Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

A eerie paranormal nightmare movie from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten horror when guests become subjects in a hellish ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a intense episode of continuance and timeless dread that will reimagine genre cinema this October. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick motion picture follows five teens who regain consciousness imprisoned in a wilderness-bound cottage under the ominous dominion of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Be prepared to be seized by a visual experience that melds raw fear with ancient myths, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a time-honored tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is challenged when the demons no longer appear externally, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the grimmest side of the players. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the drama becomes a brutal battle between purity and corruption.


In a bleak backcountry, five adults find themselves contained under the ghastly rule and haunting of a mysterious female presence. As the companions becomes submissive to reject her manipulation, exiled and preyed upon by presences unimaginable, they are pushed to deal with their inner demons while the clock without pity pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and alliances collapse, compelling each survivor to examine their true nature and the nature of conscious will itself. The consequences intensify with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates otherworldly panic with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken deep fear, an spirit before modern man, influencing our weaknesses, and challenging a curse that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is clueless until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering households anywhere can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, presenting the nightmare to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For film updates, production news, and updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts weaves ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, plus IP aftershocks

Across pressure-cooker survival tales infused with legendary theology and onward to franchise returns paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the richest together with precision-timed year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with known properties, at the same time digital services prime the fall with debut heat paired with legend-coded dread. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear slate: brand plays, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A brimming Calendar Built For shocks

Dek The fresh genre slate clusters right away with a January wave, subsequently stretches through midyear, and carrying into the winter holidays, blending IP strength, creative pitches, and smart counterweight. Studios and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the surest move in programming grids, a category that can break out when it connects and still protect the drawdown when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reminded buyers that low-to-mid budget genre plays can steer the zeitgeist, the following year kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and stealth successes. The momentum pushed into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles proved there is demand for multiple flavors, from returning installments to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that shows rare alignment across studios, with mapped-out bands, a spread of known properties and novel angles, and a tightened attention on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Executives say the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can debut on many corridors, furnish a grabby hook for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outperform with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and hold through the second frame if the offering hits. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects belief in that setup. The year launches with a front-loaded January run, then turns to spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a autumn stretch that connects to the Halloween frame and afterwards. The gridline also shows the tightening integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and move wide at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are aiming to frame continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a tonal shift or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That combination provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a heritage-honoring angle without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave leaning on iconic art, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate odd public stunts and brief clips that melds devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright great post to read window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, in-camera leaning execution can feel high-value on a middle budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both core fans and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around canon, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that elevates both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video blends licensed titles with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival wins, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with award winners or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a new voice. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the deal build is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

The last three-year set illuminate the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant news to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years movies Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring seed summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

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 worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting tale that manipulates the chill of a child’s tricky perceptions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and star-fronted paranormal suspense.

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 satire sequel that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family linked to old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. 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 historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, 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 Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-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 maximize those pockets. 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 resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and camera work 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 evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.