{"id":671183,"date":"2026-09-03T22:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671183\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:43:12","slug":"top-genre-filmmakers-of-2026-from-curry-barker-to-guillermo-del-toro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671183\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Genre Filmmakers of 2026: From Curry Barker to Guillermo del Toro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWeapons, Resident Evil<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt took Cregger just four years \u2014 and two movies \u2014 to become an elite filmmaker who commands eight-figure deals. The 2022 low-budget cult hit Barbarian established him as one to watch. Then Weapons became not just one of the big moneymakers of 2025 ($270\u202fmillion on a $38\u202fmillion budget) but also landed an Oscar for Amy Madigan\u2019s performance as Aunt Gladys. All of his projects have lit up insane bidding wars, including The\u202fFlood, a sci-fi feature that he will shoot for Warner Bros. early next year. He also is co-writing a Gladys prequel for the studio, even as he prepares for the Sept.\u202f18 release of Sony\u2019s Resident Evil.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter an intense day of filming, I unwind by: <\/strong>\u201c[Playing] video games. It\u2019s a really easy way for me to power my brain down and chew on something that has nothing to do with the production. I can just kill bad guys, and numb out. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s healthier ways to deal with stress but this is my junk food. And magnesium baths. During a shoot I take a lot of magnesium baths. Maybe that\u2019s healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBest advice I\u2019ve received about directing: <\/strong>\u201cA director much smarter and more successful than me told me something that I\u2019ll never forget. He said \u2018Your department heads do not work for you. You work for them. And your job is to communicate to them what is in your head so precisely that there is no room for error.\u2019 I think about that every day. I can never expect anyone to see exactly what I have in my mind. It\u2019s my responsibility to get them on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tGENRE DIRECTORS TO WATCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAxelle Carolyn<\/strong> directed the well-received horror episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and is a veteran of numerous horror TV shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAdrian Chiarella<\/strong>\u2019s Leviticus put a supernatural lens on queer trauma and became a Sundance darling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDylan Clark<\/strong> was tapped to helm the new Blair Witch Project movie and has Portrait of God set to follow soon after, with Sam Raimi<\/strong> and Jordan Peele<\/strong> producing.<\/p>\n

\n\tMali Elfman<\/strong>, daughter of composer Danny Elfman<\/strong>, has the backing of Radio Silenceand Divide\/Conquer \u2014 and \u201990s scream queen Sarah Michelle Gellar<\/strong> on her call sheet for Thud.<\/p>\n

\n\tNatalie Erika James<\/strong> directed the Rosemary\u2019s Baby prequel Apartment 7A for Paramount+ and made Sundance audiences squirm with this year\u2019s eating-disorder horror feature Saccharine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNikyatu Jusu<\/strong>\u2019s 2022 feature Nanny was the first horror movie to win the Sundance grand jury prize. Next up, she has a mysterious supernatural horror movie with Screen Gems and John David Washington<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBen Leonberg<\/strong>\u2018s Good Boy barked up scares (and featured one of the best posters of 2025). He\u2019s got Ankler Snatcher set up at Sony.<\/p>\n

\n\tChloe Okuno <\/strong>scales up from the Sundance horror feature Watcher, starring scream queen Maika Monroe<\/strong>, to the upcoming Neon movie Brides, set in 1961 Italy with Olivia Cooke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpanish helmer Carlota Pereda<\/strong> makes her English-language debut with The Edge of Normal, starring Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz<\/strong> as a woman who as a teen was abducted by a sadistic man.<\/p>\n

\n\tIan Tuason<\/strong> moves from Undertone, which grossed a massive $21.5\u202fmillion on a $500,000 budget, to take the reins of the next Paranormal Activity movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlex Ullom<\/strong>\u2019s microbudget It Ends is now in theaters, and he has 4 X 4: The Event following behind for Neon, described as Battle Royale meets Saw.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weapons, Resident Evil It took Cregger just four years \u2014 and two movies \u2014 to become an elite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[31494,18,117,19187,19,17,327,820],"class_list":["post-671183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-curry-barker","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-guillermo-del-toro","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-zach-cregger"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117209530544000649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}