Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

An terrifying metaphysical suspense film from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric terror when drifters become instruments in a hellish ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of living through and prehistoric entity that will resculpt the horror genre this harvest season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick story follows five strangers who come to sealed in a cut-off shelter under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a legendary scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a narrative display that harmonizes visceral dread with mythic lore, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the spirits no longer descend from an outside force, but rather deep within. This embodies the most primal side of the group. The result is a intense moral showdown where the narrative becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five characters find themselves contained under the dark aura and control of a secretive female presence. As the group becomes unresisting to withstand her will, abandoned and tracked by entities unimaginable, they are driven to face their inner demons while the countdown coldly pushes forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension surges and teams dissolve, forcing each protagonist to examine their values and the notion of independent thought itself. The hazard surge with every breath, delivering a cinematic nightmare that blends otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to extract ancestral fear, an threat that predates humanity, channeling itself through our fears, and highlighting a entity that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that flip is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences internationally can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this visceral trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For film updates, set experiences, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the official website.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, alongside brand-name tremors

Beginning with endurance-driven terror grounded in biblical myth and stretching into franchise returns paired with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios set cornerstones using marquee IP, simultaneously streamers saturate the fall with debut heat alongside ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. set 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. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Slim budgets, major punch

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No swollen lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws 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.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The current genre calendar loads from day one with a January traffic jam, from there unfolds through peak season, and deep into the festive period, fusing legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that position genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the surest tool in release strategies, a corner that can expand when it connects and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that cost-conscious scare machines can drive pop culture, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films demonstrated there is demand for many shades, from series extensions to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with clear date clusters, a combination of legacy names and novel angles, and a revived strategy on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium home window and SVOD.

Marketers add the category now functions as a plug-and-play option on the slate. Horror can open on nearly any frame, offer a sharp concept for teasers and vertical videos, and overperform with moviegoers that line up on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the week two if the picture hits. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs confidence in that dynamic. The slate opens with a busy January window, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while making space for a September to October window that runs into the fright window and past the holiday. The gridline also shows the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can grow from platform, create conversation, and move wide at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is series management across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Major shops are not just pushing another follow-up. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new tone or a casting pivot that anchors a next film to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are leaning into in-camera technique, special makeup and vivid settings. That fusion produces 2026 a vital pairing of comfort and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount establishes early momentum with two headline bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that escalates into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a official title to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are marketed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a raw, in-camera leaning approach can feel big on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio mounts two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around lore, and monster craft, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s slate feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, timing horror entries closer to drop and turning into events debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness 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-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, updated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is steady enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not foreclose a day-date try from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror suggest a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. 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 moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if see here word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the 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 served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 intelligent companion unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting chiller that channels the fear through a minor’s unsteady point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a another family snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three grounded forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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. 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and cinematography 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.