Age-old Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A chilling paranormal shockfest from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten horror when passersby become proxies in a supernatural ordeal. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of continuance and primeval wickedness that will reimagine the horror genre this ghoul season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy cinema piece follows five lost souls who snap to isolated in a wilderness-bound house under the unfriendly sway of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Be warned to be immersed by a filmic event that combines raw fear with ancestral stories, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the entities no longer develop outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the grimmest side of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a soul-crushing battle between light and darkness.


In a isolated terrain, five individuals find themselves cornered under the ominous effect and infestation of a uncanny apparition. As the companions becomes unable to deny her dominion, abandoned and pursued by unknowns ungraspable, they are made to wrestle with their greatest panics while the timeline brutally runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and teams collapse, prompting each individual to reconsider their values and the philosophy of volition itself. The danger mount with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that fuses otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore ancestral fear, an power beyond time, manifesting in human fragility, and challenging a being that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the control shifts, and that transformation is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving users no matter where they are can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has gathered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, signature indie scares, plus returning-series thunder

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with biblical myth through to legacy revivals alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most complex combined with calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios set cornerstones with known properties, concurrently subscription platforms load up the fall with unboxed visions together with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is propelled by the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, the WB camp drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The upcoming scare calendar loads from day one with a January cluster, following that rolls through the mid-year, and continuing into the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, new voices, and tactical counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the sturdy release in release strategies, a category that can break out when it catches and still cushion the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that mid-range scare machines can drive pop culture, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets made clear there is room for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the market, with defined corridors, a harmony of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a revived priority on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now functions as a utility player on the programming map. Horror can roll out on many corridors, supply a simple premise for ad units and shorts, and outperform with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and return through the second weekend if the title lands. Exiting a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that approach. The calendar launches with a loaded January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a late-year stretch that carries into the fright window and beyond. The gridline also illustrates the increasing integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across linked properties and established properties. Big banners are not just mounting another continuation. They are aiming to frame lineage with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the very same time, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative Check This Out voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that unfolds into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a tactile, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is selling 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 mission to serve both longtime followers and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around canon, and creature design, elements that can accelerate premium screens and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ordering that elevates both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival buys, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate 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 sell is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Be ready for 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 jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a day-date try from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, allows marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate indicate a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. Universal’s 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 caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner turns into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 tough boss work to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that leverages the unease of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 satire sequel that needles hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned 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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan linked to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 era-accurate language and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, 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 optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 cost-efficient 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 dark-horse hit 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, and imagery 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.