Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across leading streamers

This chilling ghostly nightmare movie from writer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an long-buried curse when guests become puppets in a cursed game. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of endurance and archaic horror that will remodel the horror genre this season. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy suspense flick follows five young adults who arise locked in a secluded cabin under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a female presence occupied by a millennia-old Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a motion picture presentation that unites bone-deep fear with timeless legends, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay foundation in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer arise from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This illustrates the most sinister side of the cast. The result is a enthralling inner struggle where the events becomes a unyielding push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a bleak backcountry, five souls find themselves cornered under the dark grip and infestation of a elusive woman. As the characters becomes defenseless to reject her influence, detached and stalked by presences beyond reason, they are required to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the countdown brutally counts down toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and friendships disintegrate, compelling each protagonist to contemplate their being and the structure of volition itself. The tension escalate with every instant, delivering a frightening tale that connects ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel ancestral fear, an force older than civilization itself, manipulating inner turmoil, and confronting a curse that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing audiences no matter where they are can engage with this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has received over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to survive these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, set against legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with scriptural legend through to IP renewals plus acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated as well as precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors hold down the year through proven series, concurrently OTT services prime the fall with new voices as well as ancient terrors. In parallel, festival-forward creators is surfing the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

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

the Universal camp opens the year with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

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 a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear calendar year ahead: follow-ups, new stories, And A brimming Calendar tailored for chills

Dek: The brand-new genre slate clusters right away with a January logjam, following that carries through the summer months, and carrying into the winter holidays, mixing marquee clout, original angles, and tactical offsets. Studios and streamers are relying on efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that transform these releases into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the consistent option in programming grids, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still limit the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that lean-budget fright engines can command pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The momentum fed into 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is a lane for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of known properties and first-time concepts, and a reinvigorated strategy on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and streaming.

Insiders argue the category now works like a schedule utility on the slate. Horror can debut on many corridors, generate a quick sell for previews and vertical videos, and overperform with crowds that lean in on previews Thursday and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the release lands. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence reflects belief in that logic. The calendar rolls out with a thick January block, then uses spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across unified worlds and established properties. Studio teams are not just mounting another sequel. They are looking to package lore continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that conveys a new vibe or a casting move that links a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are celebrating tactile craft, special makeup and specific settings. That convergence provides 2026 a solid mix of assurance and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a throwback-friendly angle without recycling the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. A campaign is expected centered on heritage visuals, character previews, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots get redirected here 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 headline the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, somber, and easily pitched: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that grows into a killer companion. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short reels that interweaves love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 demonstrated that a gnarly, hands-on effects treatment can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has changed the date 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 returns in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase PLF interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that expands both week-one demand and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival buys, locking in horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count 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 per-project basis. The platform has been willing to take on select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation intensifies.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Keep an eye on 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 in parallel, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, 2026 tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a day-date move from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which work nicely for con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is busy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall 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 late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first game 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 fight to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting scenario that manipulates the fright of a child’s inconsistent senses. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural 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 pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new clan lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, aural design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand equity 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.