Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a pulse pounding shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on top streamers

An blood-curdling spiritual fear-driven tale from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric force when strangers become pawns in a devilish maze. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of struggle and timeless dread that will redefine terror storytelling this autumn. Guided by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and cinematic thriller follows five unknowns who are stirred confined in a wooded cottage under the sinister grip of Kyra, a female presence possessed by a ancient holy text monster. Prepare to be captivated by a screen-based display that fuses bone-deep fear with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the forces no longer descend from external sources, but rather through their own souls. This represents the shadowy dimension of the protagonists. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the drama becomes a constant conflict between good and evil.


In a abandoned wilderness, five figures find themselves marooned under the ghastly dominion and overtake of a unidentified spirit. As the ensemble becomes vulnerable to break her rule, stranded and preyed upon by powers impossible to understand, they are required to face their emotional phantoms while the hours ruthlessly edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and associations fracture, pressuring each person to reflect on their essence and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The hazard rise with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines occult fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon raw dread, an threat born of forgotten ages, manipulating human fragility, and confronting a will that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that households across the world can be part of this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, making the film to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these haunting secrets about our species.


For director insights, extra content, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate integrates old-world possession, signature indie scares, set against returning-series thunder

Ranging from grit-forward survival fare grounded in legendary theology all the way to canon extensions and pointed art-house angles, 2025 looks like the most textured together with precision-timed year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios bookend the months using marquee IP, at the same time streaming platforms crowd the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is catching the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. set for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing 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

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

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

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by 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.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn 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
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. 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. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, as well as A busy Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The current genre season loads from day one with a January crush, thereafter carries through June and July, and well into the holiday frame, marrying legacy muscle, inventive spins, and savvy counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are embracing cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that transform these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has emerged as the bankable play in programming grids, a genre that can scale when it catches and still protect the downside when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reminded greenlighters that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can command the zeitgeist, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and stealth successes. The carry moved into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films underscored there is a market for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to fresh IP that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a schedule that seems notably aligned across companies, with strategic blocks, a combination of marquee IP and new pitches, and a refocused stance on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the category now operates like a versatile piece on the schedule. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, yield a simple premise for previews and TikTok spots, and outperform with crowds that come out on Thursday previews and continue through the next weekend if the movie satisfies. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout shows comfort in that approach. The slate rolls out with a loaded January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to All Hallows period and afterwards. The grid also spotlights the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just pushing another sequel. They are aiming to frame lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that signals a tonal shift or a ensemble decision that connects a new installment to a early run. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are celebrating material texture, makeup and prosthetics and distinct locales. That pairing hands 2026 a robust balance of known notes and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a legacy-leaning approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout driven by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt large awareness through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an AI companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo eerie street stunts and bite-size content that interweaves love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an fan moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are treated as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, on-set effects led style can feel big on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is positioning as a clean-slate approach 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 directive to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and textual fidelity, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that elevates both premiere heat and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival additions, securing horror entries near launch and elevating as drops go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is steady enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps outline the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which fit with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month ends 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 legit, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror 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 run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that mediates the fear via a youngster’s shifting subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. 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 bursts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige have a peek at these guys horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, audio design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.