Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

An hair-raising unearthly thriller from storyteller / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primordial force when guests become subjects in a malevolent experiment. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of staying alive and primeval wickedness that will alter fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy story follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness confined in a isolated wooden structure under the sinister will of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a legendary ancient fiend. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a audio-visual journey that weaves together bone-deep fear with folklore, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a well-established concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is inverted when the dark entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the darkest layer of the protagonists. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the suspense becomes a perpetual face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five characters find themselves cornered under the unholy effect and grasp of a secretive spirit. As the group becomes powerless to combat her control, exiled and stalked by beings beyond reason, they are driven to confront their soulful dreads while the clock harrowingly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and alliances break, pressuring each protagonist to reconsider their existence and the integrity of decision-making itself. The consequences escalate with every instant, delivering a frightening tale that combines spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to draw upon ancestral fear, an force rooted in antiquity, manifesting in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a will that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers worldwide can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this gripping descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these unholy truths about the soul.


For director insights, extra content, and announcements from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, alongside IP aftershocks

Moving from survivor-centric dread inspired by primordial scripture all the way to canon extensions alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most textured and tactically planned year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, while SVOD players pack the fall with debut heat alongside ancestral chills. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, builds out the animatronic fear crew, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. 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. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching terror release year: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, alongside A packed Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The fresh genre calendar loads from day one with a January traffic jam, following that extends through summer corridors, and well into the winter holidays, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has solidified as the dependable swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The trend rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is a market for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened stance on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and digital services.

Executives say the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the slate. Horror can bow on numerous frames, furnish a simple premise for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with demo groups that come out on preview nights and continue through the next weekend if the offering works. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm shows belief in that equation. The slate begins with a weighty January stretch, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while making space for a October build that connects to late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that conveys a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a robust balance of assurance and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing angle without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push fueled by classic imagery, character-first teases, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that hybridizes love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play 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 often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around narrative world, and creature work, elements that can amplify PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and historical speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that expands both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival wins, timing horror entries tight to release and coalescing around drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere movies that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the December frame to scale. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Look for 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 hand in hand, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind the 2026 entries point to a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which play well in con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heavier IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

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

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 demanding boss push to survive on a remote island as the power balance flips and paranoia creeps in. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting piece that plays with the unease of a child’s mercurial senses. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted 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 parody return that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: undetermined. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, 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.

A Promising 2026

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.