Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This spine-tingling unearthly terror film from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an ancient fear when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a cursed ceremony. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will resculpt the fear genre this fall. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie suspense flick follows five characters who come to trapped in a secluded cottage under the dark sway of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be gripped by a audio-visual event that weaves together visceral dread with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic pillar in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the entities no longer arise from elsewhere, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the most primal layer of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the emotions becomes a relentless face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated forest, five individuals find themselves contained under the sinister influence and possession of a unknown female figure. As the ensemble becomes incapable to oppose her command, isolated and followed by creatures beyond reason, they are driven to face their deepest fears while the final hour harrowingly moves toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and partnerships implode, urging each figure to rethink their personhood and the nature of autonomy itself. The stakes mount with every breath, delivering a terror ride that combines paranormal dread with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to tap into core terror, an threat that existed before mankind, working through soul-level flaws, and exposing a darkness that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that evolution is shocking because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers anywhere can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For previews, production news, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror Turning Point: calendar year 2025 stateside slate melds ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with life-or-death fear drawn from old testament echoes and stretching into series comebacks in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured as well as blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles through proven series, as OTT services crowd the fall with emerging auteurs alongside archetypal fear. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is fueled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, thus 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. 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. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trend Lines

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 is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. 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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching terror cycle: installments, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek The upcoming terror season loads immediately with a January bottleneck, after that spreads through peak season, and far into the late-year period, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and savvy counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has become the steady lever in release plans, a segment that can expand when it lands and still insulate the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year demonstrated to greenlighters that responsibly budgeted genre plays can dominate social chatter, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for diverse approaches, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across studios, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of brand names and new concepts, and a re-energized stance on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the genre now functions as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can kick off on many corridors, furnish a grabby hook for teasers and social clips, and outperform with audiences that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the next weekend if the movie satisfies. After a production delay era, the 2026 setup indicates conviction in that logic. The year commences with a heavy January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and expand at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another entry. They are looking to package story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that flags a reframed mood or a lead change that links a latest entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are championing physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That convergence delivers this contact form the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push stacked with recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that turns into a lethal partner. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise creepy live activations and short-cut promos that melds devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, hands-on effects mix can feel big on a lean spend. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is selling as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and language, this time circling werewolf great post to read lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that maximizes both initial urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival buys, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material 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+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects check over here with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven 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 commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and talent-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is recognizable enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not stop a dual release from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without doldrums.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the upcoming entries point to a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that spotlights texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which favor convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

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 tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month finishes 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 thick, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion shifts into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 household haunting premise that twists the dread of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: TBD. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family tethered to old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can exploit 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 land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where low-to-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound field, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.