Obsession Dominates the 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards
The chainsaws have stopped revving, the blood has been mopped from the floor and Curry Barker probably needs to find somewhere new to keep all his trophies. The 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards have concluded, with Obsession emerging as the night’s biggest winner after collecting five awards.
Hosted by Final Destination star Devon Sawa, this year’s ceremony celebrated horror across theatrical releases, streaming, television, documentaries and video games. The nominees covered releases from July 2025 through June 2026, with the eventual results producing victories for everything from major releases such as Frankenstein and Weapons to Kane Parsons’ Backrooms.
It was Barker’s Obsession, however, that walked away with the largest collection of chainsaws.
Obsession Takes Five
Obsession won Best Wide Release Movie, defeating a particularly strong field containing 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Backrooms, The Bride!, Faces of Death, Forbidden Fruits, Hokum, Leviticus, Send Help and Weapons.
Barker himself picked up Best Director, beating Zach Cregger, Nia DaCosta, Bryan Fuller and Maggie Gyllenhaal, while also winning Best Screenplay. Inde Navarrette completed the film’s major-category success by taking Best Lead Performance, ahead of nominees including Ralph Fiennes, Rachel McAdams, Jessie Buckley, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Peter Dinklage.
Apparently four awards weren’t sufficient, so Obsession also claimed the fan write-in Best Kill prize for its Brick Kill. Nothing says awards season quite like repeatedly introducing somebody’s head to masonry.
The result is particularly striking because Obsession entered the awards with four conventional nominations, while 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Dust Bunny had led the original field with nine nominations apiece.
Backrooms Has a Very Good Night Too
Kane Parsons’ Backrooms finished behind Obsession with three victories. It was named Best First Feature, while Jeremy Cox won Best Cinematography and Parsons shared Best Score with Edo Van Breemen.
Elsewhere, Dust Bunny took Best Limited Release Movie, while the latest entry in the found-footage anthology franchise, V/H/S/Halloween, was named Best Streaming Premiere. Exit 8 won Best International Movie.
Television also received its share of chainsaw-shaped appreciation. Widow’s Bay was named Best Series ahead of Alien: Earth, The Creep Tapes, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen and The Vampire Lestat. Meanwhile, The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs claimed Best Non-Fiction Series.
Frankenstein, Weapons and Freddy’s Take Home Awards
While Obsession dominated the major categories, several other horror heavyweights avoided leaving empty-handed.
Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Performance for Weapons, triumphing over a field that included Jacob Elordi, Elle Fanning, David Jonsson, Mads Mikkelsen, Jack O’Connell and Sigourney Weaver.
Frankenstein scored two craft victories. Kate Hawley received Best Costume Design, while Mike Hill took Best Makeup FX.
The Creature FX award went somewhere particularly appropriate. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop won for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, defeating work from Legacy Effects on Dust Bunny, Studio Gillis and Wētā Workshop on Predator: Badlands, Millennium FX on Primate and Werner Pretorius and Amazing Ape Productions on Backrooms.
Horror gaming wasn’t forgotten either. Resident Evil: Requiem was named Best Video Game, overcoming Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake, Little Nightmares III, No, I’m Not A Human and Silent Hill f.
The documentary prize went to In Search of Darkness: 1995–1999, the latest instalment in the extensive documentary series exploring genre cinema.
Special Awards and One Extremely Good Boy
FANGORIA Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr. presented an Editor’s Eyeball Award to Joe Bird, recognising the Talk to Me and Leviticus actor’s early achievements and future within horror.
There was also a surprise second Editor’s Eyeball Award for James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca, the creators behind Dead Meat, recognising their contribution to horror fandom and their role in introducing another generation to the genre.
Then came perhaps the least controversial award of the evening.
Indy, canine star of Good Boy, received the Chainsaw Award for Goodest Boy after enthusiastic write-in support from fans. Better still, the award was presented by Cujo star Dee Wallace, with Indy appearing alongside director Ben Leonberg to accept it.
There are Best Picture controversies. There are acting snubs. There are endless arguments about directors, performances and whether your favourite horror film was robbed.
But giving a dog an award for being the Goodest Boy?
Finally, awards season has perfected the system.
The 2026 ceremony was written and directed by Michael Varrati, with Armen Aghaeian, Tara Ansley and Abhi Goel serving as executive producers. Amanda Grace Collins was lead producer, with Phil Nobile Jr. and Varrati producing.
For all the winners scattered across horror this year, the final scoreboard belongs to Obsession. Five Chainsaw Awards, including Movie, Director, Screenplay, Lead Performance and Best Kill, represents quite a haul for Curry Barker’s film.
Somebody really might want to check the weight limit on his trophy cabinet.
