Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An spine-tingling metaphysical nightmare movie from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient evil when drifters become subjects in a satanic maze. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of living through and age-old darkness that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic film follows five figures who come to locked in a unreachable lodge under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a time-worn scriptural evil. Be prepared to be immersed by a narrative outing that melds deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the spirits no longer originate externally, but rather from within. This embodies the shadowy layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the conflict becomes a brutal struggle between right and wrong.


In a bleak wilderness, five youths find themselves cornered under the possessive rule and domination of a shadowy character. As the characters becomes incapacitated to fight her control, stranded and preyed upon by beings beyond reason, they are compelled to deal with their darkest emotions while the hours unforgivingly runs out toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety amplifies and bonds dissolve, pressuring each protagonist to rethink their personhood and the concept of decision-making itself. The hazard intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes demonic fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke ancestral fear, an presence that predates humanity, manifesting in mental cracks, and wrestling with a being that dismantles free will when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant evoking something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—delivering customers no matter where they are can experience this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, giving access to the movie to international horror buffs.


Experience this haunted journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For film updates, special features, and updates from inside the story, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s watershed moment: 2025 stateside slate fuses old-world possession, Indie Shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Running from survival horror grounded in primordial scripture and extending to franchise returns and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered combined with deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with established lines, as OTT services flood the fall with debut heat as well as mythic dread. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite 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.

At summer’s close, 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 with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into 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.

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 swollen lore. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays 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 Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led 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 sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new scare calendar year ahead: next chapters, original films, And A stacked Calendar Built For jolts

Dek: The upcoming terror cycle builds immediately with a January pile-up, from there extends through summer, and carrying into the festive period, blending name recognition, new concepts, and shrewd release strategy. Distributors with platforms are embracing right-sized spends, big-screen-first runs, and viral-minded pushes that pivot genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has solidified as the most reliable counterweight in distribution calendars, a segment that can expand when it resonates and still mitigate the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year signaled to studio brass that modestly budgeted genre plays can shape the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The energy flowed into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects made clear there is room for different modes, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a run that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a spread of brand names and original hooks, and a recommitted priority on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and digital services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now works like a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can open on nearly any frame, offer a simple premise for previews and social clips, and outperform with viewers that lean in on preview nights and stick through the week two if the entry connects. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm exhibits faith in that approach. The calendar launches with a weighty January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The schedule also illustrates the stronger partnership of indie distributors and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the proper time.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and classic IP. Big banners are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are shaping as lineage with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to real-world builds, real effects and vivid settings. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and invention, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount sets the tone early with two prominent titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a heritage-honoring mode without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence aimed at 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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick switches to whatever leads the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man activates an machine companion that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to echo odd public stunts and quick hits that mixes affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, practical-first method can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror jolt that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror driven by historical precision and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that amplifies both first-week urgency and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of precision releases and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, modernized for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The workable fix is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns frame the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not block a same-day experiment Get More Info from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. 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 shot consecutively, permits marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind this slate foreshadow a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely this content amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Young & Cursed 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 algorithmic partner turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the hierarchy upends and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. 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 family-home haunting narrative that pipes the unease through a child’s unsteady inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A send-up revival that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a another family snared by old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 historical diction and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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 pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, 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 materiality, sound field, and visual design 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.