Ancient Horror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, premiering October 2025 across global platforms

This haunting otherworldly terror film from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic terror when unrelated individuals become tokens in a devilish experiment. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing episode of living through and timeless dread that will alter fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy tale follows five unacquainted souls who emerge isolated in a wooded shack under the ominous command of Kyra, a mysterious girl overtaken by a antiquated Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be drawn in by a motion picture venture that combines deep-seated panic with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the presences no longer descend outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This symbolizes the most primal version of every character. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a relentless battle between light and darkness.


In a haunting wild, five young people find themselves confined under the dark control and haunting of a secretive woman. As the protagonists becomes incapacitated to fight her control, left alone and pursued by evils mind-shattering, they are driven to reckon with their deepest fears while the clock without pity counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and bonds crack, demanding each figure to scrutinize their values and the foundation of conscious will itself. The risk surge with every beat, delivering a nightmarish journey that intertwines occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract primal fear, an evil from ancient eras, embedding itself in our fears, and exposing a curse that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that change is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing subscribers anywhere can face this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has gathered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Do not miss this unforgettable descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For sneak peeks, set experiences, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, and Franchise Rumbles

From last-stand terror suffused with ancient scripture through to installment follow-ups together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured paired with deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, at the same time premium streamers flood the fall with discovery plays and scriptural shivers. In parallel, independent banners is catching the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, 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. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new scare slate: installments, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A busy Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The brand-new horror season crowds in short order with a January cluster, thereafter flows through summer, and far into the winter holidays, weaving brand heft, new voices, and data-minded alternatives. The major players are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the consistent tool in release plans, a pillar that can spike when it connects and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that efficiently budgeted horror vehicles can drive cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers confirmed there is a lane for varied styles, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of brand names and fresh ideas, and a recommitted priority on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and SVOD.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. Horror can open on open real estate, generate a tight logline for marketing and reels, and outperform with crowds that show up on opening previews and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature hits. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern reflects faith in that equation. The slate starts with a busy January run, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that carries into spooky season and into the next week. The map also features the expanded integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A companion trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and legacy franchises. The players are not just turning out another next film. They are working to present ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that conveys a new tone or a star attachment that ties a next entry to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a vital pairing of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will hunt wide appeal through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever dominates the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that turns into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that melds romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are positioned as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to dominate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, on-set effects led method can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is selling as a reset 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 focus to serve both franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that fortifies both week-one demand and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival additions, scheduling horror entries near their drops and coalescing around drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Look for 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a dual release from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The production chatter behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout this page that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month winds down 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 opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 grows the world 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 home-set haunting premise that refracts terror through a kid’s uncertain subjective lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and name-above-title ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-core horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. 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 period language and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 stealth-hit search 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 stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, 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 tactility, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.