Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

A chilling spiritual scare-fest from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an ancient entity when outsiders become victims in a diabolical experiment. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful account of living through and mythic evil that will reshape scare flicks this spooky time. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick story follows five unknowns who come to trapped in a unreachable cottage under the oppressive control of Kyra, a female lead haunted by a antiquated Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture experience that combines visceral dread with mythic lore, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a historical concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the fiends no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This marks the deepest shade of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the story becomes a ongoing tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak natural abyss, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the possessive effect and possession of a secretive character. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to fight her influence, cut off and followed by beings unfathomable, they are made to battle their soulful dreads while the clock brutally ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and links fracture, driving each participant to rethink their identity and the concept of personal agency itself. The threat mount with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that marries supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into raw dread, an evil from prehistory, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a power that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring fans in all regions can get immersed in this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Do not miss this life-altering fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar weaves Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Across survival horror grounded in near-Eastern lore as well as brand-name continuations together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the most stratified together with deliberate year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. the big studios hold down the year with familiar IP, simultaneously platform operators stack the fall with discovery plays and mythic dread. At the same time, the independent cohort is drafting behind the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer wanes, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived 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. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror ascends again
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming spook cycle: installments, filmmaker-first projects, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming scare year crowds from the jump with a January logjam, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, original angles, and calculated alternatives. Studios with streamers are embracing responsible budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that position genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent move in distribution calendars, a pillar that can scale when it performs and still cushion the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year signaled to greenlighters that mid-range pictures can steer the discourse, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The trend moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings underscored there is room for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that travel well. The result for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across companies, with purposeful groupings, a balance of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated commitment on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital and digital services.

Executives say the category now works like a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can arrive on most weekends, offer a quick sell for creative and social clips, and lead with patrons that show up on Thursday previews and return through the sophomore frame if the picture pays off. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that model. The year launches with a loaded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a September to October window that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a classic-referencing bent without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay strange in-person beats and brief clips that interlaces affection and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to dominate 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror hit that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand alive while useful reference the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate feed copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that elevates both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, holiday hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about internal projects and festival additions, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and turning into events arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a new voice. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the package is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a dual release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films telegraph a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which align with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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: Shot 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 push to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 home-set haunting piece that teases the dread of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and star-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an global 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: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. 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: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 dark-horse hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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 rhythm and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, audio design, and framing 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 shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the gasps sell the seats.