Age-old Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across major streaming services

A haunting supernatural nightmare movie from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried nightmare when newcomers become tools in a demonic experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of resilience and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize terror storytelling this cool-weather season. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and shadowy motion picture follows five lost souls who arise caught in a wooded structure under the sinister control of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be ensnared by a visual adventure that merges bodily fright with mystical narratives, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the malevolences no longer come from elsewhere, but rather from within. This suggests the most hidden element of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the events becomes a merciless struggle between right and wrong.


In a unforgiving backcountry, five young people find themselves contained under the sinister influence and control of a mysterious apparition. As the companions becomes unresisting to break her manipulation, severed and chased by entities unimaginable, they are forced to endure their emotional phantoms while the seconds relentlessly pushes forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and relationships break, coercing each character to examine their character and the integrity of self-determination itself. The hazard escalate with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that weaves together paranormal dread with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore raw dread, an force born of forgotten ages, filtering through fragile psyche, and testing a entity that redefines identity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that streamers no matter where they are can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to lovers of terror across nations.


Make sure to see this haunted descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these haunting secrets about the soul.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





Current horror’s tipping point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts braids together Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with tentpole growls

Running from last-stand terror grounded in old testament echoes and onward to canon extensions together with focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most variegated together with intentionally scheduled year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios hold down the year with established lines, concurrently streamers crowd the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

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. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next scare season: installments, original films, paired with A Crowded Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The incoming genre calendar clusters up front with a January glut, after that runs through June and July, and deep into the holiday frame, blending brand equity, fresh ideas, and tactical release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are leaning into tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that position these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has proven to be the surest counterweight in release plans, a lane that can scale when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to decision-makers that lean-budget genre plays can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from series extensions to original features that translate worldwide. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across companies, with strategic blocks, a blend of familiar brands and new packages, and a tightened focus on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can open on virtually any date, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that lean in on advance nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the film satisfies. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout signals faith in that approach. The year gets underway with a front-loaded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past the holiday. The gridline also underscores the deeper integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across linked properties and long-running brands. The studios are not just releasing another sequel. They are moving to present brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a heyday. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing on-set craft, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and novelty, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two marquee bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance conveys a heritage-honoring approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are positioned as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror rush that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is his comment is here enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway 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 appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, 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 announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook 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 runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that mediates the fear via a preteen’s volatile perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, 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 texture, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.