Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A blood-curdling mystic fright fest from dramatist / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an long-buried dread when unrelated individuals become instruments in a devilish ordeal. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a intense tale of survival and primordial malevolence that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy thriller follows five young adults who suddenly rise ensnared in a remote structure under the menacing command of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be gripped by a filmic outing that fuses instinctive fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer emerge externally, but rather within themselves. This illustrates the most primal element of the group. The result is a relentless cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a brutal tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a wilderness-stricken woodland, five friends find themselves stuck under the dark rule and haunting of a elusive being. As the ensemble becomes incapacitated to withstand her grasp, left alone and tracked by creatures indescribable, they are confronted to face their emotional phantoms while the time harrowingly winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and bonds break, coercing each protagonist to rethink their values and the nature of autonomy itself. The risk amplify with every tick, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to uncover ancestral fear, an malevolence beyond recorded history, filtering through emotional fractures, and questioning a will that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is eerie because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering viewers worldwide can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this haunted fall into madness. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For director insights, extra content, and updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 U.S. lineup blends biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside returning-series thunder

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with primordial scripture and stretching into canon extensions together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, in parallel streaming platforms load up the fall with debut heat as well as archetypal fear. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, 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 movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fear calendar year ahead: continuations, Originals, as well as A busy Calendar designed for shocks

Dek: The new scare slate clusters early with a January glut, before it flows through June and July, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing marquee clout, new concepts, and strategic calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that pivot these films into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the predictable release in release strategies, a vertical that can lift when it lands and still insulate the downside when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that efficiently budgeted entries can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The run pushed into 2025, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across companies, with mapped-out bands, a combination of household franchises and new concepts, and a reinvigorated eye on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for spots and short-form placements, and outpace with crowds that appear on advance nights and keep coming through the next weekend if the film pays off. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 setup demonstrates comfort in that setup. The slate starts with a heavy January band, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a autumn stretch that reaches into All Hallows period and into the next week. The arrangement also reflects the increasing integration of specialty distributors and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and widen at the timely point.

A companion trend is legacy care across unified worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just greenlighting another installment. They are working to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that flags a new vibe or a lead change that threads a new installment to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on on-set craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That convergence yields 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning approach without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, character previews, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick updates to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man installs an digital partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that fuses romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror surge that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, horror hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 leans in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to package each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not block a same-day experiment from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to leave creative active without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to Source the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s AI companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: gothic-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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting setup that teases the terror of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 this year, why now

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use 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 mine clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway great post to read for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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 exploit those windows. 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 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 brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.