Add These Horror Movies to Your Watchlist

Last year felt like the best year for horror in a minute. 2026 said, “Hold my beer.” And now, picking up where Panic Fest 2026 and the latest SXSW film slate left off, this year’s Tribeca Film Festival has some wicked picks. From haunted asylums and gang wars to cults and Halloween-obsessed final girls (hi, Milly Shapiro), daring and disgusting cinephiles have plenty to pick from. Some of the following films are even explicitly part of the “Escape from Tribeca” selection, the festival’s banner for genre films and “midnight movies.”

Running from June 3 to June 14, Tribeca Film Festival 2026 isn’t just about showing films. For moviemakers and people in the industry, TribecaX features talks by authors, creatives, entrepreneurs, and more. Tribeca Film Festival also has a Storytelling Summit, which features talks by people we love. 

A few highlights for horror lovers include Lily Rabe, who played swamp witch queen Misty Day on American Horror Story: Coven; Myha’la, who starred in Bodies Bodies Bodies and They Will Kill You; Philip Barantini, who gave us nauseating one-takes in Adolescence; and Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games and writer and director of Red Dead Redemption.

Catch these horror icons in between screenings of the following messed-up movies and dark documentaries.

Director: Alex Goyette

An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. But, as he soon learns, there’s a catch.

• Sat. June 6 at 9:15 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Sun. June 7 at 5:45 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Sat. June 13 at 9:15 PM — Village East by Angelika

Director: Hugo Ruiz

Responding to an emergency call, a young paramedic unwittingly finds himself thrust into the middle of a war between two crime lords, triggering an escalating series of gruesome twists and turns over the course of one crazy night.

• Sun. June 7 at 9:15 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Mon. June 8 at 8:45 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Fri. June 12 at 9:15 PM —  AMC 19th St. East 6

Director: Jessica Chandler

Eighty years ago, the “Baby Boom” led to a massive uptick in births. Now, we’re seeing the inevitable end of that surge as those tens of millions of people pass away. This fascinating doc explores the dilemma now facing the funeral industry and the many inventive solutions being pioneered.

• Tue. June 9 at 8:00 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Wed. June 10 at 9:00 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Sat. June 13 at 9:00 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6

Director: Ben Sottak

Pumpkin, a Halloween-obsessed post-apocalypse survivor, thinks she’s the last person alive. But when a vicious band of scavengers shows up at her doorstep, Pumpkin has no choice but to tap into her deadliest survival instincts.

• Wed. June 10 at 5:00 PM —Village East by Angelika
• Fri. June 12 – 9:00 PM — AMC 19th St.
• Sat. June 13 at 8:45 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6

Directors: Mike Attie, Katarina Poljak, Nathan R. Stenberg

Once a notorious institution for people with disabilities, Pennhurst finally closed after decades of abuse in 1987. Now those doors are reopening, as a group of disabled performers reframe the narrative around the site’s harmful history –– as a haunted house.

• Fri. June 5 at 9:15 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Sun. June 7 at 3:15 PM — Village East by Angelika
• Tue. June 9 at 6:15 PM — Village East by Angelika

Director: Michael Gallagher

Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga star in the unsettling true story of Heaven’s Gate, the cult that convinced dozens to abandon their lives and await evacuation from planet Earth.

• Fri. June 5 at 5:00 PM – SVA Theatre 
• Mon. June 8 at 5:45 PM – Village East by Angelika
• Wed. June 10 at 2:45 PM – Village East by Angelika

Director: Anthony Columbus

The Little Cult That Could is a darkly comedic documentary series following a Michigan doomsday group as they prepare for the soon-to-come apocalypse.

• Thu. June 4 at 5:00 PM —Village East by Angelika
• Sat. June 6 at 2:45 PM — Village East by Angelika

Director: Alphan Eseli

Under traumatic circumstances, Gül gives birth to her first child: an inhuman creature. What’s a single mother to do? Protect her newborn, albeit alien-like, offspring by any means necessary, of course.

• Sat. June 06 at 8:15 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Sun June 07 at 9:00 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Tue. June 09 at 9:00 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6

Director: Ronan Farrow

Not A Very Good Murderer: Farrow explores the life of a former beauty queen, uncovering a story stranger than fiction: a bombshell political allegation, jewelry heists, kidnapping, arson, and more than one murder attempt. But how much of it is true? This genre-bending documentary series delves into what it takes to uncover the truth, and the cost of keeping it hidden.

The Palladino Files: When legendary private eye Jack Palladino is murdered, one of his old targets, Farrow, takes up the case. Over the course of the series, Farrow dives into Palladino’s celebrity-ladened case files, uncovering secrets that may reveal who killed the private eye and why.

• Wed. June 10 at 5:30 PM — Spring Studios

Director: Henry Chaisson

After being summoned back to her childhood home to care for her bedridden father, Joan must confront the unearthed demons of her family’s past and contend with the home’s dark, malevolent energy that is both unseen and, much to her horror, seen.

• Thurs. June 4 at 9:15PM — Village East by Angelika
• Sat. June 6 at 9:00PM — Village East by Angelika
• Thurs.  June 11 at 9:00PM — Village East by Angelika

Director: Sam Scott

An indie rock band struggling to make its mark finds a possible meal ticket in an infectious new guitar riff. Unfortunately, it’s also a cursed melody that just so happens to open a portal to another, much scarier dimension.

• Thu. June 4 at 8:30 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Fri. June 5 at 8:45 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6
• Sun. June 7 at 9:15 PM — AMC 19th St. East 6

2026 has already been a landmark year for scary movies — and looking at Tribeca Film Festival lineup, it’s only up from here.

Tags: Breeder Cults Hallowarrior Recluse Tribeca True Crime Documentaries Turn It Up!

Categorized:Festival Coverage News