Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on top digital platforms

An blood-curdling ghostly fear-driven tale from cinematographer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric curse when guests become subjects in a hellish struggle. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense journey of resilience and timeless dread that will remodel genre cinema this harvest season. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive story follows five people who regain consciousness confined in a cut-off house under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Ready yourself to be seized by a filmic display that weaves together primitive horror with spiritual backstory, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the beings no longer appear externally, but rather from within. This echoes the haunting side of the cast. The result is a intense spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a perpetual face-off between virtue and vice.


In a desolate terrain, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the possessive control and control of a mysterious female presence. As the characters becomes unable to resist her command, stranded and attacked by forces beyond reason, they are made to stand before their inner demons while the deathwatch coldly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and partnerships break, driving each member to scrutinize their character and the nature of self-determination itself. The tension grow with every instant, delivering a terror ride that merges otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into primitive panic, an force that existed before mankind, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and questioning a spirit that erodes the self when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the curse activates, and that pivot is terrifying because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers anywhere can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring journey into fear. Explore *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these nightmarish insights about free will.


For director insights, set experiences, and alerts from behind the lens, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 U.S. Slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare drawn from near-Eastern lore and including legacy revivals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most complex and strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, even as premium streamers flood the fall with unboxed visions together with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is carried on the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and 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. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner 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: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. 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. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next scare calendar year ahead: continuations, new stories, And A brimming Calendar engineered for frights

Dek The arriving scare slate crams immediately with a January crush, then rolls through summer corridors, and deep into the winter holidays, combining franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are committing to mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has become the predictable move in annual schedules, a lane that can expand when it resonates and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After 2023 reassured leaders that mid-range scare machines can shape the national conversation, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is demand for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed focus on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. Horror can debut on nearly any frame, yield a tight logline for creative and reels, and overperform with moviegoers that appear on Thursday previews and return through the next weekend if the release satisfies. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern shows certainty in that logic. The slate starts with a thick January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that connects to spooky season and into November. The layout also underscores the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and scale up at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across shared IP webs and legacy IP. Studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are working to present connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting choice that threads a new installment to a classic era. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of recognition and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will drive wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that escalates into a killer companion. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio sets two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is selling as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and curious audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around setting detail, and creature effects, elements that can boost PLF interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes 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 built on historical precision and period language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival wins, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate franchise value. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. 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 shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send imp source Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. 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: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 hard-edged boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a young child’s unreliable POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. 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 reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 press those advantages. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, 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 tactility, sound, and camera work 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 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.