5 Movies From 2026 That Sound Amazing (That You Don't Know About Yet)

• Movies
• Horror Movies

We were spoiled with an embarrassment of riches in 2025, which was an absolutely incredible year for movies, and 2026 is shaping up to look like another banger frame. Here at /Film, it's our job to have our fingers on the pulse of what's new and exciting, so we wanted to highlight some of the best upcoming releases that might not be on your radar. These are films that are a little off the beaten path or have yet to pierce through all the noise being made by the tentpole release schedule. Indeed, these movies will be the interesting "cool" picks that you can convince all of your friends to go see in theaters, earning yourself some serious cinephile street cred in the process.

That's because, fortunately, all of the movies on this list come from some of the most exciting filmmakers working today, including long-awaited follow-ups from some favorites who haven't sat in the director's chair for a few years — and two of them star Anne Hathaway! Without further ado, here are five films that sound absolutely amazing that you don't know about yet. Well, not you, specifically. You're probably cool and already know about all of these movies.

The Death of Robin Hood

"Pig" and "A Quiet Place: Day One" filmmaker Michael Sarnoski might just have something special in "The Death of Robin Hood." We've seen all kinds of cinematic riffs on the Robin Hood folk tale: traditional swashbucklers, animated movies, blockbusters featuring stars who can't master a British accent, revisionist dramas, and Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." But Sarnoski's film, drawn from the Modern English ballad "Robin Hood's Death," sounds like a dark departure.

Hugh Jackman stars as a critically injured, older Robin who, seeking shelter, is tended to by a mysterious woman (Jodie Comer) as the counterfeit folk hero attempts to make peace with the bogus legend that has grown up around his dishonorable life. Jackman's Robin is a murderer, one who, as Sarnoski explained to Entertainment Weekly, might not have even robbed from the rich and given to the poor. It's "The Man Who Shot Robin Hood!" We've been down this revisionist route before (most notably in Richard Lester's "Robin and Marian"), but not with Sarnoski, who has thus far earned our trust with two terrific movies. (Jeremy Smith)

Release Date: 2026

Flowervale Street

David Robert Mitchell shot out of the gate like a rocket with his horror feature debut "It Follows." Unfortunately, his ambitious, strange follow-up "Under the Silver Lake" was essentially dumped by A24, making very little impact. Now though, Mitchell is back with a bigger-budget affair backed by Warner Bros. and an A-list cast, and, though it remains largely mysterious, what we do know about it makes it seem like a wonderfully bizarre blockbuster swing from a visionary filmmaker.

While Warner Bros. hasn't revealed much officially about "Flowervale Street," we know the movie will star Anne Hathaway ("The Dark Knight Rises") and Ewan McGregor ("Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith"). J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company is behind it, and it's been filmed for IMAX and vaguely described as a "thrill ride." And while unconfirmed, various reports suggest that it's going to take place in the '80s and involve dinosaurs. Part of what makes this all so fascinating is that yes, there are a lot of interesting pieces on the board. We don't get too many dinosaur movies outside of the "Jurassic Park" franchise. But the film is also so shrouded in mystery that it's hard not to wonder what it's going to look like. Could this be a "Cloverfield"-level surprise?

All we can do for the moment is speculate, but this is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing, under-the-radar movies on the docket for 2026. (Ryan Scott)

Release Date: August 14, 2026

Hokum

A certain stripe of horror fan will hear the name Damian McCarthy and perk up immediately. McCarthy is an Irish horror director who has, to date, made the utterly eerie and forthrightly nightmarish films "Caveat" and "Oddity." The former was filmed in a small, distant house in the Irish countryside that was built out of a converted barn. Its plot followed a young man as he took a job babysitting a mentally-unwell woman in that house, forcing him to wear a leather vest that's, via a hook on its back, chained to a weight that limits his movement. "Oddity" was filmed in the same converted barn and centered on a blind woman who investigates the death of her twin from a year prior with the aid of a supremely creepy person-sized wooden golem. Both films created effective terror-scapes with limited means.

McCarthy will release his third feature film, "Hokum," in 2026, and he seems to be repeating his successful formula. This time, Adam Scott from "Severance" will play the lead role, and he will spend the film in a remote Irish house, stalked by ... ghosts? Witches? Ghouls? Some kind of horrifying supernatural force? He's in Ireland to scatter his parents' ashes, so — like "Caveat" — there will no doubt be a whiff of familial discord in "Hokum." NEON will be handling distribution in the United States, and the studio has already released a trailer. It looks plenty scary. (Witney Seibold)

Release Date: May 1, 2026

Mother Mary

Fans of David Lowery's 2021 movie "The Green Knight" have been waiting for his next wonderfully strange project, and it looks like we'll get precisely that in "Mother Mary," his 2026 movie that he also wrote and produced. In the first major trailer for "Mother Mary," which stars Oscar winner Anne Hathaway as the titular pop star (who sort of resembles a strange melange of Beyoncé and Lady Gaga), we see Mary come face to face with fashion designer, Sam Anselm ("I May Destroy You" creator and star Michaela Coel), whom she hasn't seen in a full decade. Mary needs a dress, which Sam can provide ... but based on this dramatic and heightened trailer, the process is not going to be simple.

With an outstanding supporting case that includes "Euphoria" and "Cuckoo" star Hunter Schafer, "Fleabag" veteran Sian Clifford, pop star FKA Twigs, "Warrior Nun" star Alba Baptista, model and "Bottoms" standout Kaia Gerber, and "Downton Abbey" star Jessica Brown Findlay, fans will have to wait and see all the surprises "Mother Mary" has in store. Knowing Lowery, they'll be shocking, unsettling, and fascinating. As for Hathaway, she has a bunch of major projects in the pipeline for 2026 (including Christopher Nolan's sprawling take on "The Odyssey," the long-awaited sequel "The Devil Wears Prada 2," the Colleen Hoover adaptation "Verity," and, as mentioned above, "Flowervale Street"), giving her a chance to show off her versatility in "Mother Mary." (Nina Starner)

Release Date: April 2026

Whalefall

Brian Duffield is one of the most fascinating filmmakers working today. He's penned movies like "The Babysitter," "Underwater," and "Love and Monsters," directed two phenomenal features with "Spontaneous" and "No One Will Save You," and developed the "Skull Island" animated series for Netflix. His next venture is "Whalefall," a survival thriller based on the 2023 novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote the script with Duffield. The story centers on Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), a scuba diver who is searching for the remains of his father (Josh Brolin) when a sperm whale swallows him whole. Jay's time in the whale is obviously spent looking for a way out, but as he's left with his own thoughts, he reflects on his strained relationship with his old man.

"Whalefall" is as much a story about surviving the maw of a whale as it is about surviving the psychological torture we put ourselves through in the name of mourning, as well as a gripping meditation on the relationships between fathers and sons. Abrams and Brolin reuniting after "Weapons" is already something worth being excited about. Still, after Duffield pulled off the impossible with "No One Will Save You," there's no one better suited to adapt Kraus' novel. (BJ Colangelo)

Release Date: October 16, 2026