Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

This bone-chilling occult scare-fest from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval nightmare when newcomers become proxies in a supernatural experiment. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching story of resilience and primeval wickedness that will revamp scare flicks this ghoul season. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive film follows five strangers who find themselves confined in a isolated shack under the oppressive power of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a time-worn religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a filmic journey that fuses bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a historical theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the fiends no longer emerge externally, but rather internally. This represents the grimmest version of every character. The result is a intense spiritual tug-of-war where the narrative becomes a merciless fight between divinity and wickedness.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five friends find themselves isolated under the malicious grip and spiritual invasion of a secretive figure. As the cast becomes powerless to break her curse, cut off and tracked by forces beyond comprehension, they are confronted to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and friendships erode, requiring each survivor to question their being and the philosophy of liberty itself. The danger climb with every instant, delivering a terror ride that combines ghostly evil with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract primal fear, an spirit before modern man, emerging via mental cracks, and challenging a force that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the curse activates, and that conversion is haunting because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers everywhere can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Witness this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from life-or-death fear drawn from scriptural legend and stretching into IP renewals together with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered in tandem with blueprinted year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with franchise anchors, even as subscription platforms front-load the fall with emerging auteurs and legend-coded dread. On another front, the independent cohort is catching the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming chiller year to come: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The current horror cycle crowds early with a January crush, following that unfolds through the warm months, and carrying into the holiday frame, balancing marquee clout, new voices, and smart counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that elevate genre releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in annual schedules, a lane that can scale when it performs and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that disciplined-budget fright engines can galvanize pop culture, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The run moved into 2025, where revived properties and awards-minded projects underscored there is an opening for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across players, with intentional bunching, a blend of familiar brands and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, provide a quick sell for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with patrons that arrive on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the film hits. Post a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan indicates belief in that engine. The slate launches with a crowded January window, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that pushes into spooky season and into November. The schedule also includes the tightening integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across linked properties and storied titles. The players are not just rolling another next film. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a title design that flags a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that threads a incoming chapter to a early run. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are celebrating practical craft, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a heritage-honoring approach without going over the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push anchored in legacy iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, somber, and commercial: a grieving man activates an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that melds affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are treated as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror surge that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 core fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, updated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to expand. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if this page reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not obstruct a parallel release from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and raise the stakes. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without doldrums.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the year’s horror point to a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which favor con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. 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 rolled through premiums.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that filters its scares through a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

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 reboot that riffs on modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space 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 take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.