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

One unnerving metaphysical fear-driven tale from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an timeless terror when foreigners become conduits in a hellish struggle. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking portrayal of survival and old world terror that will resculpt scare flicks this autumn. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and moody film follows five individuals who regain consciousness stuck in a hidden shelter under the dark control of Kyra, a possessed female overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Arm yourself to be seized by a visual presentation that blends intense horror with timeless legends, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the demons no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This depicts the most terrifying facet of the group. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between good and evil.


In a desolate landscape, five individuals find themselves imprisoned under the dark effect and infestation of a unidentified person. As the group becomes vulnerable to escape her manipulation, isolated and pursued by evils inconceivable, they are driven to encounter their inner demons while the time harrowingly counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread builds and ties fracture, forcing each protagonist to contemplate their self and the idea of personal agency itself. The tension intensify with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that intertwines paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel basic terror, an force that predates humanity, feeding on our weaknesses, and challenging a evil that forces self-examination when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing subscribers in all regions can engage with this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has racked up over 100,000 views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this heart-stopping journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to uncover these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For previews, set experiences, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 domestic schedule blends ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Running from life-or-death fear rooted in mythic scripture and including canon extensions alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified as well as strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with known properties, even as premium streamers flood the fall with emerging auteurs paired with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is propelled by the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a statement play: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming fright year to come: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A Crowded Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The incoming terror year packs up front with a January pile-up, after that rolls through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, weaving series momentum, new concepts, and strategic counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are committing to mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror marketplace has established itself as the sturdy counterweight in release strategies, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still buffer the risk when it does not. After 2023 proved to executives that modestly budgeted pictures can command the discourse, the following year held pace with director-led heat and surprise hits. The upswing flowed into 2025, where revivals and critical darlings proved there is appetite for varied styles, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of legacy names and untested plays, and a tightened strategy on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with patrons that line up on opening previews and sustain through the next weekend if the picture delivers. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates belief in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a loaded January band, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while making space for a fall run that flows toward late October and past Halloween. The grid also spotlights the deeper integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared universes and long-running brands. Major shops are not just pushing another next film. They are trying to present lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a talent selection that binds a next entry to a original cycle. At the same time, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating real-world builds, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a foundation-forward character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a roots-evoking bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by signature symbols, intro reveals, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will build large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to recreate viral uncanny stunts and brief clips that interlaces longing and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are sold as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend gives the studio room to take 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has shown that a raw, on-set effects led mix can feel elevated on a moderate cost. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror surge that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around mythos, and practical creature work, elements that can increase premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in careful craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video combines outside acquisitions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and staff picks to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled 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 indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Be ready 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 together, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from my company a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not hamper a day-date try from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror signal a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which align with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 household haunting chiller that manipulates the fear of a child’s shaky point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. 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 historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. 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, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.