I get a ton of emails about exciting upcoming horror projects and, while I’m unable to showcase them all individually, I’m absolutely thrilled to share them ROUND-UP STYLE! So, without further ado, here are the new & upcoming horror creations from the HorrorFam.com inbox!
None of the creators below have paid to be featured here — because we believe that lacking a marketing budget shouldn’t equate to a lack of eyes on your project. That said, I haven’t I had the chance to experience every creation personally. I do my best to make sure each entry is horror-related and take it in good faith that each creator has represented themselves and their projects honestly.
If you love indie horror and want to support our continued ability to showcase small creators free-of-charge, please consider becoming a Patron, streaming a horror film using our JustWatch affiliate buttons, and/or turning off your ad blocker to see if any of three ads on this page catch your interest. Thank you! ♥
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July 2026 Feature Length Indie Horror Films
Kill Trip
Written and directed by Kristian McKay, Kill Trip stars Tate Christensen, Diletta Guglielmi (City Wide Fever), Stelio Savante (Mass Effect 2), Corin Nemec (Supernatural, Rottentail), Samaire Armstrong (Stay Alive, Terror on the Prairie), and Brian Latimer (Summerween, What We Buried) and will be available to watch via digital and VOD on JULY 17TH!
Here’s the plot of this horror thriller, per the email I got: “A group of carefree festivalgoers hitch a ride toward what should be the best weekend of their lives — but when they trust the wrong stranger, their journey spirals into a waking nightmare. As their numbers begin to dwindle and bodies mysteriously vanish, survival becomes a desperate race against an unseen evil lurking just beneath the surface. One grim truth remains: not everyone will live to see Austin.”
You can follow along with @kill_trip_movie on Instagram for updates. If you check out Kill Trip after it’s released on July 17th, tag them with #killtripmovie and let them know your thoughts!
New Year’s Absolution
Director Nick Leisure‘s horror thriller New Year’s Absolution is available for streaming! The email I got said that it “serves up a sinister dose of ‘Christmas in July’ counter programming.”
New Year’s Absolution is about a group of friends who have a tradition of exchanging anonymous resolutions during their annual New Year’s Eve party but, this year, someone suggests “Kill Someone” as a resolution and… it doesn’t go well. Per the email I got: “What follows is a series of tragic events, leading to escalating tensions, cover-ups, and death. As deep buried secrets come to light, the festive celebration descends into a chaotic and bloody night, forcing the survivors to make a chilling decision…”
Now available on Amazon Prime, New Year’s Absolution will be hitting other platforms (Fandango, DISH, DirecTV, etc.) on July 14th!
Where to watch New Year’s Absolution:
Highly Recommended
Coming to us from the other side of the pond, Highly Recommended is a British indie horror film that was made for under £5,000 and is the feature film debut for writer/director Steven James Griffith of Angry Lynx Productions. The film finished shooting in May of this year and the film will be officially completed by September ahead of its UK film festival run and Halloween screening at Mottram Community Centre (the filming location!).
And you might be wondering why they asked for coverage in my July 2026 indie horror roundup when it’s another two months until it can be seen by anyone. I wondered that too! Well, the answer is that 1. everyone involved is VERY excited and eager to get the word out and, 2. they have some fun things set up for folks who jump on early and follow along with Highly Recommended‘s journey. For example, they set up a little virtual escape room game on their website that gives successful escapees a discount in their Shop (I know this because I played it and escaped lol. I was feeling cocky because I breezed through the first two questions, but the last one had me stumped for a while and I had to come back to it days later).
So, follow @AngryLynxProd on Instagram to keep up with Highly Recommended and see all the fun behind-the-scenes pictures and videos, and find out where it’ll be playing this Fall. So far, they’re expecting to play at Grimmfest, Soho Horror Film Festival, and Mayhem with more to come.
Highly Recommended is a horror comedy about a newlywed couple (Christine Walsh & Cal Bentley) who rejoin their book club after returning from their honeymoon and find out that the “new” book the club selected in their absence is, uh, not a great one to be read aloud. Terror and horrifying practical FX shenanigans ensue in a single location/locked room environment that I’ve been told makes you feel like you’re trapped in the room WITH the cast.
Steven James Griffiths said: “After twelve years on other people’s productions, taking your own debut feature from concept to wrap in three months on this budget is the kind of thing you only get to do once. The script demanded a chamber horror and we have made one. Suspense over spectacle, performance over effects, in a real building with a small crew.”
July 2026 Indie Horror Short Films
Syn
Longtime HorrorFam.com readers already know a teeny bit about Syn from when I interviewed Aeris Danet last year! She had just been cast to star among the film’s ensemble cast but couldn’t say much beyond that.
Well, Ashland Thomas, Syn‘s director and co-writer reached out to me with an email! He said:
“Syn tells the tale of three young twenty somethings who are preparing for a quiet house party on the eve of the new year. Their plans are interrupted when a dark secret from their past comes knocking at the door with a peace offering, and a warning: ‘Don’t drink before midnight, or else…’
Lifelong friends Laura, Ryan, & Ally are about to suffer the consequences of scorn, mistrust, and not following the rules. A sprinkling of 90’s nostalgia, a dabble of Final Destination, practical effects, and a blood-soaked good time are afoot in Syn.”
In addition to Aeris Danet, Syn stars Magadalena Conway (Kombucha, Grinners, Tattletale), Dakota McCollum (South Shore, Tolerance), Jacqui Touchet (Chicago PD, Slay, Worn), and Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp, New Fears Eve, Terrifier 2, Scary Movie 6).
Syn is currently in post-production and seeking extra help with finishing funds on Crowdfundr. You can contribute to their campaign via crowdfundr.com/gcf-synmovie through August 1, 2026!
Autonomous
Pillarbox Media wrote to me, sharing: “Screamify has premiered Autonomous, an original Micro Horrors™ series from filmmaking duo Kyle Valle and Erin Áine of Big Squid Productions. Across 16 short, vertical episodes that play as one continuous ride, Amy and Derek climb into a self-driving rideshare for the long trip home from his parents’.
What begins as a familiar argument — his career lost to AI, the money they don’t have, the texts she won’t explain — turns to something far worse when the car refuses to change its route, a figure appears in the road, and the calm in-cabin voice insists: ‘Your safety is our priority.’ It lands as autonomous vehicles move further into everyday life, and asks how much control we’re quietly handing over.”
Autonomous stars Erin Áine and Domenic Jungling and is 16 episodes (each roughly 90 seconds long) presented in a vertical format that melt together to become one film. I tried to watch the screener they sent on my PC so I could view it on a bigger screen (I had to get reading glasses ahead of my 41st birthday this year…) and I struggled a bit with the controls. It’s definitely meant for phone viewing/binging! But I WAS able to watch the behind-the-scenes/making of video and it seems like everyone involved had a lot of fun and it was interesting to find out how they managed to film an entire short horror film inside a real self-driving car! Plus, they said it was okay for me to share that video with HorrorFam.com’s readers, so you can check that out too. 🙂
Autonomous is available to watch NOW on the Screamify app on Android and iOS!
July 2026 Indie Horror Books
13 Demons Dead by Adam Tierney
Are you familiar with the horror games LIT, Clock Tower: Rewind, Aliens: Infestation, or Silent Hill: Book of Memories? Or perhaps you’ve played some of the games in the River City Girls series…? Well, Adam Tierney, the dude who wrote and/or directed those games just wrote a graphic novel: 13 Demons Dead!
13 Demons Dead is about a high school girl who needs to defeat 13 invisible demons while trying not to flunk her classes. It’s 250 pages long and seems to have plenty of supernatural horror and rowdy blood-drenched fights with adorable characters and lots of laughs. I got to read the first chapter and it was a lot of fun!!
I layered one of the pages from chapter one underneath the image of the cover so you could see just a liiiiiiiittle bit of what’s inside. I didn’t want to spoil anything or share too much, but I thought you should see what the book looks like INSIDE. It’s got black-and-white artwork by Saspy (Hadez, Fashion Monster, MASK’D).
Adam Tierney said, “I’ve written and directed dozens of video games but this is my first ever graphic novel! It’s the best (and most personal) thing I’ve ever written. :)”
13 Demons Dead officially releases on August 4, 2026 but is available for pre-orders NOW!!
Buy 13 Demons Dead by Adam Tierney & Saspy:
Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror by Alex Grass
Kayla from the Denver Horror Collective wrote in to announce that Alex Grass’ newest novel, Infernal Tramps: Weird Tales of Horror is now available for pre-order!
“A boy discovers his father’s oracular grotesque in a secret dungeon below their family funeral home.
An antique spiked collar transforms Philadelphia into a city that worships a dead dog. A video game dominates the market for years and then disappears, except for one man’s memories of its horrors.
A mother with a trunkful of hungry, inhuman babies tracks down the family that abandoned them.
The warden of a penal colony offers to pardon a murderer, but only if the inmate can find the antidote to the poison wine the warden gave him.
A wealthy young woman receives a surgical implant that delivers more than just a shapely body.
Step into a world of fleshly titillation and fresh terror, a dimension of blood and consequence. But buyer beware! Crack the spine and these dark tales are not so easily forgotten. Turn back now, if you can, or else become one of the… Infernal Tramps!”
Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass will be released on July 15, 2026 and can be pre-ordered NOW!
Buy Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass:
July 2026 Indie Horror Video Games
Null
I got another email from one of the creative youths who will be the future of the horror genre! Check this out:
“I’m Amar. I’m 17, I’m a solo developer, and I want to be the Christopher Nolan of games. NULL is my first real swing at that. A psychological horror game with no jumpscares, no hand-holding – just a suburban neighborhood frozen in grief, and a reality slowly coming apart. The kind of horror that doesn’t scare you in the moment. It follows you home. I built it alone. That felt right for a game about isolation.”
NULL is a period piece taking place in 1998 where you play as a student named Nolan who’s trapped in a loop. You solve puzzles, meet creepy neighbors, and make choices to try to get out of said loop (and the eerie neighborhood you’re stuck in). I thought it looked really cool!
Amar said that they’re aiming to release NULL in late September 2026, but they have a playable demo out NOW on Steam if you’d like to give it a whirl.
Other July 2026 Indie Horror Projects
Sean Haitz’s Slasher Summer (July 17th EVENT)
Sean Haitz, director of Cannibal Comedian and several other indie horror films, wrote in with an invitation:
“We’re kicking off Slasher Summer ’26 with a scorching Double Feature: Cannibal Comedian + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
We’re teaming up with Happy Fright Films to bring you a night of dark comedy, cannibals, and chaos. Up first is Cannibal Comedian, joined by director Sean Haitz, the cast, and crew for a live Q&A after the screening.
Plus, we’ll get an exclusive screening of his newest short film, KHARVER, featuring a special in-person appearance by horror icon Bill Moseley (Chop-Top himself!)
Then, we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. We’ll have drinks, snacks, a Horror Summer Market with vendors, including a tattoo artist.
Tickets on sale now! Go to theVHSsociety.com to get yours, before they sell out!”
The Summer Slasher ’26 double-feature event is happening on Friday, July 17th at the Brewyard Beer Company in Glendale, California from 5:00pm-11:00pm. Also, the main VHS Society website has a bunch of other fun upcoming summer horror events listed, but the main page does have a flashing light effect when you click to go in so, if you’re sensitive, be sure to shut your eyes before you click “Enter” and keep ’em closed for about two seconds. Just in case, I’m going to also link directly to the EventBrite page for the Cannibal Comedian + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 event (no frills, just tickets).
Where’s the Scares? (Jump Scare Timestamps Resource)
Preston, the owner of Where’s the Scares?, wrote in to get the word out about their brand new resource for horror fans! They’ve always loved horror as a genre, but struggled to watch horror films because jump scares wreaked havoc on their nervous system and just weren’t any fun. They’d previously found and depended on a jump scare database, but when it went quiet and no longer uploaded timestamps, Preston struggled. But through their struggles they not only watched horror films, but they tracked and measured and then…
They started their OWN database of jump scares: WheresTheScares.com!
So far, they’ve collected 788 jump scare timestamps across 151 films, four TV shows, and three video games. Preston wrote in hoping that, by introducing their website to you here, you’d check it out. Use it as a resource, if you need it; or share it with someone you know who hates being startled. Preston said that Where’s The Scares? “exists because horror should be accessible to everyone, and information makes that possible.”
Those are all of the new & upcoming horror projects that ended up in my inbox for this month! However, since the Indie Horror Inbox Roundup is now MONTHLY (instead of tri-annual), you’ll be seeing more indie horror submissions in just a few weeks. 🙂
If you’d like to have YOUR horror creation show up in the next roundup post, be sure to send me an email by no later than July 24, 2026. (Note: You can reserve a spot for a month later than July on the submission page if you’d like to plan ahead!).
Come back on August 7, 2026 for next HorrorFam.com Indie Horror Inbox Roundup! Or, come back next Friday for our usual HorrorFam.com fun ♥ Thank you again to everyone who shared their July 2026 indie horror projects with us!!
Images used were provided by their respective owners and used with their permission. As always, any vertical images that were submitted were placed over a blurred background to be made horizontal.
