Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One chilling paranormal suspense story from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless fear when strangers become instruments in a devilish maze. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of staying alive and forgotten curse that will reconstruct genre cinema this harvest season. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and eerie thriller follows five characters who come to stranded in a secluded shelter under the sinister will of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a biblical-era holy text monster. Get ready to be captivated by a screen-based outing that melds primitive horror with mythic lore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a time-honored pillar in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the spirits no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside them. This depicts the most hidden version of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the conflict becomes a constant conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a barren terrain, five teens find themselves marooned under the possessive control and possession of a mysterious person. As the characters becomes unable to deny her power, left alone and chased by creatures unimaginable, they are cornered to wrestle with their deepest fears while the doomsday meter ruthlessly draws closer toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and alliances fracture, prompting each figure to evaluate their personhood and the idea of personal agency itself. The threat accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that merges spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken deep fear, an malevolence beyond recorded history, influencing mental cracks, and testing a will that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something unfamiliar to reason. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers internationally can engage with this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original clip, which has received over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to a global viewership.


Tune in for this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to experience these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For director insights, behind-the-scenes content, and social posts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror major pivot: 2025 for genre fans American release plan melds Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, set against tentpole growls

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with near-Eastern lore all the way to franchise returns in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most complex paired with tactically planned year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios are anchoring the year with established lines, in parallel SVOD players saturate the fall with emerging auteurs alongside old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is carried on the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a risk-forward move: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson returns, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: 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 emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 is canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. 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 ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new Horror Year Ahead: Sequels, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The incoming scare slate clusters early with a January cluster, following that extends through midyear, and far into the late-year period, blending legacy muscle, new voices, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and viral-minded pushes that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the surest option in studio calendars, a lane that can expand when it resonates and still safeguard the losses when it underperforms. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that disciplined-budget scare machines can command audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The momentum translated to the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets signaled there is a market for many shades, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with strategic blocks, a balance of familiar brands and new packages, and a tightened emphasis on box-office windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Marketers add the category now acts as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, provide a quick sell for trailers and TikTok spots, and over-index with audiences that respond on preview nights and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout underscores belief in that equation. The calendar starts with a loaded January window, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall run that reaches into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The map also illustrates the greater integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and move wide at the strategic time.

A companion trend is brand curation across unified worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another follow-up. They are setting up brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on real-world builds, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That convergence gives 2026 a solid mix of trust and novelty, which is how the films export.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a roots-evoking approach without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters thread. A campaign is expected stacked with classic imagery, character spotlights, and a rollout cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, tragic, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an algorithmic mate that mutates into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit creepy live activations and brief clips that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to own 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, physical-effects centered treatment can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror jolt that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by minute detail and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that expands both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using timely promos, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival buys, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, 2026 bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind this slate telegraph a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked 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 connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month closes 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 thick, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that explores the fear of a child’s inconsistent perceptions. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and name-above-title supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed 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 beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening Young & Cursed weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, 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, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.