Ancient Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

This unnerving ghostly horror tale from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an mythic fear when unknowns become puppets in a demonic ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of staying alive and archaic horror that will transform scare flicks this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and gothic cinema piece follows five unknowns who come to sealed in a secluded shack under the sinister will of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Get ready to be enthralled by a big screen spectacle that weaves together visceral dread with timeless legends, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the presences no longer form from elsewhere, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the most terrifying aspect of the players. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the story becomes a intense battle between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken terrain, five characters find themselves sealed under the possessive grip and curse of a enigmatic person. As the companions becomes incapable to escape her rule, abandoned and stalked by creatures beyond comprehension, they are pushed to reckon with their greatest panics while the time brutally moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and alliances splinter, pushing each member to challenge their values and the integrity of autonomy itself. The stakes surge with every heartbeat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke elemental fright, an presence before modern man, emerging via mental cracks, and challenging a presence that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

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

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that streamers across the world can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable exploration of dread. Watch *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to face these haunting secrets about free will.


For previews, director cuts, and alerts from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, and tentpole growls

Across life-or-death fear grounded in mythic scripture to IP renewals paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the most textured combined with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, concurrently streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs together with old-world menace. On the festival side, indie storytellers is riding the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are methodical, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, the WB camp unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, under Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The coming 2026 chiller year to come: entries, new stories, alongside A brimming Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek The current terror year packs at the outset with a January wave, and then extends through the warm months, and running into the late-year period, fusing brand equity, original angles, and shrewd offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on mid-range economics, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that pivot the slate’s entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the surest option in studio calendars, a segment that can scale when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After the 2023 year showed buyers that lean-budget shockers can dominate audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is space for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a utility player on the distribution slate. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, yield a quick sell for marketing and reels, and overperform with demo groups that lean in on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the release pays off. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 plan demonstrates assurance in that model. The year commences with a loaded January lineup, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The program also underscores the increasing integration of specialty arms and subscription services that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and move wide at the proper time.

A companion trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The studios are not just rolling another entry. They are working to present continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title treatment that flags a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that links a next entry to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into on-set craft, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a throwback-friendly bent without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave centered on legacy iconography, character previews, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an machine companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-October frame lets the studio 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a in-your-face, on-set effects led strategy can feel prestige on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting 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 clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around universe detail, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that boosts both initial urgency and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival buys, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of selective theatrical runs and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clean: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Look 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 jointly, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed 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 focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the team and cast is familiar enough to build pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not block a dual release from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month concludes 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 meaningful, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. 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 premium screens.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a check over here lost love, only to run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. 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 re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting story that toys with the fear of a child’s wobbly impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family linked to past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient 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 shock over-performer 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.