Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

One eerie metaphysical scare-fest from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried dread when unrelated individuals become puppets in a cursed conflict. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of resilience and mythic evil that will resculpt terror storytelling this season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and tone-heavy motion picture follows five unknowns who regain consciousness confined in a cut-off cottage under the malevolent control of Kyra, a female lead occupied by a time-worn holy text monster. Ready yourself to be immersed by a theatrical adventure that merges soul-chilling terror with spiritual backstory, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a enduring motif in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the forces no longer come beyond the self, but rather internally. This portrays the most hidden facet of the group. The result is a gripping identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving contest between purity and corruption.


In a remote natural abyss, five youths find themselves stuck under the sinister aura and spiritual invasion of a shadowy being. As the group becomes vulnerable to evade her command, detached and targeted by evils inconceivable, they are obligated to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the time coldly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and alliances fracture, forcing each character to question their essence and the principle of volition itself. The cost surge with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that blends demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore deep fear, an force beyond recorded history, manifesting in inner turmoil, and examining a spirit that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something beyond human emotion. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that transformation is shocking because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing horror lovers from coast to coast can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this cinematic trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these chilling revelations about the psyche.


For teasers, on-set glimpses, and social posts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar fuses old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, in parallel with series shake-ups

Spanning life-or-death fear rooted in legendary theology and extending to returning series alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified plus intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners bookend the months with established lines, as subscription platforms front-load the fall with debut heat paired with mythic dread. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study 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 plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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. That is a savvy move. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 fear Year Ahead: installments, new stories, plus A busy Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek The incoming scare calendar crams immediately with a January cluster, after that flows through summer corridors, and running into the holidays, combining IP strength, original angles, and data-minded alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that shape these pictures into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has proven to be the steady release in studio slates, a corner that can lift when it lands and still buffer the losses when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget genre plays can drive audience talk, the following year kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The energy rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and premium-leaning entries signaled there is appetite for different modes, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that resonate abroad. The result for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across the field, with strategic blocks, a harmony of marquee IP and novel angles, and a refocused attention on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can arrive on numerous frames, provide a tight logline for trailers and shorts, and outstrip with crowds that appear on Thursday nights and sustain through the next pass if the entry fires. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 setup underscores comfort in that engine. The year opens with a thick January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that connects to spooky season and beyond. The arrangement also spotlights the continuing integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can build gradually, build word of mouth, and roll out at the proper time.

Another broad trend is brand curation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just producing another installment. They are seeking to position brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that flags a re-angled tone or a talent selection that threads a new installment to a early run. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating in-camera technique, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That mix produces the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a fan-service aware campaign without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that unfolds into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to mirror uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele projects are presented as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven treatment can feel big on a mid-range budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can drive PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books 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 meticulous craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that expands both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using prominent placements, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Keep an eye 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 mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a day-date try from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores grain and menace rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which align with con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor More about the author where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns 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: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 demanding boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 in-home haunting narrative that manipulates the terror of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. 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 erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: to be announced. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space 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 wide PLF deployment 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 maximize those pockets. 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. Expect a healthy 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, 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 image-making 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.