PREVIEW: Lily’s Ritual (2026 Film) - Starring Maggie García, Patricia Peñalver, Elena Gallardo, Eve Ryan, Mike Fajardo and Antea Rodríguez

By Jon Donnis

Released by Black Mandala, Lily’s Ritual is a haunting folk horror film directed by Manu Herrera and set against the dark mysticism of late 1990s Spain. Rooted in atmosphere and unease, the film draws its power from silence, ritual, and the slow realisation that faith, when left unquestioned, can become something monstrous.

The story unfolds in 1999 as four friends retreat to a secluded cabin deep within the forest. What begins as a spiritual initiation soon curdles into something far more disturbing. Witchcraft, sacrifice, and betrayal surface as the true intent of the gathering reveals itself. A demon as old as the world is summoned, and blood will be spilled.

Set during the autumn equinox near Madrid at the end of the 20th century, the film follows Lily, a pale and withdrawn young woman travelling with her friends to a remote woodland cabin. She believes she is there to be initiated into witchcraft. As preparations are made and night falls, the ritual begins. When Lily collapses mid ceremony, she later awakens bound, injured, and alone. She does not yet understand that she herself has been chosen as the sacrifice. Nothing, however, unfolds as planned.

As a demonic laugh echoes through the forest, alliances fracture and buried lies come to the surface. The ritual turns violently against those who created it, unleashing a force that cannot be controlled. What was meant to bring harmony instead exposes betrayal and fear, as belief becomes the very thing that destroys them.

Blending atmospheric dread, pagan mythology, and psychological horror, Lily’s Ritual explores blind devotion, hidden motives, and the terrifying cost of belief. Its slow burn tension and striking visuals place it firmly alongside elevated folk horror such as The Witch, Midsommar, and Kill List, without losing its own distinct identity.

With next level practical effects and an unwavering commitment to mood and menace, Lily’s Ritual is set to become one of the must see highlights for horror fans in 2026. It is a dark and unsettling descent into ancient evil, where harmony is an illusion, friendship is a lie, and some doors should never be opened.

Directed by Manu Herrera, with a script by Javier Fernández Moratalla and Herrera, the film stars Maggie García, Patricia Peñalver, Elena Gallardo, Eve Ryan, Mike Fajardo, and Antea Rodríguez.

Coming 2026

PREVIEW: Witchboard (2026 Film) - Stars Madison Iselan

 

Vertigo Releasing has announced the digital release of Witchboard, a fresh reimagining of the 1986 cult classic that marked one of Chuck Russell’s early forays into horror. The film also represents a return to the genre that defined his career, following the cult successes of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob. This new project completes a trio of fantasy horror films for Russell, a chance to push the boundaries of familiar fright worlds while staying true to the elements that made them endure.

The cast blends established talent with genre favourites. Madison Iselan leads as Emily, known for her roles in the Annabelle and Jumanji franchises. She is joined by Jamie Campbell Bower, whose Stranger Things and Twilight credentials suit the darker tone. Aaron Dominguez brings the sharp presence he showed in Only Murders in the Building, while Charlie Tahan adds the grit familiar from Ozark. Mel Jarnson, seen in Mortal Kombat, and Antonia Desplat, from Modi and Three Days on the Wing of Madness, complete the ensemble.

The story follows Emily after she uncovers an ancient spirit board. Soon after, those around her begin dying in sudden and disturbing ways. Her friends quickly realise they are facing a force far older than superstition, and the only way to stop it is to break the curse before it spreads further.

Russell produces alongside Kade Vu, Greg McKay and Bernie Gewissler, with a wide roster of executive producers including Eric Schiermeyer, Barry Brewer, John Paul Isham, Walter Josten, Patrick Josten, Marc Rousseau, Yannick Sadle, Robert Abramoff, Kevin Tenney, Jeff Geoffrey, Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier and JJ Caruth. Yaron Levy oversees cinematography, Camille Parent handles production design, and Véronique Marchessault creates the costumes. Editing is shared between Alex Márquez, Joe Plenys and Émile Vallée, with Sam Ewing composing the score.

Witchboard arrives digitally on Amazon, Apple TV, Sky Store and YouTube Movies on 2 February 2026.

Interview with K.K. Monroe By David Kempf

 

1. When did you first become interested in horror?

I was a guinea pig for my older sister’s love of horror. There was a considerable age gap between us, almost a decade, and I served as her unwitting, scaredy cat. In my early childhood, she impressed upon me a twisted version of The Lawnmower Man, a verdant, alien lifeform who was trawling our neighborhood. She convinced me he was creeping the large, circular vent above my bed at night, watching and waiting for me to fall asleep so he could turn me into BBQ. 

It would be safe to say: horror has always been interested in me. If you can’t beat them, join them, creepy matters have piqued my morbid curiosity as far back as I can remember.

I also have this vivid, formative image embedded in my mind: parallel train tracks running through distinct dimensions of reality, diverging and converging at whim. Whether the parallel tracks represent life and death, a sense of otherness; I genuinely don’t recall where the seeds came from. Yet it’s rooted in my psychological core and continues to evolve and flourish.

2. Did you always enjoy writing?

I’ve always enjoyed language, reading, and writing. When I was in second grade, I made a fourteen page book using construction paper and ribbons. I drew my own illustrations, wrote a dark fantasy about a door in the floor, a secret magical kingdom, color-changing unicorn (of course), a fierce princess, battling against an evil force overtaking the land. This was in the late 70’s, pre-Neverending Story when I took it in for show-and-tell. I was brave then and read it to the class. I couldn’t draw worth a damn, but that didn’t deter me. I love writing. 

Now, I need to write to keep my mind a bit quieter and calmer. 

Though it can be an exercise in madness. 

3. Do you have a favorite horror character?

There are so many, all vying for top position. It’s a bloody massacre in my imagination when I have to choose. A few favorites are: Pennywise from IT, The Overlook Hotel in the Shining, The Creepiest #1 Horror Fan Annie Wilkes from Misery, and Hannibal Lecter as written by Thomas Harris. I’m particularly frightened by characters who too closely resemble real life. Characters that could very well be based on actual people and events such as Annie Wilkes, Hannibal Lecter, and the feral pack of school boys in Lord of the Flies. 

Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it’s more horrifying.

Settings and places which breathe, hunger, and haunt get under my skin: Hill House and The Overlook Hotel are at the top of my list as favorites.

4. Is there another genre that you are interested in?

I’m genre fluid in both my reading and writing interests. Dark fantasy, fantasy, sci fi, psychological thrillers and mysteries all draw me in. I read many international classics growing up, including Russian authors such as Dostoyevski, Solzhenitsyn, and Tolstoy due to my family’s Balkan heritage. I crave literary variety and am a mood reader. 

5. Are there topics in horror that you will not write about?

My storytelling boundaries are still evolving as am I. Lurid depictions of CSA and active animal torture are a hard No for me. I may allude to highly sensitive topics in context, even exploring the grim emotional depths of a character’s subsequent trauma. I’m not one to go extreme. 

We live in a horrific world. My greatest terrors arise from the daily news.

6. How much has Lovecraft influenced your work?

Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, influenced me quite a bit. I came to H.R. Lovecraft later in life, in my early twenties. His sheer brilliance with language, utter imagination, fantastically disturbing, existential treatment of humankind as mere specks of dust floating in vast nothingness, resonates with me. 

Lovecraft was a cosmic horror pioneer and literary genius. I revisit his works often and am easily consumed by the exquisite unease in his prose and imagery, leaving me pondering for eons. 

Cosmic horror inhabits my soul. It may come as no surprise to learn I double majored in Philosophy and Psychology with a concentration in English Lit in undergrad. That pretty much captures me.

7. Do you have more fun writing short stories or novels?

I have the most fun writing stories of any length that don’t throw up subversive resistance at every turn, for I am my own worst enemy. I adore the short story form. Give me a juicy morsel, even if it’s just a tidbit I can enjoy with my morning coffee, and I’m thrilled. Good short stories are a smorgasbord of horrific delights to be savored. Likely, the brevity, suits my attention span, which hopscotches all over the universe and sometimes even plays leap frog with a unicorn. 

8. Why do you think horror books and movies remain so popular?

Psychological and emotional catharsis, scary, creepy, unnerving, frightening, mounting dread, blood-chilling terror, an indescribable ancient horror, tap into such complex emotions and give us addictive hits of endorphins and dopamine. In my opinion, morbid fascination is as intrinsic to human nature as Freud’s Id. On some level, fictionalized horror is freeing. There’s no genuine, physical threat. Safe scares allow us to contemplate, maybe, things aren’t quite as awful in comparison to, say, a blood-thirsty slasher on the loose? Ultimately, I think we crave ecstatic relief, similar to surviving a harrowing rollercoaster ride. We’re happy to be alive. Then wish to do it all over again.

9. Why do you think that people are obsessed with being scared?

We’re subject to the hardwiring of our amygdala. Fear via remote viewing allows us to envision and mentally reenact a variety of disasters and crises, in order to prepare ourselves. We’re left feeling better equipped to survive horrific survival scenarios, should they ever arise. Something akin to the evolutionary imperative of survival of the fittest; being safely afraid provokes an atavistic high, hopefully, much less dangerous than base jumping.

10. Who inspires you?

In the horror world, Stephen King is the horror author of my childhood. He’s a legend, a true inspiration, humanized by freely-given, humble advice and encouragement. He has struggled with doubts and personal demons. He threw Carrie in the garbage bin. If Tabith, his wife, hadn’t rescued it from the trash, who knows? Choices define us. What I truly admire about SK, aside from his incredible world-building and prolific imagination, is he has never been withholding about his struggles as a human being and writer regardless of fame. 

In life? Compassionate, empathetic, giving human beings inspire me like no others. The people who love and care for helpless animals. The helpers who run headlong into disaster to save strangers with no regards for themselves. They’re the best of humanity. Good eggs inspire me.

11. What are some of your favorite horror books?

Pet Sematary is my favorite horror book. It outright scared me more than anything I’ve ever read. I was nine at the time, sequestered to a transcontinental flight, still, it holds up under scrutiny. 

Animal harm is a major trigger for me, and I’m oddly insistent that Jack London’s Call of the Wild qualifies as realism/survival horror. The savagery of Nature, survival-needs pitted against brutal elements, tipped my world over. I was also quite young, about eight, when I read it.

The Talisman co-authored by Peter Straub and Stephen King. Misery, IT and The Stand by Stephen King. The Other by Thomas Tryon. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Lord of the Flies by William Goulding, The Ruins by Scott Smith. The Twelve by Justin Cronin. 

This year, I’ve added Veil by Jonathan Janz and Steel Machines by Dan Franklin to that list. They’re both fantastic.

12. What are some of your favorite horror movies?

I subsist on horror movies. Jaws cracked cosmic (and creature) horror wide-open for me. As a result, I suffer from a dire case of thalassophobia, a fountain of terror which never runs dry. 

Alien, forged my obsession with sci fi horror. 

A few others include: Nightmare on Elm Street, Jeepers Creepers, The Orphanage, The Others, The Changeling (1980), The Descent, The Conjuring, The Ritual, Creep, Silence of the Lambs. The Thing (1982), Prometheus, and Signs.

The Ring made me sleep with all the closet doors open and every light on in the house. 

13. What are your current projects?

I have a short story “Dead Water” appearing in the Screams from the Bayou Anthology in 2026, and I’m really excited about that. Advanced copies will be available through Broken Brain Books at STC AuthorCon™ in Williamsburg, Virginia, February 27th-March 1st. 

I have several WIPs. I’m exploring my cultural heritage with some grim Serbian folklore. I’m working on a cosmic, eco horror novella and another psychological, metaphysical novella dealing with transformative grief. I have a tendency to set aside my shorts stories and let them percolate forever, before editing. I’m never satisfied. My work run the spectrum of experimental sci fi, dystopian, weird/bizarre, fantasy, to global cryptids. 

I plan to get out of my own way this year and publish more. Wish me luck.

14. Please in your own words write a paragraph about yourself & your work.

I’m humbled and honored to be invited to do an author interview. Thank you so much.

I’ll include my author bio here:

KK Monroe is a horror author, cognitive-linguistic specialist (by day), and an avid genre-fluid reader. She resides in Virginia with her husband and two pups. Firstborn American to immigrants raised under Tito’s communist regime in former Yugoslavia; KK’s unique bicultural upbringing has deep roots in oral storytelling traditions, dark Slavic Mythos, and cautionary folktales of a pagan-rich heritage. This cultural milieu colors and shapes the lens of this author’s writing style, interests, and voice. In her free time, she enjoys tackling her TBR, watching scary movies, cooking ethnic foods, and falling down obscure rabbit holes in the name of research. Her short fiction has been published in the Screams from The Dark Ages Anthology and in Cosmic Horror Monthly with forthcoming releases. Her debut collection of quiet, vintage, cosmic horror “Things from the Dark” can be found on Amazon. 

Buy From Amazon - https://amzn.to/4q13S3s

Follow along in this author’s writing journey on Facebook at KK Monroe – Author.  

https://www.facebook.com/kk.monroe.author/

Stay current on recent and forthcoming releases at https://linktr.ee/kkmonroehorrorsalad