It’s a matter of near-universal consensus that we’re living in a golden age for horror cinema right now, but horror games haven’t been letting the side down either. For all the other abominable things that the 2020s have wrought, and they’ve wrought a lot, they’ve also given us tons of great interactive experiences to take our minds off the dystopian hell that has become our lives.
2026 is set to continue that pleasing trend, with a healthy mix of dark horse indies, mid-budget curios, and AAA sequels that are sure to grab the attention of players. Among other things, we’ve got macabre animal hybrids, creepy Japanese spectres, legendary slasher icons, freakin’ dinosaurs, and the return of a bona fide genre juggernaut.
Honestly, we don’t know how we’re gonna fit it all in. Even our Honourable Mentions list is overflowing with goodness!
With that said, here are Bloody Disgusting’s most anticipated horror, or horror adjacent, games of 2026.
Honourable Mentions: The Sinking City 2, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, Code Vein II, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Silver Pines, Mouse: P.I. For Hire, darkwebSTREAMER, I Hate This Place, Welcome to Doll Town, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, Paranormal Activity: Threshold, BrokenLore: ASCEND, The Boba Teashop, Mourning Tide, The Florist, The Victor Initiative, Project Songbird, Tenebris Somnia, The Bagman, and Sam Barlow’s enigmatic Project C (provided the release date gods are kind).
10) Shark Dentist
If the measure of a high-concept idea is how succinctly you’re able to sell it whilst still articulating its appeal, then they don’t come much tighter than Shark Dentist. After all, this upcoming indie from Alice Games doesn’t even require a cursory log line to set out its premise with crystalline clarity. All it needs are those two perfectly paired words in the title, outlining everything you need to know right up front.
Well, almost everything. I suppose you could get the wrong end of the stick and labour under the false impression that it’s about an aquatic maneater deciding to take up an unlikely career in odontology. But the heuristic principle of Occam’s Razor would hopefully lead you to the (much saner) conclusion that it’s a game wherein you control a human healthcare professional. One who is charged with looking after the pearly whites of, well, Great Whites.
It’s one of those ingenious pitches that has you wondering why no one else has ever thought it before, rife as it is with the potential for all kinds of anxiety-inducing scenarios. Indeed, you’ll want to be supremely cautious when operating on your clientele here, as they’ll make their dissatisfaction known if you happen to accidentally strike a nerve or carelessly chip a tooth. The consequences of malpractice in Shark Dentist go way beyond tedious litigation and could cost a limb or two.
To avoid ending up on the wrong side of your patient’s jaws, then, you’ll have to master the art of multitasking. That means keeping on top of oxygen levels, successfully administering anaesthesia, choosing the right tools for the job, and generally doing everything you can to avoid rousing the apex predator in your care.
All in all, Shark Dentist promises an extremely high-pressure working environment, and we’re itching to subject ourselves to it!
Shark Dentist is coming soon to PC. You can add it to your Steam wishlist here.
9) Crisol: Theater of Idols
Blumhouse’s diversification into the video game market has yielded mixed results. On the one hand, Fear the Spotlight was a true highlight of 2024 but, on the other, this year’s SLEEP AWAKE didn’t exactly blow us away. Here’s hoping then that the publisher’s next offering, Crisol: Theater of Idols, will be closer to the former than it is to the latter. Because it’s definitely got some intriguing concepts.
Set in an alternate universe Spain, the first-person shooter has you battling against malevolent religious effigies that have sprung to life. These foes will take on unique forms, and possess unique abilities, according to the materials that they were fashioned out of. Some are carved from wood, for example, and can survive having their constituent parts blasted off, while others take the form of stained-glass representations or animate oil paintings. Each of them posing a different threat that you’ll have to respond to in a correspondingly different way.
Which brings us nicely to Theater of Idol’s other USP. You see, firearms in this oddball shooter don’t take ordinary bullets and must instead be supplied with human blood. As such, reloading will require you to make a donation from your own vitals, by allowing said weapons to insert needles into your palm so that they can withdraw the sweet ichor they require to function.
With their vampiric nature and clockwork appearance, the guns recall that scarab beetle device from the movie Cronos (in general, we’re getting heavy Guillermo Del Toro vibes from Theater of Idols). Yet this detail is not just a throwaway visual flourish that has no tangible impact on gameplay. On the contrary, it presents an unusual trade-off whereby you’ll have to sacrifice a portion of your health bar each time you want to reload. We’re not sure we’ve ever encountered that dilemma in an FPS before, and we’re keen to see what implications it has for your combat tactics, your resource management and your fight-or-flight instinct. If nothing else, it ought to incentivise you to make every last shot here count.
Crisol: Theater of Idols will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in early 2026. You can download the demo on Steam here.
8) The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020
If you’ve been keeping score, you’ll know that Directive 8020 has now smuggled its way into two of our Most Anticipated roundups, having originally featured in the top 10 list for this calendar year. For context, over the summer, developer Supermassive Games bumped their new interactive movie from its original October 2025 release slot to a nebulous “first half of 2026”, which means it’s once again up for consideration.
And, to be frank, there was never a question of us leaving it out! Since it debuted in 2019, The Dark Pictures Anthology has consistently delivered trashy thrills with its choose-your-own-adventure spin on the horror genre, and we’ll happily keep consuming these things as long as they keep making ‘em.
You know the drill by now. There’s always a stock B-movie scenario that unfolds over the course of a single night, and a handful of expendable red-shirts entrusted into your care. Whether these would-be victims make it through their hellish ordeal or not is entirely at your discretion, as you’ll be responsible for their key decision-making in the face of danger. Should you wish to prove your keen survival instincts and genre savvy, then you’ll try to make the smartest choices and lead your charges away from peril. Meanwhile, if like me, you prefer your scary movies to have a decent body count, you’ll do everything in your power to lead these helpless lambs to the slaughter.
Sticking to the established formula, Directive 8020 will supply a fresh batch of cannon fodder for you to toy with. This time in a much more remote, dare we say, alien setting. That’s right, where previous entries in the series have dabbled in the slasher, haunted house, psychological thriller and creature feature sub-genres, this one is taking us to the farthest reaches of outer space for a cosmic bloodbath that’s being pitched as Event Horizon by way of The Thing (“shut up and take my money!” etc.)
As if that radical change of scenery isn’t tantalising enough, the title will also mark the official start of The Dark Pictures Anthology’s new second season, suggesting that it’s going to be much more than just an incremental upgrade. Indeed, Directive 8020 has had far longer in the oven than any of its predecessors (it’s been over 3 years since The Devil in Me came out) and so you can expect some pretty substantial improvements. The new “Turning Point” mechanic, for instance, will allow you to rewind the story at your leisure and try out different branching paths, while there will also be more dynamic gameplay and real-time threats to disrupt the once-tranquil exploration sequences. Hopefully, the end result proves to be worth the elongated wait we’ve had to endure.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020 is set for release in the first half of 2026, and will launch on the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. You can add it to your Stream wishlist here.
7) REANIMAL
One of the reasons Directive 8020 is taking so long is that Supermassive want to realise their grand ambitions for this new “Season 2” phase of The Dark Pictures Anthology. Yet we’ve got to acknowledge that they’ve had their fingers in a lot of other pies recently as well. Not only did they partner with Behaviour Interactive for a Dead by Daylight spin-off, The Casting of Frank Stone, but they were also given custody of the Little Nightmares franchise after its original team moved on to greener pastures.
If you’re wondering why the layabouts at Tarsier Studios didn’t make Little Nightmares III, it’s not because they callously decided to bail on their own creation. Rather, it’s all to do with the banalities of copyright ownership and corporate acquisitions. In a nutshell, Tarsier were bought up by a new parent company in 2019, with this deal extending to the studio’s personnel and some of its IP, but crucially not to the flagship series for which it is best known. Now a subsidiary of THQ Nordic (itself a subsidiary of Embracer Group), they can’t work on Little Nightmares anymore. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily stop them from making their own store-brand version of it.
Enter REANIMAL: the video-game equivalent of when your friend’s new partner looks identical to their ex. As with Little Nightmares, this 2.5D platformer is a creepy fairytale with shades of Tim Burton, in which you control a defenceless child trying to make sense of a hostile world inhabited by grotesque adults. All while solving lite-environmental puzzles and surviving by the skin of your teeth in scripted chase sequences and white-knuckle stealth encounters. Funnily enough, Tarsier have also built the game’s levels and interactions around shared-screen coop functionality, which is something that the third Little Nightmares happened to beat them to by a whisker!
Where REANIMAL is looking to distinguish itself from its forbear, however, is with its more violent tone, less linear design and zoological themed beasties. In terms of the latter, we’ve already glimpsed some truly disturbing crossbreeds in the game’s promotional materials, including a harrowing sheep creature that has an elongated neck and multiple humanoid arms. It’s a strikingly imaginative abomination that’s piqued our curiosity for what else this demented world has in store. On the strength of that visual alone, we think this one should be able to escape the shadow of its predecessor and carve out a distinct identity all of its own.
REANIMAL will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on 13 February 2026. You can add it to your Steam Wishlist here.
6) The Duskbloods
When the announcement trailer for The Duskbloods was broadcast during spring’s Nintendo Direct, it seemed to almost go out of its way to infuriate those who’ve been clamouring for a Bloodborne follow-up. Taunting us with gothic vibes, towering cathedrals, anachronistic Gatling guns and slender-framed monster hunters dressed in Victorian garb, it perfectly set the stage for our long-awaited return to Yharnam. In an act that could be described as wilfully antagonistic, it even had characters prattling on about “my blood” this and “blood carrier” that. You know, just to really twist the knife in.
Alas, when it was revealed not to be the second-coming of everyone’s favourite action RPG but a totally new property instead, the reaction amongst FromSoftware veterans was polarised to say the least. Many wrote it off as a lame rehash, and that negative sentiment turned sourer still when it later became apparent that the game is going to be a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive and an online multiplayer affair to boot.
All of which are understandable grievances. But consider this: it’s also got jetpacks and what appears to be summonable T-Rex! With that compelling argument made, let’s not dwell on what The Duskbloods isn’t (i.e. Bloodborne 2 on the PS5) but rather embrace what it is. And what it is, is pretty damn intriguing.
For a start, it’s approaching the PvPvE concept from a novel angle, as everyone will be given separate objectives in the match according to the situation at hand and their selected hero type. In practice, this means one person could be tasked with thinning the herd and taking out their rival “Bloodsworn” (Highlander style) while another could be assigned to protect a particular colleague from said assassin, or to bring down an unrelated A.I. controlled boss that’s minding its own business at the other end of the map. The eventual victor will not necessarily be the last man standing but the person who most effectively carried out their designated duties. In between these unpredictable expeditions, you’ll also get to chill out in an immersive hub zone where you can customise your build further and try your very best to penetrate Hidetaka Miyazaki’s inscrutable lore.
Suffice it to say, there’s no shortage of cool ideas packed into The Duskbloods and it should make for a very distinctive multiplayer dynamic. Let’s be real, though, the main selling point is gonna be that inspired jetpack-dinosaur combo.
The Duskbloods is scheduled for release in 2026, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2.
5) Halloween: The Video Game
Having indulged the seediest power fantasies of horror fans the world over — by allowing us to torment our fellow gamers as Jason Vorheese, the Yautja from Predator and, uh, Fatso the Klown — those enthusiastic gorehounds over at IllFonic will soon have us roleplaying as perhaps cinema’s most enduring boogeyman. As in, the boogeyman!
That’s right, for their next trick, this specialist team (who’ve practically cornered the market on asymmetrical multiplayer) will be granting us the opportunity to don the faded coveralls and iconic spray-painted mask of Michael Myers himself.
Granted, this is a hook that has been seductively dangled before us in the past by a few other titles, including Dead by Daylight and Call of Duty: Ghosts, but it’s fundamentally different when the experience has been crafted from the ground up to accommodate one IP and one IP alone. After all, while those more generic releases were able to capture the superficial qualities of Michael in their respective collabs— like his silhouette, his heavy breathing and his theme music — they still had to contort him out of shape (pun not intended) to fit pre-existing rules.
Halloween, on the other hand, won’t force the remorseless killing machine to act out of character by, say, keeping his homicidal impulses in check to participate in an arcane ritual or full-on sprinting around in the middle of chaotic deathmatches. On the contrary, he will be permitted to bring his authentic self to the party, with mechanics that emphasise methodical stalking, patient lurking in the shadows, and stealthy kitchen-knife ambushes.
Based on IllFonic’s track record, we can expect this to be a very faithful representation of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic that doesn’t feel like any other asymmetrical offering out there. It will be uniquely Halloween down to its core, with the scope being so narrow that the developers aren’t even flirting with any of the franchise’s sequels, requels or remakes. Rather, the focus will strictly be on capturing the essence of that first fateful night he came home.
Of course, while playing as Michael is inevitably the main draw, that only represents half of the experience. I mean, you can’t have an asym horror without an opposing team of plucky survivors to grief you the whole time, and it seems like IllFonic is going to be shaking things up in that department as well. You see, when taking on the role of a civilian here, your objective won’t just be to flee the area like it normally is. Instead, you’ll be actively running into the heart of danger, trying to raise an alarm and alerting the townspeople of Haddonfield to the encroaching threat that’s on their doorstep. Which is an interesting twist on the usual dynamic, especially as it means there will be some expendable NPCs for slashers to menace.
Halloween is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on8 September 2026. You can add it to your Steam wishlist here.
4) Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival
The danger with something like Halloween is that its shelf life is always going to be in doubt. These asymmetrical titles have a habit of peaking early and then haemorrhaging players as soon as the audience gets either: A) bored of repeating the same matches over and over again or B) frustrated with unsportsmanlike conduct from those who’ve learned the dirty exploits. As such, they need a steady drip feed of post-launch support and balancing tweaks in order to remain relevant.
To be fair, IllFonic have covered their backs somewhat here by incorporating a single-player component into Halloween. Yet details about this are currently thin on the ground, and it’s very much being marketed as an ancillary extra, not as the main course.
Conversely, Hellraiser: Revival is a good old-fashioned solo experience through and through, and so can’t be ruined by any tea-bagging dickheads intent on spoiling the fun. And, boy, does it look like this one is gonna be fun!
After a night of kinky bedroom antics goes terribly awry (not to be a prude, but the lament configuration probably isn’t the best sex aid to experiment with) you’ll be forced to take on amorous cultists, infernal demons and, of course, the interdimensional coenobites as you embark on a nightmarish quest to save your girlfriend from eternal damnation. As far as mechanics are concerned, this will entail a potent mix of bone-crunching melee, splattery gunplay, and the sneaky infiltration of a few BDSM orgies. It’s enough to make Frank Cotton blush.
On that note, the project is a collaboration between Boss Team Games, Saber Interactive, and original series creator Clive Barker, with the latter’s involvement all but guaranteeing that Revival will stay true to the sinful spirit of Hellraiser proper. The initial teasers certainly indicate that it’s going to be every bit as lurid and transgressive as that source material anyway, with gory violence and explicit scenes aplenty, as well as moments that’ll have you partaking in a spot of sadomasochistic depravity. During one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sequence in the latest trailer, it seems that the game might even transition from being a first-person shooter into a first-person spanker at some point!
Encouragingly, Saber has confirmed that they’ll not be backing down when it comes to any of this NSFW content and that they are committed to pushing the ESRB’s mature rating as far as it will allow them to go. Which is exactly kind of boundary-pushing, morality-flouting ethos that Pinhead himself would approve of.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is currently in development for PC, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S. You can add it to your Steam wishlist here.
3) Jurassic Park: Survival
Six years ago, I wrote an editorial about how — piggybacking off the nascent success of Resident Evil’s revival — the time was ripe for another Capcom property to stage a comeback. Specifically, I made the case for a Dino Crisis update that would take advantage of then-emerging trends and go down the helpless horror route. In short, my pitch was Alien: Isolation if you swapped out the Xenomorph for a Velociraptor and thrust us into an 8-hour version of that indelible kitchen scene from Jurassic Park.
Alas, as of 2025, Capcom has continued to sleep on Dino Crisis, while many indie developers have tried gamely stepping up to the plate in their absence (producing such titles as Deathground and PALEOPHAGE). Jurassic Park: Survival ought to be the one that really satisfies my craving, though, as it’s got the combined might of Universal, Amblin, and Steven-fucking-Spielberg iconography behind it.
Apparently not stimulated enough with adapting Hellraiser, the busy bees over at Saber Interactive will be delivering this slice of millennial wish fulfilment, in which you’ll play as an Ingen scientist who was left to fend for themselves on Isla Nublar, after John Hammond’s amusement park enterprise suffered its disastrous trial run. As the name suggests, your ultimate goal will be to survive the island’s various threats (both natural and unnatural) by using your wits, keeping a low profile and doing an awful lot of cardio.
Much like the genetically engineered beasties that you’ll be cowering from in its campaign, Jurassic Park: Survival might as well have been synthesised in a lab to appeal to me. Not only is it dino horror, but the developers have raided Universal’s archives to study production stills, examine blueprints and scrutinise props from the original 1993 Oscar-winner in order to ensure that their art-direction is spot-on.
You’ll therefore be exploring uncanny recreations of sets like the visitor centre, the incubation room and the Mr. D.N.A. theatre, while also visiting brand new locales that have never been glimpsed before (including attractions that were abandoned mid-construction). I’m not gonna lie, there’s a bit in the latest trailer that implies you’ll be able to flip the power switches in the maintenance shed, and my euphoric reaction to this could only be compared to that of a five-year-old seeing the Disneyland castle for the very first time.
In a behind-the-scenes featurette, creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick even confirmed the title will finally realise that one hyper-specific scenario I wanted from Dino Crisis all those years ago, teasing: “When we were deciding how to introduce the raptors, one thing that jumped out to us was: ‘What if we could make the player experience what Lex and Tim did in the kitchen.”
If they can indulge that fantasy of mine, as well as giving me a solid T-Rex encounter wherein I have to work around the prehistoric creature’s vision-based movement, then I’ll be ready to declare this GOTY at launch. Dino Crisis is dead, long live Dino Crisis.
Jurassic Park: Survival is slated for launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. A 2026 release date has not yet been officially announced, but can’t a manchild dream? Add it to your Steam Wishlist here.
2) Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake
The founding fathers of survival horror have been enjoying a second wind lately. Sure, Alone in the Dark’s attempt at a comeback didn’t quite take off in the way Embracer might have hoped, but Silent Hill and Resident Evil are the healthiest they’ve been for decades. If we can just get Fatal Frame back on its feet, then it’ll be like the glory days of the sixth console generation never went away.
For context, Koei Tecmo’s series (alternatively known in some territories as Project Zero) has lain dormant for quite a while. Its last mainline installment, the tepidly received Maiden of Black Water, came out on the Wii U back in 2014 and, ever since then, the catalogue has been comprised of nothing but a string of ports and inessential remasters.
Before committing any significant resource to churning out proper sequels, then, it’s a sensible move on Temco’s part to gauge contemporary interest in the brand. And what better way is there to do that than by giving its most popular entry a fresh coat of paint?
Indeed, a Crimson Butterfly remake is surely the shrewdest course of action available to the franchise right now, as it’d be a spectacularly hard thing to mess up. If you’ve not played the original (which follows a pair of twins trapped in a spooky village haunted by petrifying revenants), it’s often cited as a benchmark in the genre, praised for everything from its subtle J-horror stylings to its compelling lore, cultural flavour, and peerless sense of dread. The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann once described it as “the scariest kind of experience in any medium”, admitting that he had to power through it in bite-sized chunks because he simply couldn’t handle the intensity. So, you know, it’s one to check off your bucket list if you haven’t already!
Speaking of which, the upcoming remake is going to be the ideal opportunity to dive in and see what all the fuss is about when it comes to Fatal Frame II, as it will be a complete overhaul that gives the cult classic a new lease of life (similar to what Bloober Team did with their update of SH2). Among other things, it’ll boast modernised controls, slicker visuals, improved audio, and even some mechanical innovations related to the title’s signature Camera Obscura gimmick.
If it manages to do all of that while still retaining what made the PS2 original so revered, then we could find ourselves in the privileged position where Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and now Fatal Frame are all back on their A-game. And that’ll be a wonderful time to be a survival horror fan!
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 12 March 2026. You can pre-order it on Steam now.
1) Resident Evil: Requiem
What else could feasibly take the top spot in our list? Resident Evil: Requiem is to 2026’s line-up of horror games what Avengers: Doomsday is to the upcoming superhero movie slate. It’s the titanic behemoth around which everything else has to manoeuvre, so as not to get trampled beneath its feet. I mean, imagine being another horror title that comes out during the same month as this (sorry REANIMAL)!
Resident Evil has been on a hot streak ever since the galvanizing RE7: Biohazard executed a much-needed course correction back in 2017. In the intervening years, we’ve had the spectacular Village, as well as a procession of surprisingly excellent remakes for some of the saga’s best-loved entries. Whether you favour traditional Resi — with its legacy characters, T-virus-infected monsters, Raccoon City setting, and third-person camera — or prefer the newer direction that’s been taken by the Ethan Winter’s chronicles — built around an everyman hero, humanoid stalkers, more intimate, gothic environments and a first-person perspective that puts you in the middle of the frights — there’s been something for everyone in this post-revival era.
Requeim is trying to pull off quite an audacious feat, however, by weaving those disparate halves together and catering to both fans of the old and new school approaches. So, we’ve got a fresh-faced protagonist whose lineage goes back to the days of the Umbrella incident, George Romero style zombies sharing the screen with another giantess stalker (whose got a few inches on Lady Dumitrescu), the ability to cycle between first and third-person gameplay on a whim, and an intimate gothic setting that happens to be situated within the obliterated ruins of Raccoon City. An agreeable compromise all round!
It remains to be seen if these elements will coalesce or clash, but there haven’t been any major red flags thus far. In fact, early word from those who’ve played the demo has been resoundingly positive, with praise being heaped on the sumptuous visuals, legitimately intense encounters, intricate level design, and the way that the hybrid camera innovation changes how you can perceive the horror.
Speaking of which, even as just passive observers of the demo footage, we can tell that Capcom are really doubling down on the scares here. We might have only seen 15 minutes of real gameplay, but we’re impressed all the same. The adversary relentlessly pursuing you around the world (who bears more than a passing resemblance to that deformed bug woman from the movie Cobweb) looks to be a worthy addition to Resident Evil’s iconic rogues gallery, and the moments wherein she lunges out of the darkness — intent on rending you limb from limb — evoke memories of our exhilarating time in House Beneviento. And, for all we know, she’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Suffice it to say, the 27th of February can’t come soon enough!
Resident Evil: Requiem will release for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 27 February 2026. You can pre-order it on Steam now.
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