‘Is God Is’ Is the Horror Movie We Need Right Now
If you and your friends love “Good for Her” cinema, Southern gothic horror and thrillers fueled by revenge, Is God Is needs to be on your 2026 horror movie release radar. Not hip yet? The film, directed by Aleshea Harris, has an all-star lineup and will set theaters ablaze on May 15, 2026. Here’s what we know.
Based on a play written by Harris, Is God Is follows two sisters who are sent by their mother to kill their father. While there’s a little reluctance on their part, the twins take up the task to avenge their mother and themselves, all affected by the father’s plot to burn them alive.
‘Is God Is’ Has a Killer Cast
Of the sisters in Is God Is, Kara Young plays Racine the Rough One and Mallori Johnson plays Anaia the Quiet One. Young is best known for starring in I’m a Virgo, a surrealist comedy series directed by Boots Riley, but she also starred in Mariama Diallo’s supernatural horror short Hair Wolf. Johnson is best known for the time-traveling psychological thriller Kindred, based on Octavia E. Butler’s sci-fi book of the same name.
Meanwhile, Vivica A. Fox of Independence Day and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 fame, plays their mother. Sterling K. Brown — best known for This is Us and now Hulu thriller Paradise — plays the Monster in Is God Is. Likewise, Janelle Monáe, the non-binary queen of Halloween, plays the Monster’s new wife. (Lately, Monáe has embraced their weird in the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion and psychological horror flick Antebellum.)
Erika Alexander of Living Single, who made a cameo in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, and Mykelti Williamson, who had a role in The Purge: Election Year, round out the cast. Is God Is hits U.S. theaters on May 15, 2026.
‘Is God Is’ Was a Play First
As a play, Is God Is premiered in 2018 in New York City, Off-Broadway, at the Soho Repertory Theatre. It won three Obie Awards, the prestigious Off-Broadway Theater Awards given since 1955. As early as 2018, A24, along with Scott Rudin, was looking to adapt Harris’ play; this producing team was behind indie coming-of-age flicks Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, and Mid-90s.
‘Is God Is’ is in Good Hands, Producer-Wise
Instead, under Amazon MGM Orion Pictures, Tessa Thompson’s Viva Maude took over production. The film version of Is God Is started filming in 2024. Thompson’s Viva Maude is responsible for the crime drama His & Hers, which has reigned supreme on Netflix this year. Viva Maude also produced Hedda, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play, helmed by Candyman and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple director Nia DaCosta.
‘Is God Is’ Might be the Movie we Need Right Now
Is God Is is coming at the perfect time. Not only does there appear to be a Southern Gothic revival, with Sinners sweeping award season and the “Ethel Cain aesthetic” piquing the interest of chronically online, vintage-loving, rural goth girls. But there’s also a renaissance happening for Black women in horror as well.
The foundation was laid with actresses like Jada Pinkett Smith in Scream 2, which Scary Movie iconically spoofed with Regina Hall (who’s returning for Scary Movie 6). Another part of this foundation was Brandy in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
Decades later, actresses like Lupita Nyong’o in Jordan Peele’s Us took up the mantle. Since then, there’s been a steady trickle of Black final girls. Think of the way Naomi Ackie shone in Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice and how Ayo Edibiri lent her quiet snark to last year’s Opus. I’m excited to see how Harris’ film adds to the Black-women-in-horror film canon.
‘Is God Is’ looks like A+ Southern Gothic horror
And while we’re only one trailer deep, Is God Is looks like the horror movie we need right now. Long before Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Southern Gothic has been a formidable subgenre in horror. I think of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, whose atmospheric tales feel as gross and swampy and haunting as the cities he frequented, such as Charleston, South Carolina, and Richmond, Virginia. I also think of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” a tale of decay that inspired My Chemical Romance.
And of course, there’s Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire media universe. Beyond that, Eve’s Bayou, directed by Kasi Lemmons of Candyman fame, and Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story: Coven showcase the macabre beauty and madness that is pervasive in the South. Even without the occult, there’s something about the South that is ghastly and ghostly —and I can’t wait to see how this looks in Harris’ Is God Is.
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