Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One frightening supernatural suspense story from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an long-buried horror when drifters become puppets in a cursed trial. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving story of staying alive and timeless dread that will redefine the horror genre this spooky time. Guided by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic thriller follows five people who awaken imprisoned in a cut-off dwelling under the oppressive control of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a timeless sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be shaken by a immersive ride that melds primitive horror with mystical narratives, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a enduring theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the beings no longer manifest externally, but rather internally. This mirrors the malevolent layer of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the emotions becomes a unyielding struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the malicious presence and inhabitation of a shadowy apparition. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to combat her control, exiled and chased by entities beyond reason, they are compelled to encounter their inner horrors while the timeline unforgivingly ticks onward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and partnerships collapse, requiring each person to doubt their core and the notion of liberty itself. The consequences mount with every minute, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into primal fear, an entity from ancient eras, emerging via fragile psyche, and wrestling with a spirit that tests the soul when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing households in all regions can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has gathered over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to explore these fearful discoveries about our species.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule braids together myth-forward possession, underground frights, together with brand-name tremors

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in near-Eastern lore and including canon extensions as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated and deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, while streaming platforms load up the fall with new voices alongside archetypal fear. On the independent axis, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Booked into mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festivals as Springboards

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

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

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

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fright Year Ahead: brand plays, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The emerging terror season crowds immediately with a January logjam, subsequently runs through peak season, and carrying into the winter holidays, combining marquee clout, inventive spins, and strategic counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these films into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has shown itself to be the steady option in studio lineups, a vertical that can break out when it catches and still buffer the risk when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to decision-makers that mid-range genre plays can shape cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The momentum translated to the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is capacity for diverse approaches, from returning installments to original one-offs that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across companies, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of established brands and novel angles, and a revived emphasis on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the category now functions as a versatile piece on the distribution slate. Horror can open on almost any weekend, furnish a simple premise for trailers and shorts, and outpace with moviegoers that come out on Thursday previews and stay strong through the second frame if the movie delivers. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup telegraphs certainty in that engine. The slate kicks off with a thick January run, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall cadence that flows toward All Hallows period and afterwards. The map also reflects the continuing integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and widen at the sweet spot.

A companion trend is brand strategy across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just mounting another sequel. They are aiming to frame lineage with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title presentation that flags a recalibrated tone or a star attachment that ties a new entry to a classic era. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring real-world builds, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That blend affords 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-centered film. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a throwback-friendly angle without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push built on recognizable motifs, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also brings back 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever shapes the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to renew odd public stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to lead 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a gritty, practical-first approach can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror rush that emphasizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can amplify premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in immersive craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and trial spikes in the back half. Prime Video pairs third-party pickups with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about original films and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to drop and turning into events launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that turns word of mouth into this contact form paid trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, reimagined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps announce the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not foreclose a parallel release from thriving when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends 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 filmed in sequence, lets marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind these films suggest a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the power balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s material craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that toys with the fear of a child’s uncertain point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family linked to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. 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: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects 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 premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest repeatable beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will Get More Info compete across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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 heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust 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 journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, 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, soundscape, 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.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.