Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising horror feature, bowing October 2025 on top streamers

An spine-tingling supernatural suspense story from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless fear when unfamiliar people become pawns in a satanic maze. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of resistance and age-old darkness that will remodel genre cinema this autumn. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and moody story follows five characters who regain consciousness locked in a remote shack under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a ancient holy text monster. Be warned to be enthralled by a filmic ride that melds gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a long-standing theme in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the forces no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather from within. This represents the malevolent layer of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the emotions becomes a unyielding conflict between virtue and vice.


In a barren woodland, five individuals find themselves confined under the ominous control and infestation of a unidentified woman. As the protagonists becomes helpless to break her command, severed and chased by spirits unnamable, they are pushed to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the hours coldly draws closer toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion escalates and friendships collapse, demanding each protagonist to reflect on their values and the structure of liberty itself. The intensity escalate with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dig into deep fear, an evil that predates humanity, working through mental cracks, and questioning a curse that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the takeover begins, and that conversion is haunting because it is so close.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing viewers anywhere can dive into this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Join this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to survive these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For teasers, on-set glimpses, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup interlaces biblical-possession ideas, Indie Shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror suffused with ancient scripture and including brand-name continuations in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most variegated as well as blueprinted year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with franchise anchors, simultaneously SVOD players saturate the fall with unboxed visions paired with old-world menace. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for 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.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the memorable motifs return: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Signals and Trends

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

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. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. 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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next genre cycle: installments, fresh concepts, And A jammed Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The current horror year stacks from the jump with a January bottleneck, subsequently extends through the mid-year, and continuing into the festive period, braiding legacy muscle, new voices, and calculated release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are embracing tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and social-driven marketing that convert the slate’s entries into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has emerged as the steady swing in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it breaks through and still protect the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that disciplined-budget entries can own the zeitgeist, 2024 continued the surge with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The run pushed into 2025, where reawakened brands and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for several lanes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that export nicely. The aggregate for 2026 is a roster that appears tightly organized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a refocused priority on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the horror lane now operates like a flex slot on the slate. Horror can launch on almost any weekend, provide a quick sell for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with viewers that arrive on Thursday nights and continue through the second weekend if the title delivers. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm shows certainty in that dynamic. The calendar launches with a front-loaded January run, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a September to October window that connects to All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, create conversation, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a title presentation that signals a fresh attitude or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on on-set craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That combination produces the 2026 slate a vital pairing of recognition and freshness, which is how the films export.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, marketing it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach points to a classic-referencing mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that grows into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that threads devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that boosts both launch urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix films and festival pickups, securing horror entries toward the drop and framing as events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not foreclose a day-date move from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years 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 thread films through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a tease 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 calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum 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 carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that plays with the fright of a child’s fragile impressions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-first horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

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 satire rides the animated and action tide, 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 sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 left-field winner 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and Source a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.