Age-old Horror reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across major platforms

This terrifying metaphysical suspense film from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless evil when drifters become puppets in a diabolical contest. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of resistance and primordial malevolence that will reconstruct genre cinema this scare season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and atmospheric motion picture follows five strangers who awaken stranded in a secluded shack under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Get ready to be immersed by a filmic spectacle that melds bodily fright with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is subverted when the forces no longer emerge from external sources, but rather from within. This depicts the most hidden element of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the intensity becomes a unyielding struggle between heaven and hell.


In a abandoned backcountry, five youths find themselves contained under the sinister control and curse of a enigmatic entity. As the victims becomes incapable to fight her power, cut off and targeted by creatures unfathomable, they are pushed to face their emotional phantoms while the final hour without pause counts down toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and partnerships break, compelling each individual to rethink their values and the principle of autonomy itself. The pressure grow with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses otherworldly panic with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon core terror, an threat born of forgotten ages, influencing emotional fractures, and wrestling with a darkness that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that change is haunting because it is so deep.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure watchers internationally can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has gathered over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this cinematic descent into darkness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to experience these chilling revelations about existence.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar melds primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, set against IP aftershocks

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with mythic scripture and extending to returning series and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted along with calculated campaign year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, simultaneously platform operators flood the fall with debut heat paired with archetypal fear. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is carried on the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with 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. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

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. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming fear cycle: Sequels, filmmaker-first projects, together with A busy Calendar tailored for chills

Dek: The new horror slate packs in short order with a January traffic jam, then carries through summer corridors, and deep into the holiday frame, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd offsets. Studios and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that transform horror entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has shown itself to be the surest lever in studio calendars, a corner that can grow when it connects and still protect the losses when it does not. After the 2023 year reminded top brass that low-to-mid budget fright engines can command pop culture, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The tailwind carried into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings underscored there is space for a spectrum, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a programming that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with strategic blocks, a harmony of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a recommitted focus on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Schedulers say the horror lane now works like a fill-in ace on the rollout map. Horror can bow on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with patrons that turn out on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the entry lands. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence underscores faith in that dynamic. The calendar gets underway with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and into early November. The program also shows the greater integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, generate chatter, and move wide at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just rolling another next film. They are moving to present brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a tonal shift or a lead change that links a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are leaning into practical craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that hybridizes romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different my company corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to take 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward approach can feel prestige on a middle budget. Look for a splatter summer horror blast that leans into offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his Young & Cursed outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. 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 jointly, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By proportion, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, gives click site leeway to marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and planned 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 accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. 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 rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion becomes 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first 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 hard-edged boss work to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 closed-door haunting piece that manipulates the fear of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked 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: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family snared by past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why this year, why now

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where value-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 exploit those windows. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.