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

One spine-tingling mystic nightmare movie from writer / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless curse when drifters become pawns in a fiendish trial. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping depiction of endurance and archaic horror that will reimagine terror storytelling this season. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and shadowy thriller follows five teens who awaken imprisoned in a isolated shelter under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a filmic event that combines raw fear with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is twisted when the fiends no longer descend outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This embodies the deepest version of the group. The result is a relentless psychological battle where the suspense becomes a merciless struggle between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving landscape, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the evil grip and domination of a shadowy female figure. As the characters becomes defenseless to oppose her control, severed and stalked by evils unnamable, they are pushed to deal with their core terrors while the doomsday meter coldly strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and friendships crack, pushing each person to reconsider their existence and the philosophy of free will itself. The threat surge with every short lapse, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects paranormal dread with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to evoke ancestral fear, an darkness that predates humanity, manifesting in our weaknesses, and wrestling with a will that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is eerie because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing viewers no matter where they are can survive this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to a global viewership.


Don’t miss this visceral descent into darkness. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these chilling revelations about the psyche.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and promotions straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets stateside slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, plus legacy-brand quakes

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by near-Eastern lore and onward to returning series together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the richest together with precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios stabilize the year through proven series, even as SVOD players stack the fall with discovery plays as well as archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are precise, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined 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. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 chiller lineup: Sequels, fresh concepts, as well as A packed Calendar geared toward chills

Dek: The arriving genre slate clusters early with a January pile-up, and then carries through summer, and far into the festive period, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. The major players are committing to responsible budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that transform these pictures into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in studio slates, a genre that can expand when it breaks through and still cushion the floor when it stumbles. After 2023 demonstrated to executives that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can lead pop culture, the following year maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The trend carried into 2025, where resurrections and arthouse crossovers showed there is space for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that is strikingly coherent across players, with obvious clusters, a mix of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a tightened emphasis on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and platforms.

Marketers add the category now functions as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. The genre can bow on numerous frames, create a clean hook for teasers and reels, and overperform with moviegoers that show up on Thursday previews and continue through the next weekend if the picture pays off. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping indicates certainty in that approach. The calendar launches with a busy January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a October build that flows toward spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also includes the ongoing integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can platform a title, create conversation, and broaden at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is legacy care across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another return. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a tonal shift or a cast configuration that reconnects a new entry to a heyday. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That blend delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a classic-referencing strategy without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that mutates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with marketing at Universal likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele projects are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led mix can feel top-tier on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror rush that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a new foundation 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 charge to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign creative around lore, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium screens and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and period speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that boosts both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with global pickups and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and curated strips to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival buys, dating horror entries closer to launch and elevating as drops premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the September weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Be ready 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 in tandem, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind this slate foreshadow a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and click to read more authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and artisan spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month buttons 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 serious, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss fight to survive on a cut-off island as the power balance of power shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that twists the panic of a child’s mercurial impressions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set 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 surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan entangled with returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. 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 period-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.