9 Scary Reads for Halloween 2026

When Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands in the midst of WWII, at least she has Jilly and Bunny to keep her company. When she discovers that it isn’t just the living taking shelter there, both pragmatic Jilly and daydreamer Bunny aren’t exactly helpful. 

At least, not when it comes to the ghost of a boy haunting her bedroom. 

But it’s the secret she discovers in the attic that ends up threatening her safety. Because the more she learns about the last of this once-great house, the more her life is in danger.

The last thing Gianna expected when she wrote the name Madelyn in blood on the mirror in the Witching House was a reply. It’s shocking enough that the urban legend is real. It’s even more shocking when the ghost becomes her friend. 

But Madelyn doesn’t want friendship. She wants revenge. And she’ll do anything to get it. 

The only question is whether Gianna can stop her before everyone in town ends up dead.

On a family trip to Devil’s Den State Park fifteen years ago, Audrey Figg’s little brother Benny disappeared. It ripped Audrey’s life in two. Now, she’s a park ranger in the same woods that swallowed her brother whole. 

She’s trained in wilderness search and rescue, and has never stopped looking for Benny. When a little girl, Ivy, goes missing, Audrey immediately notices how similar the case is to her brother’s.

But the more Audrey searches, the more convinced she becomes that Ivy isn’t lost. She was taken. The closer Audrey gets to answers, the more details of that terrible day fifteen years ago surfaces. 

Including the terrible secret she’s never shared with anyone that may unlock the answer she’s been desperately searching for her entire life.

In their recent separation, Victor and his wife Trish split the time they spend with their friend group. Trish insisted Victor go on the annual weekend retreat in Superstition, a small town in the California desert. 

Victor hopes it will help him connect with his friends in a different way now that he’s single. Without his wife, Victor finds himself becoming a bit wild and reckless, starting with his immediate attraction to the leader of the town’s Welcoming Committee.

When she offers a no-strings-attached sexual encounter, Victor gives into his repressed desires, even if he secretly wonders if it’s all too good to be true. But the question comes too late. There’s something feeding Victor’s desires. 

Something infecting the town and everyone in it. Something that is hungry for Victor and his friends. And it won’t stop until it gets what it wants. 

It’s always stressful meeting your boyfriend’s family. Especially when your boyfriend warns you that they aren’t exactly welcoming. So, Connie is shocked when Evan’s mother greets her with a warm hug and a friendly smile. Evan is just as confused as Connie, but stranger things have happened. Maybe they’re finally changed.

When Connie is helping Evan’s mother with dinner, she hears noises coming from the basement. Noises that sound like people calling for help. Connie can’t ignore their cries. 

But she doesn’t know that once she opens the door, she can’t turn back. And once she steps into the darkness, she may never make it out alive.

Megan’s mom notoriously has bad taste in men. The last one dragged them halfway across the world, forcing her to leave Portland for Beijing. 

So when they have to run in the middle of the night without their passports, her mom turns to an old friend who gives them rooms at the Huihuang Opera House in exchange for cleaning it. When Megan befriends a group of young actors, and the gorgeous lead Kristy takes her under her wing, she starts to think maybe everything will work out.

But the opera house has secrets lurking within its changing walls and hidden passages. As folklore, old legends, and reality begin to blur, Megan is drawn deeper into the depths of the opera house in search of the truth. The only question is can she escape before its hungry eyes devour her.

Jane’s brother hasn’t really acknowledged her since an accident tore his future away and nearly took both of their lives. Now, they’re stuck in a car together on their way through the North Georgia mountains for a family Thanksgiving. 

When they stop at a small grocery store at the last minute, the last thing they expect is a man to stumble in with a mutilated body claiming a monster attacked him. 

But when the next person to leave it brutally murdered, everyone in the store realizes they’re trapped. Local legends says a creature made of bones lurks in the woods and feasts on guilty hearts. Everyone in the store has something to hide. 

Something they feel guilty about. And if they can’t learn to work together and forgive not only each other, but themselves, none of them are going to make it out alive.

When Alice finds a gorgeous home nestled in the woods that’s been completely renovated, she thinks it might be the key to helping her family heal from the devastating loss of teenage Alice. The only problem is the house itself has a dark history. 

Years earlier, a woman murdered her family claiming they were imposters and that the woods had taken her real family. It’s a sad story, but Alice sees nothing but potential and buys the home.

But shortly after moving in, strange things start happening. Strange figures stand in their yard and her husband disappears one night only to come back in different clothes with no memory of what happened. 

Is it Alice’s menopausal brain playing tricks on her? Or is the house she thought as her refuge become something much darker and malevolent than she ever imagined possible?

The hottest summer on record in London only makes the temperatures underground soar. When five unlucky travelers find themselves together on a tube carriage their lives are about to be forever changed. They all just witnessed something horrifying. 

Except, none of them can really remember exactly what it was. Determined to confront what they saw and stops it before it kills everyone aboard, these five people have to overcome their differences and work together before it’s too late.