Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One unnerving supernatural suspense story from author / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old terror when newcomers become puppets in a cursed experiment. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will resculpt scare flicks this harvest season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic feature follows five young adults who come to stuck in a isolated wooden structure under the ominous influence of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Brace yourself to be immersed by a audio-visual journey that combines bone-deep fear with timeless legends, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the beings no longer arise externally, but rather from deep inside. This marks the shadowy part of every character. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a soul-crushing fight between innocence and sin.


In a barren terrain, five souls find themselves confined under the ominous effect and possession of a unknown woman. As the victims becomes submissive to escape her influence, isolated and preyed upon by powers indescribable, they are confronted to battle their soulful dreads while the hours without pause draws closer toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and links splinter, driving each survivor to reflect on their existence and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The danger rise with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that integrates demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to extract core terror, an power that existed before mankind, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and highlighting a curse that challenges autonomy when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra demanded embodying something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers no matter where they are can witness this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has seen over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Join this gripping ride through nightmares. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and insider scoops via the production team, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus American release plan weaves legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, in parallel with tentpole growls

From last-stand terror infused with ancient scripture and stretching into legacy revivals set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified together with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios bookend the months via recognizable brands, simultaneously premium streamers pack the fall with new voices paired with mythic dread. Meanwhile, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces 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 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 overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows 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.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, universe starters, and also A Crowded Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The current genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January traffic jam, then rolls through peak season, and far into the winter holidays, weaving series momentum, fresh ideas, and savvy offsets. Studios with streamers are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the predictable tool in release strategies, a corner that can expand when it performs and still protect the exposure when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reminded leaders that efficiently budgeted scare machines can own cultural conversation, the following year sustained momentum with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind flowed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is demand for many shades, from continued chapters to director-led originals that carry overseas. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across the field, with strategic blocks, a spread of established brands and untested plays, and a recommitted focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the horror lane now works like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, provide a quick sell for creative and shorts, and outperform with viewers that show up on first-look nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the release pays off. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores confidence in that approach. The year opens with a front-loaded January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The grid also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, generate chatter, and broaden at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another follow-up. They are shaping as brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a tonal shift or a star attachment that anchors a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the top original plays are prioritizing physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That combination offers the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a throwback-friendly treatment without covering again the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected stacked with brand visuals, character-first teases, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will generate general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick reframes to whatever tops pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew odd public stunts and short-cut promos that threads affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, hands-on effects style can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror charge that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can boost PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror built on textural authenticity and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that elevates both FOMO and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data points to it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using timely promos, fright rows, and editorial rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival wins, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and framing as events launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of focused cinema runs and his comment is here quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre 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 fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind these films signal a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which favor convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. 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 quiet contrast amid headline IP. The month concludes 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 thick, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 prickly boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that mediates the fear via a kid’s unsteady subjective lens. Rating: not yet rated. Production: finished. 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 satirical comeback that skewers current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. 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 antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 press those advantages. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, 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 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.