, but soon start to suspect their guests might be plotting something nefarious. As the couple investigates, they rekindle their relationship and discover something stranger than they could have imagined. Cast: Adam Scott, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, Kate Berlant, Nazanin Boniadi, Daveed Diggs, Ron Perlman, Colleen Camp, Greg Kinnear (World Premiere)

Ugly Cry
Director/Screenwriter: Emily Robinson, Producers: Sophia Sabella, Pablo Feldman, Jolene Mendes, Rhianon Jones, Tristan Scott-Behrends, Emily Robinson
An actor loses their dream role because of their “ugly cry” causing them to spiral down the dark and dangerous path to perfection. Cast: Emily Robinson, Ryan Simpkins, Aaron Dominguez, Robin Tunney (World Premiere)

FESTIVAL FAVORITE
Acclaimed standouts from festivals around the world.

Buddy
Director: Casper Kelly, Producers: Tyler Davidson, Drew Sykes, Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Tracy Rosenblum, Screenwriters: Casper Kelly, Jamie King
A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids television show. Cast: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt (Texas Premiere)

Leviticus (Australia)
Director/Screenwriter: Adrian Chiarella, Producers: Samantha Jennings, Kristina Ceyton, Hannah Ngo
Two teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most — each other. Cast: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska, Jeremy Blewitt, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie, Nicholas Hope, Zahra Newman (Texas Premiere)

Rock Springs
Director/Screenwriter: Vera Miao, Producers: Stephen Feder, Kiri Hart, Charles D. King, Poppy Hanks, Greta Talia Fuentes, Jason Michael Berman, Matthew Lindner, Jordan Moldo, Vera Miao
After the death of her father, a grieving young girl moves to an isolated house in a new town with her mother and grandmother, only to discover there is something monstrous hidden in the town’s history and the woods behind their new home. Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Benedict Wong, Jimmy O. Yang, Aria Kim, Fiona Fu (Texas Premiere)

VISIONS
Audacious, risk-taking artists who demonstrate innovation and creativity.

Bagworm
Director: Oliver Bernsen, Producer: Zoe Rosenberg, Screenwriter: Henry Bernsen
After a sexually frustrated hammer salesman steps on a rusty nail, he must determine whether the world’s sudden and violent turn against him is real or the result of an infection consuming his body and mind. Cast: Peter Falls, Michelle Ortiz, Robbie Arnett, Corbin Bernsen, Stephen Borrello, Jessy Morner-Ritt, Sydney Winbush, Francesca Galassi (North American Premiere)

Dead Eyes (Australia)
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Richard E. Williams
After the death of his sister, Sean ventures into a remote forest with his friends to find his missing father, only to discover his grief has become the bridge between the living and the dead. Cast: Ana Thu-Nguyen, Mischa Heywood, Rijen Laine, Charles Cottier, Alea O’Shea, Stephen Phillips, Freya Callaghan, Lewis Smith (World Premiere)

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“Reacher” star Alan Ritchson battles a deadly, otherworldly force in the trailer for War Machine.

Bringing to mind sci-fi action spectacles like Terminator, Predator, and Battleship, the movie makes landfall March 6 on Netflix.

In the film, during the final stage of US Army Ranger selection, an elite team’s training exercise turns into a fight for survival against an unimaginable threat.

Ritchson stars with Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Blake Richardson, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Daniel Webber.

Patrick Hughes (The Hitman’s Bodyguard, The Expendables 3) directs from a script he co-wrote with James Beaufort.

Wolf Creek filmmaker Greg McLean produces with Hughes for Huge Film alongside Todd Lieberman & Alexander Young of Hidden Pictures and Rich Cook of Range. Valerie Bleth Sharp executive produces.

War Machine is rated R for “strong violence, grisly images, and language.”

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Neon has released a poster for the Exit 8, providing a chance to turn back before entering the liminal subway station in tomorrow’s trailer.

The Japanese psychological horror thriller opens in theaters nationwide on April 10.

Based on the popular video game created by Kotake Create, the film follows a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway as he sets out to find Exit 8.

The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

Your Name. producer Kawamura Genki directs from a script he co-wrote with Kentaro Hirase.

Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) stars with Yamato Kôchi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, and Nana Komatsu (Silence).

Kenji Yamada (Godzilla Minus One), Yuto Sakata, Akito Yamamoto, and Taichi Ito produce.

Exit 8 premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, receiving an 8-minute standing ovation. It went on to play the Toronto International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, Beyond Fest, Busan International Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The movie was a hit in its native Japan, grossing over $27 million upon its release last fall.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review out of TIFF, “The true magic of Exit 8 lies with its impressive ability to recreate the feeling of playing a game, as you find yourself scouring the walls, floors, and ceilings of a cosmic backroom hallway to assist the Lost Man in his search for anomalies.”

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In 2004, two Aussie filmmakers not only took Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival by storm, but the horror industry at large. That year, James Wan and Leigh Whannell stood outside Park City’s Egyptian Theatre, braving the winter’s biting cold while their nasty, tear-your-guts-out feature debut played to audiences for the first time. That film, the spark that’d ignite a massive franchise sensation for Lionsgate, is, of course, Saw.

At this year’s Sundance, Wan and Whannell returned to Utah’s ski resort hub to pay homage not only to their film’s anniversary, but also to Sundance’s final year in Park City before the impending move to Boulder, Colorado. Saw was programmed as part of a “Park City Legacy” slate, since a fateful Sundance Midnight premiere launched one of the buzziest, bloodiest intellectual properties in 2000s horror history.

Speaking exclusively to Bloody Disgusting, Whannell reflects: “I was standing outside the Egyptian last night, and they’re not showing movies there this year. I felt melancholy about that, because that was where Saw premiered. It feels like the end of an era for Sundance, and a full circle for us, just to be back here. Things were happening to us at that age, faster than we could move, and we were going along with it.”

The solemnity in his voice is understood. Saw’s triumphant return to Sundance 22 years later puts it among countless other monumental breakouts. Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and Mary Harron’s American Psycho are in league with a trike-peddling puppet with blood-red, swirly cheeks (who also returned to Sundance).

Leigh Whannell in Saw

It’s a full-circle moment for Wan, who made a promise to himself about attending film festivals.

“Leigh and I had this philosophy, back when we were in Australia, that we wouldn’t go to a particular festival unless we had a movie showing. Sundance was our first mainstream festival. I’ve always said, ‘I’m not going to come back to Sundance until I come back with a movie.’ And, well, I’ve never had a chance to come back with another movie until now.”

A lot was, in fact, happening to Wan and Whannell — but they were savvier than most rookie creators. According to Business Insider, they turned down a $5 million offer from Lionsgate before striking a deal with the studio where they’d forgo an advance, pay Lionsgate an “18%-20%” distribution fee, and pocket the rest. Notably, Saw grossed $104 million worldwide on a $1 million budget. These boys knew they had a hit on their hands, but to the extent that the franchise exploded? No one could predict.

Part of the pomp and circumstance around Sundance releases is the reception. Sometimes filmmakers humbly accept standing ovations; other times they’re verbally accosted outside theaters by furious attendees (like Lucky McKee after The Woman). When I asked Wan and Whannell what post-screening reactions stood out to them, the Aquaman director lit up and, quite playfully (very good-natured), recalled a close-to-home memory:

“Bloody Disgusting shit on it! [Saw] was reviewed by Brad Miska’s brother, and I have held Brad to the fucking fire over that. When he got around to watching [Saw], he told his brother, ‘What the fuck are you talking about? Did we not watch the same movie?’ [Brad] said that his brother watched [Saw] when he was really drunk that night, at the premiere. [His brother] was like, ‘I don’t know what movie I just watched.’ You can quote me on that one.”

Bloody Disgusting atoned for its sins when its managing editor Meagan Navarro ranked it among the best horror movies of the 2000s. (Editors note: Brad Miska, who left the company last year after ceding site operations to EIC John Squires in 2021, reviewed the film favorably.)

However, critiques are merely one post-release inevitability for any filmmaker. What’s more important is the almighty dollar. Ticket sales dictate a film’s longevity and future possibilities. Saw’s performance was so prolific that it didn’t just spawn a franchise that’s still beating John Kramer’s dead (or alive) corpse, with entries pouring out of his cracked skull like a graveyard piñata. Saw was the new “It” thing, horror’s subgenre du jour. Studios clamored to acquire or produce their Saw lookalike—your Grotesque (2009) or Captivity (2007)—but, as is typically true, no copycats could dethrone Jigsaw.

Shawnee Smith as Amanda in Saw.

Still, Wan and Whannell had to watch as less-than-valiant mimicry turned the public sour on Saw-esque movies. Thus, the term “Torture Porn” became both a subgenre classification and a low-blow critique to generalize these gore-heavy, plot-thin mutilation parades. The “Splat Pack” era, as Wan remembers, although he shooed away the “Torture Porn” phrase (rightfully so, given how Saw reached far beyond mindless gratuity). Imitation is the sincerest form of flatter after all, and per Wan, “We were honored that people felt that our movie meant something and that they wanted to imitate it. [Horror] movies don’t look like that anymore, but I’m sure it’ll come back. Like fashion, it’s cyclical.”

Whannell is a little more introspective about their influence over the Horrorsphere. “It was cool that we were like the tip of the spear in this movement, this trend—and that was a great thing for two people who really wanted to be in the film business.” Saw was a pop-culture phenomenon, thanks in part to Tobin Bell‘s iconic role as John Kramer, and also to everyone’s favorite cackling dolly, Billy the Puppet.

“There were Saw references in The Simpsons, South Park, The Sopranos … It was pretty awesome to penetrate pop culture in that way.”

As we all know, much of the Saw franchise was produced without Wan or Whannell’s involvement despite being the concept’s masterminds. “I didn’t do the sequels because I felt I had already made the movie I wanted to make,” Wan confirms. “Leigh was going to produce, and ultimately, he was going to write [Saw II] … at least one of us has a creative voice that is going to at least shepherd the next one or two movies.” But that would only last Saw II and Saw III, as we all know. After that? Whannell reminisces about how Saw kept evolving without their guidance. “James and I had this strange, surreal experience once a year, driving down the street and seeing a billboard for this thing that we created in Melbourne when we were starving ex-film students, and now it’s out in the world.”

‘It wasn’t for a lack of money either,” Wan interjects, regarding his declining to participate in any sequels despite Lionsgate’s financial sweeteners. “I’m still crying about it,” a fourth voice chimes in from over my shoulder. “Put this in the article, ‘A single tier fell down the face of their agent, Scott Henderson,’” Whannell insists with a grin.

Whannell confirmed that although he lasted longer than Wan, apprehension was abound. “The true story is, I followed James’s lead at first. I didn’t want to be involved either.” Apparently, [Lionsgate] came back to Whannell once they had a writer and begged him to “pretty please get involved.” With proper incentives, Whannell penned his two sequels, but by Saw III, he’d reached his limitations. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m done here. I can’t think of any more ways to kill someone with a power drill.’”

So what did Whannell do? Put a stake through Jigsaw’s heart.

“I killed Jigsaw. I was like, ‘This is pretty definitive.‘ Which [Lionsgate] regrets to this day. If the producers could go back in time, they wouldn’t be killing Hitler, they’d be convincing me not to kill Jigsaw.”

With overnight attention came trepidation and mild paranoia. Whannell continues, “We had this fear of like, we didn’t want Saw to be our epitaph.” They didn’t want Saw to be their legacy because that would mean nothing else connected with audiences. “So when we did Insidious, it was a big sigh of relief … because luckily we were not one-hit-wonders.” In Whannell’s words, they avoided the curse of Dexys Midnight Runners. “[All] they get asked about is ‘Come On Eileen,’ yet they had other songs.” Thankfully, as the years went by and both filmmakers bolstered their resumes, success became a perennial occurrence.

Although there was one unfortunate side-effect of their meteoric rise to superstardom, in Whannell’s opinion: Dead Silence.

When I asked Whannell what advice he’d give to his pre-Saw self, the wide-eyed Australian lad about to rewrite horror history, he said, “I would go back and tell myself, ‘Hey, slow down. Wait until [Saw] comes out and then make some choices.’” When asked if that was a slight on Dead Silence, he confirmed directly, “I’ve been complaining about Dead Silence for 20 years, I’m not going to stop.”

At this point, the interview turned chaotic in a completely on-brand and delightful way. Wan and Whannell are poster boys for best-friend dynamics, with energetic jesting and mutually committed bits.

I tried my best, as a Dead Silence defender, to turn Whannell’s disdain. Alas, he insists, “I think my final words … My daughter’s going to grasp my hand, and [say], ‘I love you, Dad.’ Then I’m going to respond like, ‘Me too. But that fucking puppet movie, man. What the hell were they thinking?’”

Wan adds fuel to Ravens Fair’s fire by calling Dead Silence Whannell’s Rosebud, to which the goaded scribe retorts with a smile, “Yeah, Rosebud. Except no one will know what it means because I’ll be like, ‘Shh.’”

For what it’s worth, Mr. Whannell, I’m still a ride-or-die Mary Shaw advocate.

Dead Silence’s Billy might be a one-and-done scarer, but Saw’s Billy is a creepy phenomenon. What’s even funnier? He almost didn’t exist.

Whannell recalls pitching Wan Amanda Young’s “Reverse Bear Trap” sequence. He describes their working partnership as putting “two ingredients together,” bouncing ideas off each other from opposite perspectives. In this case, Wan’s intuition was spot-on. According to Whannell, after he detailed Amanda’s grueling test, Wan calmly added, “That’s cool. If we put a creepy doll in there, it’ll be perfect.” Wan’s social media handle is @creepypuppet, so duh.

“I didn’t, at the time, think the creepy doll was necessary,” Whannel confesses. It would be like, I felt like me calling Orson Welles and being like, ‘At the end of the movie they find [Rosebud], and it says Rosebud, and the whole movie is tied up in this beautiful bow.” And then Orson was like, “But then what if they had like a judo fight after that?” As we know, Billy the Puppet has endured countless failed sequels and still sells merchandise at a substantial clip, so it’s evident who was right. “James is clearly the smartest of the two of us. And so now, when he tells me what to do, I do it.”

Wan and Whannell’s Sundance trip is a bittersweet sendoff, yet it represents a milestone victory lap for the artists. What these two have accomplished since Saw‘s initial emergence is nothing short of a miracle. “You would walk down the street, and we would hear strangers talking about our film, not knowing that we were involved,” Whannell fondly remembers. Fame hasn’t corrupted these genuinely excellent humans, who still exude the passion and vitality of fresh-out-of-school babyfaces. Without James Wan, without Leigh Whannell, the horror landscape would’ve veered into territories unknown. Twice, if you count how Wan’s The Conjuring pulled theatrical horror back into the marketable haunted house era. Their ideas aren’t run-of-the-mill—they generate nightmares and lay groundworks for multi-entry stories that people ravenously crave.

But if there’s one constant in their lives, it’s a very special friend who is the real celebrity of their trio. States Wan, gesturing at the remote-controlled Billy wedged between them on a generic Sheraton Inn couch, “The kickstarter of our career, really. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this guy.”

Related: James Wan and Leigh Whannell tease Saw future plans.

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Bringing to mind Adam Green’s Frozen, the trailer for Last Ride traps three kids in a cable car above the snow-capped mountains of Norway.

Also known as A Rare Grand Alignment, the survival thriller will be released on Digital February 20 via Quiver Distribution.

Spike Lee executive produces, with his younger brother Cinqué Lee writing and directing.

Set during the winter of 1982, the story follows three American boys who become trapped inside a suspended cable car high above the mountains of Norway during a rare celestial event.

Their already dangerous situation becomes more complicated when they realize they are not alone — the car also holds a dead body, leaving the group to confront isolation, uncertainty, and the mounting pressure of survival.

Roman Griffin Davis (The Long Walk), Felix Jamieson (“Raised by Wolves”), Charlie Price (“The Great”), Kristofer Hivju (“Game of Thrones”), Gustaf Skarsgård (“Vikings”), and Jasper Pääkkönen (BlacKkKlansman) star.

Cinqué Lee produces alongside Mikko Kodisoja, Ann Carli, and John Einar Hagen. Executive producers include Spike Lee, Todd Lee, and Pääkkönen.

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