We’re less than two weeks away from learning the 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards results. 35 of the best new horror movies (released between July 2025 and June 2026) were nominated across 14 categories, plus the best horror series and video games released in the last year. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny led the pack with nine nominations each, followed by the smash-hit Backrooms with six nominations. Frankenstein, Hokum, and The Bride! each landed five nominations, while Curry Barker's cultural phenomenon Obsession earned nominations in four categories.
While the polls may be closed and the ballots counted, horror fans everywhere can start betting on which nominee will take home the coveted statue. But if there’s one award that’s still anyone’s game, however, it’s the annual write-in category for Best Kill.
The award for Best Kill is one of the most exciting awards of the night, because no one — not even the nominating body of industry tastemakers, creators, and professionals — has any idea who is in contention. It’s my personal favorite award each year because sometimes a movie that might otherwise go home empty-handed can be celebrated for going the distance in dissection, dismemberment, or whatever other wild form of death display some Sickos™ concocted.
Last year, the winner was Christen Tinsley, the artist responsible for giving us “The Shower Kill” from Terrifier 3. It wasn’t particularly surprising considering it’s one of the most brutal and graphic kills in the Terrifier franchise (and that’s saying something), but this year’s competition is pretty fierce. Many presenters at the 2026 Chainsaw Awards were asked about their predictions for Best Kill, and the feedback really ran the gamut.
Katie Hettenbach, comedian and host of the FANGORIA Podcast Network show Katie Afraidy, is all in on Aunt Gladys getting ripped to pieces by kidnapped children in Zack Cregger’s Weapons. I’ll show my hand and admit on record that this was also my vote, because any movie that pays homage to the running scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, ending with an Academy Award winner torn apart by third graders, gets a gold medal in my heart.
Curtis Rx, Severin Films’ resident archivist and preservationist, as well as one of last year’s Editor’s Eyeball recipients, shouted out “The Barn Deaths” from 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a worthy addition to the already jaw-dropping roster of deaths in the zombie rage virus franchise from Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and Nia DaCosta.
Genre icons Tiffany Shepis and Felissa Rose lamented that they weren’t invited to be sucked out of a plane in Send Help, and they’ve got a point! We have decades of proof that these women know how to scream their faces off and bring gloriously gruesome deaths to the big screen. Call them up, Sam Raimi!
Chris Colfer, the star of The Restoration at Grayson Manor, is still talking about the garbage truck that ate Anna Lore in Final Destination Bloodlines. Although the film wasn't eligible for this year’s Chainsaw Awards, it was last year's runner-up for Best Kill. If only Art the Clown hadn’t been up to his old tricks, we could have given a trophy to a garbage truck! Your move, Oscars!!
So who will it be? Who is going to join the illustrious ranks of multi-winner Art the Clown, Johnny from In A Violent Nature (the yoga kill, duh), and The Bread Slicer in Fear Street Part One: 1994?
Will Aunt Gladys add another statue to her collection? Should we fear Pirate Clark biting us through our screens? Will the Forbidden Fruits escalator gobble up a win? Maybe Nikki from Obsession will slam all of our faces into a brick until she gets what she wants, or maybe we’ll all just have to fight our dads to the death like Dek in Predator: Badlands.
Find out who wins when the 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, hosted by Devon Sawa, broadcast October 2, 2026, on Shudder at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT). The awards will be available on demand the next day.
