Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

A unnerving metaphysical suspense film from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric entity when guests become vehicles in a demonic game. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense chronicle of staying alive and ancient evil that will revolutionize horror this fall. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and emotionally thick thriller follows five unknowns who awaken sealed in a unreachable dwelling under the oppressive power of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a millennia-old holy text monster. Be warned to be shaken by a narrative journey that melds intense horror with spiritual backstory, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the spirits no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This echoes the most hidden part of the group. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the narrative becomes a brutal push-pull between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting backcountry, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly grip and curse of a secretive female figure. As the youths becomes powerless to deny her command, severed and attacked by powers mind-shattering, they are pushed to stand before their deepest fears while the hours coldly edges forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion swells and connections crack, pushing each participant to question their true nature and the structure of independent thought itself. The threat escalate with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to uncover core terror, an presence rooted in antiquity, feeding on our fears, and highlighting a power that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the demon emerges, and that shift is shocking because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers everywhere can survive this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original clip, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these dark realities about human nature.


For previews, set experiences, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts fuses ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, set against Franchise Rumbles

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with primordial scripture and including installment follow-ups set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most variegated together with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, while SVOD players front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancestral chills. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Season Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming scare Year Ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, And A loaded Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The new genre calendar loads from day one with a January traffic jam, from there unfolds through peak season, and continuing into the festive period, braiding brand heft, new concepts, and data-minded offsets. Studios with streamers are doubling down on efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that position these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has shown itself to be the sturdy counterweight in studio lineups, a space that can scale when it breaks through and still limit the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 demonstrated to strategy teams that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can steer cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is space for several lanes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with defined corridors, a combination of known properties and first-time concepts, and a renewed stance on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium rental and platforms.

Schedulers say the space now acts as a plug-and-play option on the release plan. Horror can debut on almost any weekend, generate a quick sell for creative and social clips, and outpace with crowds that appear on opening previews and maintain momentum through the second frame if the title fires. After a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm signals trust in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a heavy January schedule, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall cadence that runs into All Hallows period and afterwards. The map also spotlights the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and widen at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and storied titles. The players are not just producing another installment. They are moving to present brand continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a new entry to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are embracing material texture, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two spotlight titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a classic-referencing treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interweaves intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first look. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to command 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects method can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a fresh 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 clearer mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium booking interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both initial urgency and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using prominent placements, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate 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 proposition is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent-year comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not deter a day-date try from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to relate entries through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind these films foreshadow a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 formidable, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s virtual companion escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection 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 face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that mediates the fear via a minor’s wavering perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family linked navigate here to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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 robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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 use those gaps. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 icy, 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 seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundcraft, and imagery 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, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.