In 2026, Obsession, directed by Curry Barker, grossed about $522.8 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing horror film of all time and the highest-grossing original theatrical film of the 2020s.
Similarly, Weapons, released in 2025 and directed by Zach Cregger, grossed $270 million worldwide, becoming the first 2025 horror film to top the domestic box office chart for three consecutive weeks.
These two aren’t the only horror movies making a mark in cinemas. Horror has surged with recent box-office smashes, prompting moviegoers, especially Gen Z, to head to theaters for a shared experience.
According to 2024 data from Statista, Gen Z consumers were the most likely age group to watch horror movies or TV shows, with 91% reporting they watched the genre.
That resurgence is what inspired Todd Wemmer, a professor in the School of Social Sciences, Communication, & Humanities, to bring the genre into the classroom. Combining his passion for horror with his love of unconventional storytelling, Wemmer developed The Horror Machine, a communications course that challenges students to explore the genre through hands-on multimedia creation.
This fall, students are diving into the world of horror, experimenting with everything from storytelling and sound design to creating their own spine-chilling content. We sat down with Wemmer to learn what inspired the course, how students are bringing their scariest ideas to life, and, of course, which horror films top his must-watch list.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to create The Horror Machine, and why did you feel now was the right time to introduce the course?
This is my first time teaching the class. I’ve been going to horror film festivals for the last six years. I have students exploring the genre in other classes when it fits, and students write horror screenplays in screenwriting all the time. Horror fiction podcasts are popular. Also, from a business perspective, one of the most profitable production companies is Blumhouse Productions (horror/thriller). It just felt like the time was right, with the recent success of Obsession, Backrooms, and Weapons.
We also had Matt Leslie ’02, an Endicott screenwriting alum who has worked in the genre for years, teach our screenwriting class last year. So, I created the Horror Machine to explore the subgenres of horror. We explore and test those genres by making weird props and homemade sounds, music, and scripts. Can we create content that actually scares people in 2026 using media and things we make with our hands? That’s an interesting question to explore.
What type of projects are the students working on?
During our folk horror section, student groups were assigned a section of campus to create new haunted lore. I mean, really, where do haunted places come from? Imaginations. This campus has a history of being haunted…is it, though? I’ve never seen anything haunted here, so why not just invent new haunted material based on a little fact and fiction.
The students have crafted some narratives about the woods, ocean, and the little island in the pond. They have made some “music” with found objects and created sound effects with everyday items. These are the beginnings of some haunting lore. They don’t know it yet, but they have much more to do with this. Everything is a process. Process is everything. We are what we make. We are planning to make this haunted lore so it can be buried in the archive and found in 100 years, hopefully scaring those who discover it.
What do you hope students take away from this course, even if they don't pursue careers in horror or filmmaking?
I hope students see how subgenre rules can transfer to all sorts of other projects. I would love this to be a Gen Ed class. Every major should be deeply exploring classes outside their discipline. Also, if you can’t make things, what are you even doing? We need something visceral and messy and uncomfortable to shock us out of being boring. Horror gives us all that. Being boring has become way too easy. It is the default setting. If you are studying your major and not looking outside of it, you’re the same as everyone else in your major, and everyone else in that major across the world.
Wemmer’s Top-Five Horror Movies
Scissors by Brooke Rameka ’26. This was her senior capstone film. An overworked hairdresser takes one last evening customer. Lots of blood. She wrote this in my screenwriting class and worked hard to find a salon that would let her film there. She found the perfect place. Great little creepy film.
80s slasher movies are pure nostalgia. I used to watch lots of horror films in middle school with friends, probably at an age when we shouldn't have been watching them. Looking back, they were all slashers. In my Media Aesthetics class, students have an assignment where they get their parents to call in memories about getting their first VCR. They often mention Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Anything with vampires. From the Underworld movies to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Vampires can live forever. I’m obsessed with the passage of time in all my work. So, exploring living forever is always fun.
Backrooms: I would love to time travel 50 years into the future and see what people think of this movie. I love this film’s origin story. I have an assignment in my Media Aesthetics class where we go around campus looking for liminal spaces. I have 100s of photos students have taken. Many could be in this movie. We are living in Backrooms right now; we just don’t know it.
I really like Demian Rugna’s (Argentina) films. Terrified and Where Evil Lurks. In both movies, he has these older characters who carry folk knowledge of evil. They even have these interesting props for detecting demons. It’s nice to explore international cinema and see how other filmmakers are haunting audiences. Apparently, he is making a vampire movie next.