Our annual conference, Horror Studies Now, began in 2017. Initially a small event titled “Researching Horror, Cult and Exploitation Cinema”, the conference aimed to offer support to new voices in the field, focusing on PhD and Early Career researchers. Since rebranding as Horror Studies Now in 2020, the conference has become a major international event, spanning two days with three parallel streams. The conference aims to showcase the best research being undertaken in horror studies, platforming a diversity of voices in the field, representing the breadth of horror studies research emerging from different disciplines, accounting for practice-based as well as traditional forms of research, and foregrounding various media types including comics, games, audio, and written fiction, not just film. Our call for papers explicitly asks speakers to consider how their research pushes horror studies forward. The diverse research presented at Horror Studies Now demonstrates that the genre offers far more than entertainment: it reflects essential social and political concerns of the moment and allows audiences to think through fundamental elements of the human condition, including loss, grief, death, suffering, fragility, and fear. We look forward to welcoming you to our 2026 edition—our largest yet.