Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A unnerving ghostly horror tale from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primordial nightmare when guests become conduits in a devilish trial. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of continuance and primeval wickedness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this scare season. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic film follows five figures who emerge confined in a secluded dwelling under the menacing power of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a big screen journey that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a historical motif in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is turned on its head when the monsters no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the most hidden layer of each of them. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between light and darkness.


In a isolated backcountry, five teens find themselves confined under the sinister effect and curse of a secretive person. As the protagonists becomes powerless to combat her curse, abandoned and preyed upon by forces impossible to understand, they are cornered to battle their greatest panics while the hours relentlessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread intensifies and ties implode, compelling each member to rethink their being and the nature of decision-making itself. The intensity accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that marries ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to channel core terror, an malevolence that predates humanity, filtering through psychological breaks, and questioning a being that peels away humanity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the haunting manifests, and that flip is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that users in all regions can experience this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first trailer, which has received over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these ghostly lessons about free will.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the film’s website.





Modern horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, set against tentpole growls

Across endurance-driven terror saturated with scriptural legend and including legacy revivals and acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified and calculated campaign year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, while streaming platforms load up the fall with emerging auteurs alongside primordial unease. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the WB camp drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. 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 mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

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

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fear season: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A hectic Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The emerging scare year stacks in short order with a January pile-up, from there carries through the warm months, and well into the winter holidays, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. The major players are focusing on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that pivot these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable release in programming grids, a lane that can expand when it resonates and still safeguard the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded buyers that disciplined-budget pictures can shape the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings proved there is a lane for different modes, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that travel well. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a roster that is strikingly coherent across distributors, with clear date clusters, a combination of familiar brands and new pitches, and a reinvigorated focus on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home platforms.

Planners observe the genre now acts as a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can debut on numerous frames, provide a tight logline for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with viewers that come out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the film works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration indicates faith in that approach. The year opens with a loaded January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a fall run that reaches into All Hallows period and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also shows the increasing integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is series management across linked properties and legacy franchises. The players are not just mounting another entry. They are working to present connection with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that announces a reframed mood or a talent selection that reconnects a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are celebrating hands-on technique, real effects and concrete locations. That combination yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, marketing it as both a relay and a rootsy character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a classic-referencing approach without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in signature symbols, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan slated for 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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that grows into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward execution can feel premium on a lean spend. Look for a gore-forward summer horror shock that leans hard into weblink global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is calling a fresh restart 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 players and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

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

Where the platforms fit in

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that expands both debut momentum and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video will mix library titles with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about first-party entries and festival additions, confirming horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, refined for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then working the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not stop a dual release from paying off when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The filmmaking conversations behind these films suggest a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that highlights tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month closes 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 meaningful, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

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 challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led 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 inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fear, rooted in Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that toys with the fear of a child’s shaky impressions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led haunting thriller.

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 satirical comeback that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family anchored to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other great post to read regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle 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 leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.