Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 across premium platforms

An hair-raising occult fright fest from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten horror when unknowns become vehicles in a satanic game. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping depiction of resistance and prehistoric entity that will redefine horror this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic tale follows five individuals who arise sealed in a unreachable wooden structure under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a mysterious girl occupied by a timeless biblical demon. Be prepared to be seized by a big screen outing that merges instinctive fear with biblical origins, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a well-established trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the dark entities no longer manifest outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the most terrifying side of the cast. The result is a intense psychological battle where the suspense becomes a relentless battle between right and wrong.


In a bleak backcountry, five individuals find themselves trapped under the unholy sway and control of a unidentified female figure. As the characters becomes helpless to combat her rule, exiled and preyed upon by presences unfathomable, they are compelled to encounter their greatest panics while the doomsday meter mercilessly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and partnerships erode, urging each individual to evaluate their identity and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The hazard rise with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that fuses mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into elemental fright, an threat beyond time, influencing our weaknesses, and questioning a spirit that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something deeper than fear. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that conversion is shocking because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure customers anywhere can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to horror fans worldwide.


Witness this visceral spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to survive these unholy truths about inner darkness.


For sneak peeks, production news, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s major pivot: the 2025 cycle stateside slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Kicking off with survivor-centric dread steeped in scriptural legend to canon extensions set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex plus blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lock in tentpoles with established lines, in tandem subscription platforms prime the fall with debut heat in concert with old-world menace. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is propelled by the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Booked into mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 fear cycle: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, And A Crowded Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The incoming terror year clusters in short order with a January crush, following that extends through peak season, and deep into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and well-timed release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform these pictures into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has proven to be the bankable play in release strategies, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still protect the drawdown when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that low-to-mid budget genre plays can lead the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that shows rare alignment across studios, with strategic blocks, a balance of familiar brands and novel angles, and a sharpened strategy on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on PVOD and home platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now operates like a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can premiere on numerous frames, deliver a clear pitch for trailers and shorts, and exceed norms with crowds that arrive on early shows and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals faith in that setup. The slate starts with a busy January block, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into early November. The map also features the increasing integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Major shops are not just releasing another next film. They are setting up threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a star attachment that bridges a new entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are favoring practical craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay yields 2026 a confident blend of assurance and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a roots-evoking framework without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that turns into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that mixes attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele projects are marketed as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel elevated on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is framing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can lift premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival buys, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of precision releases and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clear: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind this slate signal a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and this page the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that interrogates the chill of a child’s fragile read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.