Obsession has set dozens of records at this point, mainly with its earnings, but it also held a critical one as well. It was the highest Rotten Tomatoes-scored horror movie of 2026 and one of the highest-scored mainstream releases of the year, period.
While its 94% is still very high, it’s dropped a few points since release, and a new horror movie has passed it. That would be the new horror film Leviticus, which now has a verified 95% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics ahead of its wide release this weekend, starting June 19.
Leviticus is similar to Obsession in another way, past its score, namely that it has a mostly unknown cast. The exception there may be Mia Wasikowa of Alice in Wonderland and Crimson Peak. The star of the film is Joe Bird, who was a supporting but key player in another sleeper horror hit, Talk to Me (the kid who bashed his face against things). Its director, Adrian Chiarella, is not a 20-something YouTuber like Obsession’s Curry Barker or Backrooms’ Kane Parsons.
Leviticus tells the story of two boys in a relationship who end up facing a violent entity that takes the form of themselves, taunting and haunting the other. You can watch the trailer below for a look at how that plays out in practice:
The film has almost four dozen reviews in from critics, mainly from past festival airings, but the more recent ones are just as positive. As it stands, there is only a single negative review in the lot.
Is it likely that Leviticus follows the path of megahits Backrooms and Obsession? It is not. That’s not a dig against the movie itself, but it’s just that those two films have so wildly, unpredictably overperformed and set so many records that it’s almost impossible to follow them, even with those kinds of amazing critic scores. It’s almost certain that Obsession outgrosses Leviticus this weekend despite this being a month after its release.
With the arrival of Leviticus, here are the best and worst Rotten Tomatoes-scored horror movies of 2026 so far:
- Leviticus – 95% critic score
- Obsession – 94% critic score
- Send Help – 93% critic score
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – 92%
- Backrooms – 88% critic score
- Hokum – 88% critic score
- We Bury the Dead – 88% critic score
- Primate – 78% critic score
- Undertone – 74% critic score
- Forbidden Fruits – 74% critic score
- Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – 73% critic score
- Faces of Death – 69% critic score
- They Will Kill You – 65% critic score
- Iron Lung – 59% critic score
- Passenger – 49% critic score
- The Mummy – 46% critic score
- Scream 7 – 30% critic score
- Return to Silent Hill – 18% critic score
That is quite the top 5 there, with two record-setters, one surprise critical hit, one amazing performance by Rachel McAdams and the deserved-more-money fifth 28 Days Later movie. All of those are worth watching (honestly, after also watching Hokum and We Bury the Dead, and most of the rest, I’m not sure I can recommend or be excited about the rest of the list there).
So, go see Leviticus this weekend if you can find it, and see if it deserves this top spot.
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