Editorial · Article
Fresh Meat (2026): Release Date, Where to Watch, and the Dead Meat Anthology
One night in US theaters, Monday, October 12, 2026 · Canada October 15 · From the Dead Meat YouTube channel and Hades Films
By Alan Willey ·
Fresh Meat is a horror anthology from Hades Films and Dead Meat, the YouTube channel run by James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca. It plays in US theaters for one night only, on Monday, October 12, 2026, and opens in Canada on October 15.
The film collects 13 short horror films chosen from 557 submissions to a contest Dead Meat ran in the summer of 2026. Janisse wrote and directed the segment that links them. Its distributor lists it at 116 minutes, and it is not rated.
No digital, streaming or disc date has been announced.
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Release date and where to watch
Fresh Meat screens in US theaters on Monday, October 12, 2026, for one night. Tickets went on sale on September 24 through Fandango. On Fandango the film is listed at AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Alamo Drafthouse locations, among other chains. Most screenings start between 7 and 8 p.m. local time. Dead Meat has not published a theater count.
In Canada it opens on Thursday, October 15, 2026, with listings at Cineplex and Landmark Cinemas.
The film is not rated. It is in English and Japanese, with English subtitles for the Japanese dialogue.
Digital release and streaming date
No digital rental, purchase, streaming or Blu-ray date has been announced.
In July 2026, Janisse said the film would be available to rent digitally for people who could not get to the screening. He did not give a date or a platform.
This page and the film page will be updated when a home release date is announced.
What it is about
The distributor's synopsis: "In the back of a butcher shop, a little girl watches terrifying tales on a screen that must be fed. As its appetite grows, her father must find increasingly gruesome ways to keep the show going."
The butcher shop is the setting of the frame story, a segment called "Sate the Screen", which links the 13 short films. According to Bloody Disgusting, the shorts come from filmmakers in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Austria and the Netherlands.
How the shorts were chosen
Dead Meat announced the contest in mid-July 2026. Submissions ran from July 25 to August 24, with a $50 entry fee. Shorts had to run between 5 and 10 minutes and be completed on or after January 1, 2024.
The channel received 557 submissions. Each was watched by at least two people on a panel, which narrowed them to 30 finalists. Fans voted on the finalists from September 3 to September 10. Janisse said the votes would be used as guidance and the final choice was Dead Meat's. Thirteen shorts made the film.
Janisse said in July that each selected filmmaker would receive $2,500 and the grand prize winner $25,000. The grand prize goes to the short that audiences at the October 12 screenings vote for, by scanning a QR code.
Is it scary?
It has no Watch Darkly score yet.
No reviews have been published as of October 8, 2026. It has no MPA rating, so there is no rating descriptor. The official trailer came out on Dead Meat's channel on September 24.
Its Fear, Gore, Atmosphere and Intensity scores will go on the film page once it has been watched.
Who made it
Dead Meat is a horror YouTube channel run by James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca. It started in 2017 with The Kill Count, a series that tallies the deaths in horror films, and had 7.04 million subscribers on October 8, 2026.
Janisse wrote and directed "Sate the Screen" and acts in it. Chelsea Rebecca, Elle Riot Fox and Rich Sommer, who was in Mad Men, also appear in it. Richard Kind appears in the trailer.
Hades Films is a horror company spun out of Atlas Entertainment, the production company behind Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight. It also released The Influencer Project, which opened in US theaters on October 2, 2026.
Other films called Fresh Meat
Several films and a TV series share the name. A different Fresh Meat (2026) is a Canadian film written and directed by Daniel Turres, about internet influencers making content inside an abandoned prison. It played FrightFest 2026. The Horror Collective holds its worldwide rights and has not set a release date. Reviews of a Fresh Meat from the 2026 festival circuit are of that film, not this one.
Fresh Meat (2012) is a horror comedy from New Zealand directed by Danny Mulheron, and Fresh Meat (2011 to 2016) is a British comedy-drama series that aired on Channel 4.
Related films on Watch Darkly
Creepshow(1982)
Romero and Stephen King's anthology of five stories, framed by a boy and his horror comic.
V/H/S(2012)
The found-footage anthology that started a series of short-film collections from different directors.
V/H/S/Mixtape(2026)
The newest V/H/S anthology, on Shudder from October 9, 2026.
Trick 'r Treat(2007)
A Halloween anthology whose stories cross over on the same night in one town.
Body Bags(1993)
A three-story anthology with a wraparound hosted from a morgue by John Carpenter.
Common questions
- When does Fresh Meat come out?
- It screens in US theaters for one night, Monday, October 12, 2026. It opens in Canada on October 15.
- Where can I watch Fresh Meat?
- In US theaters on October 12, 2026, with tickets on Fandango. No digital, streaming or Blu-ray date has been announced.
- Will Fresh Meat be available to rent at home?
- James A. Janisse said in July 2026 that people who miss the theatrical screening will be able to rent it digitally. No date or platform has been announced.
- Is Fresh Meat scary?
- It has no Watch Darkly score yet, and no reviews have been published as of October 8, 2026. Its Fear, Gore, Atmosphere and Intensity scores will go on the film page once it has been watched.
- How many short films are in Fresh Meat?
- Thirteen, chosen from 557 submissions to Dead Meat's 2026 short-film contest, plus a frame story written and directed by James A. Janisse.
- Who directed Fresh Meat?
- Each of the 13 shorts has its own filmmakers. James A. Janisse of Dead Meat wrote and directed the frame story, "Sate the Screen".
- How long is Fresh Meat?
- 116 minutes, according to its distributor.
- Is Fresh Meat rated?
- No. It is not rated by the MPA.
- Is this the Fresh Meat that played FrightFest?
- No. That is a different Fresh Meat (2026), a Canadian film by Daniel Turres. This Fresh Meat is the Dead Meat anthology.