Horror movie trends 2026: Comic-Con panel sees laughs, mystery and genre mashups
At San Diego Comic-Con, horror panelists pointed to humor, withheld answers and genre-blending as the next big moves in scary movies.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
The horror movie trends 2026 conversation got a sharp Comic-Con spotlight on July 24, when actors and filmmakers gathered in San Diego to size up where the genre is headed next.
The panel, titled Bold Voice of Contemporary Horror: Tenth Anniversary Edition, brought together Dan Stevens of AMC's The Terror, Deborah Ann Woll of Shudder's upcoming thriller The Cycle, Dave Boyle, director of SXSW audience award winner Never After Dark, and Zachary Wigon, director of Bleecker Street's Victorian Psycho, which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming at the Overlook Film Festival, moderated the talk. Rachel Walker, who founded the panel in 2015, curated the session.
What horror movie trends are coming next?
The panelists pointed to four big ideas: horror that refuses to stay in one lane, filmmaking techniques borrowed from other formats, scares laced with humor, and stories that hold back answers until the payoff lands.
Woll said one reason she responded to the script for The Cycle was its shifting identity. She cited The Descent as a favorite because it moves between psychological thriller, survival story and creature feature, keeping viewers unsure of what kind of nightmare they are watching.
That kind of genre-blending, in her view, keeps an audience off balance. In horror, uncertainty can be part of the scare machine: if viewers cannot pin down the rules, the next turn can hit harder.
Boyle said his move into horror was helped by experience in action filmmaking, where precision and clear communication are essential. He described working in Japan and seeing scripts that left space for directors to draw in cuts, giving the team a clearer picture of how scenes would fit together.
For Boyle, that discipline carried over into horror. The genre often depends on timing, camera placement and the careful release of information, so action's attention to moving parts can become a useful tool for scares.
Stevens highlighted the growing appetite for horror with humor in it. He said comedy can make frightening situations feel more human, even when the story itself is extreme.
He also said the word humor can make producers wary because they do not want a horror film mistaken for a comedy. His point was narrower: a joke, awkward moment or human reaction can ground a scary story without turning it into a spoof.
Wigon focused on mystery. He described horror storytelling as a process of showing scattered pieces that do not make sense at first, then letting the audience discover how they connect.
That approach turns withheld information into part of the pleasure. A horror film can build tension by giving viewers clues they cannot immediately solve, then rewarding them when the hidden shape of the story comes into view.
The panel also featured the debut of a new trailer for The Cycle, the upcoming Shudder thriller starring Woll.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.