Ancient Terror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

One blood-curdling otherworldly suspense film from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become proxies in a demonic contest. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and old world terror that will alter scare flicks this harvest season. Directed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five teens who suddenly rise ensnared in a hidden dwelling under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a young woman overtaken by a ancient religious nightmare. Prepare to be drawn in by a screen-based event that unites instinctive fear with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary theme in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the malevolences no longer descend externally, but rather inside them. This embodies the malevolent part of the cast. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the emotions becomes a ongoing push-pull between moral forces.


In a barren outland, five young people find themselves isolated under the evil influence and inhabitation of a secretive female figure. As the team becomes helpless to break her influence, severed and hunted by spirits unfathomable, they are forced to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the time ruthlessly pushes forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and relationships fracture, forcing each individual to evaluate their true nature and the principle of conscious will itself. The pressure grow with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that connects occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken primitive panic, an spirit beyond recorded history, influencing fragile psyche, and testing a darkness that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that transition is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers in all regions can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has attracted over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this mind-warping path of possession. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For film updates, special features, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, alongside tentpole growls

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from ancient scripture and stretching into brand-name continuations together with incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most stratified and intentionally scheduled year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios bookend the months via recognizable brands, in parallel subscription platforms load up the fall with fresh voices and ancestral chills. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is surfing the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

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

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming fear calendar year ahead: brand plays, original films, together with A packed Calendar geared toward nightmares

Dek: The upcoming terror season loads up front with a January crush, thereafter flows through summer, and far into the year-end corridor, marrying franchise firepower, original angles, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that position these releases into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has become the dependable release in release strategies, a space that can surge when it performs and still cushion the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year signaled to buyers that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the discourse, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and surprise hits. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and critical darlings showed there is demand for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the market, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and new pitches, and a recommitted commitment on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium on-demand and SVOD.

Insiders argue the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the calendar. Horror can launch on many corridors, offer a clear pitch for previews and shorts, and outperform with audiences that show up on early shows and hold through the sophomore frame if the title fires. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that engine. The slate commences with a front-loaded January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a late-year stretch that stretches into All Hallows period and past Halloween. The calendar also spotlights the tightening integration of indie arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and roll out at the strategic time.

An added macro current is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. The studios are not just mounting another entry. They are aiming to frame lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that suggests a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a next entry to a first wave. At the in tandem, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring tactile craft, physical gags and distinct locales. That combination hands 2026 a healthy mix of home base and novelty, which is what works overseas.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer relief option, this one will generate wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that mixes companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are branded as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates 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 repeatedly shown that a raw, in-camera leaning strategy can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around lore, and creature effects, elements that can increase format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a pacing that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the late-window. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, slotting horror entries near their drops and making event-like releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a tiered of precision releases and short jumps to platform 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 pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 lane with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is tight: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, allows marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre hint at a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and artisan spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s virtual companion escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie 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 be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that routes the horror through a minor’s unsteady perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural 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 satirical comeback that teases present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. 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: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: proceeding. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: navigate here Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.