Nightmares Film Festival Opens New Decade of Better Horror with 2026 Program Reveal

Nightmares Film Festival (Oct. 15 to 18) today revealed its 2026 program, opening its second decade with a celebration of the boldest, freshest and most surprising work keeping genre dangerous. 

“It’s our eleventh year, but we’re thinking of this as year one of a new decade of Nightmares,” said co-founders Jason Tostevin. “We’re celebrating the innovation, imagination and camaraderie that fuel the best of genre film.”

Dubbed the “Cannes of horror” (iHorror), Nightmares is part summer camp for horror lovers, part annual reunion for some of the world’s top genre creators. Taking over the world-renowned Gateway Film Center, the festival will bring fans, filmmakers, screenwriters, press and industry reps together for 16 features, 150 shorts, 26 screenplay finalists and one-of-a-kind experiences. Its inclusive, easygoing atmosphere carries from the cinemas into the Jules Verne-themed Torpedo Room, where the NFF Sleepless gather for drinks, film talk and “the best networking on the festival circuit” (the Film Coterie). Onesie Sunday returns to close out the four-day celebration in horror-themed PJs.

The features lineup spans found-footage shockers, claustrophobic thrillers and brain-breaking midnighters – all coming to the Midwest for the very first time. Opening night brings the new 4K restoration of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the seminal work that changed horror forever. And, completing the delightfully unhinged trilogy, The Last Temptation of Becky makes its Midwest premiere ahead of theatrical release.

Feature world premieres include ; horror comedy , a bachelorette bloodbath; , a found-footage reality-show nightmare whose leads suspect their host is manufacturing the haunting; and , a suffocating thriller that sees an island air traffic controller trying to save a plane that doesn’t appear on radar. U.S. premieres include , a freight-elevator thriller with a predicament of biblical proportions, and