Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One chilling occult shockfest from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless fear when newcomers become puppets in a demonic struggle. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish episode of endurance and primeval wickedness that will revamp horror this season. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five strangers who awaken trapped in a remote wooden structure under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a timeless religious nightmare. Be prepared to be hooked by a theatrical presentation that intertwines raw fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the fiends no longer develop outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most sinister facet of the cast. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the plotline becomes a perpetual conflict between light and darkness.


In a haunting wild, five figures find themselves contained under the dark aura and infestation of a secretive person. As the victims becomes incapable to oppose her control, abandoned and pursued by evils mind-shattering, they are required to battle their worst nightmares while the deathwatch relentlessly edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension mounts and partnerships shatter, compelling each participant to reflect on their existence and the idea of free will itself. The consequences rise with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore primal fear, an curse that predates humanity, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a curse that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that shift is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households around the globe can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has received over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this visceral voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and alerts via the production team, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans stateside slate melds biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with life-or-death fear drawn from mythic scripture and including legacy revivals plus focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most complex paired with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, even as platform operators saturate the fall with new voices plus ancestral chills. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is propelled by the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, 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 opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

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

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new scare release year: continuations, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The fresh genre calendar crams in short order with a January glut, before it runs through summer corridors, and carrying into the late-year period, marrying legacy muscle, untold stories, and data-minded calendar placement. The major players are prioritizing right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that transform the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the surest option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still hedge the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that disciplined-budget fright engines can dominate audience talk, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is a market for a variety of tones, from continued chapters to fresh IP that play globally. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that shows rare alignment across companies, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a recommitted emphasis on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the release plan. Horror can premiere on most weekends, offer a sharp concept for teasers and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with moviegoers that lean in on preview nights and stay strong through the week two if the title delivers. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 mapping underscores comfort in that engine. The year gets underway with a weighty January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a fall cadence that extends to Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also highlights the ongoing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and scale up at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across shared IP webs and legacy IP. The companies are not just producing another entry. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a new tone or a casting choice that ties a new entry to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are championing material texture, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That interplay affords 2026 a confident blend of recognition and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture hints at a legacy-leaning strategy without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout centered on iconic art, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that mixes companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are treated as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror shock that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio places two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can increase large-format demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and linguistic texture, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both opening-weekend urgency and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with global pickups and select theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about originals and festival additions, dating horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to pick up select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate suggest a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

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

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 household haunting tale that explores the horror of a child’s wobbly impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 dark-horse 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 sleeper overperformer 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, this content 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, and visual design 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 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.