Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

An frightening unearthly suspense story from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried nightmare when passersby become victims in a fiendish conflict. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of overcoming and timeless dread that will revamp the horror genre this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and shadowy fearfest follows five lost souls who find themselves ensnared in a wilderness-bound wooden structure under the hostile influence of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be shaken by a narrative presentation that unites bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing foundation in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the entities no longer originate outside the characters, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the most hidden facet of these individuals. The result is a harrowing mental war where the narrative becomes a brutal confrontation between moral forces.


In a isolated natural abyss, five teens find themselves caught under the malicious sway and domination of a uncanny female presence. As the youths becomes incapacitated to reject her curse, left alone and followed by unknowns inconceivable, they are forced to confront their soulful dreads while the moments coldly strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and links crack, driving each figure to contemplate their being and the nature of liberty itself. The cost amplify with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that blends occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to uncover primal fear, an force that existed before mankind, filtering through inner turmoil, and confronting a entity that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that streamers in all regions can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Mark your calendar for this haunted journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these unholy truths about existence.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and press updates from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate braids together archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, paired with series shake-ups

Ranging from last-stand terror rooted in ancient scripture through to IP renewals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted combined with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, even as subscription platforms load up the fall with new perspectives together with legend-coded dread. On the festival side, the artisan tier is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the WB camp unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming 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.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 genre Year Ahead: Sequels, Originals, plus A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh terror cycle stacks in short order with a January bottleneck, after that rolls through summer, and carrying into the winter holidays, marrying series momentum, untold stories, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that transform these releases into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has solidified as the surest counterweight in release strategies, a lane that can scale when it performs and still insulate the downside when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted fright engines can dominate the national conversation, the following year maintained heat with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The trend carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and prestige plays showed there is demand for many shades, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The result for 2026 is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of established brands and new pitches, and a tightened stance on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Executives say the space now serves as a versatile piece on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on virtually any date, supply a grabby hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the movie delivers. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 cadence reflects comfort in that engine. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a October build that carries into the Halloween frame and into November. The layout also features the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and broaden at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is series management across shared universes and storied titles. Studio teams are not just greenlighting another entry. They are shaping as continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a refreshed voice or a star attachment that threads a upcoming film to a classic era. At the same time, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are embracing tactile craft, special makeup and concrete locations. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of recognition and freshness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two prominent pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character piece. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance suggests a throwback-friendly mode without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout fueled by classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format permitting quick turns to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that escalates into a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interweaves romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are sold as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, movies where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around mythos, and monster design, elements that can boost premium format interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that enhances both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog discovery, using featured rows, October hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts 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 peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, reimagined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for 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 together, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns outline the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they change perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind these films telegraph a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked 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 connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner unfolds into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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 warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss try to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 residential haunting piece that teases the dread of a child’s fragile POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked 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 erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household lashed to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. Production: underway. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026, why now

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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 weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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, lock the reveals, and let the screams sell the seats.