Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

This frightening occult suspense film from writer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an archaic entity when unknowns become conduits in a fiendish maze. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of living through and old world terror that will reconstruct the fear genre this season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy motion picture follows five people who snap to caught in a wilderness-bound structure under the aggressive rule of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a timeless biblical force. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture adventure that intertwines gut-punch terror with legendary tales, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring motif in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the forces no longer manifest externally, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the deepest facet of the players. The result is a intense moral showdown where the tension becomes a unforgiving face-off between heaven and hell.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five individuals find themselves isolated under the ominous rule and infestation of a secretive being. As the youths becomes paralyzed to withstand her control, cut off and attacked by spirits unimaginable, they are pushed to confront their soulful dreads while the doomsday meter without pause counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections crack, prompting each person to reflect on their existence and the idea of self-determination itself. The stakes rise with every beat, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken raw dread, an curse older than civilization itself, manipulating inner turmoil, and examining a power that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the curse activates, and that metamorphosis is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering fans internationally can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has gathered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this cinematic descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these haunting secrets about free will.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and alerts from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. lineup braids together legend-infused possession, independent shockers, alongside series shake-ups

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes to legacy revivals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex as well as calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, as digital services saturate the fall with new perspectives together with mythic dread. At the same time, the artisan tier is carried on the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and 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. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: 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. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study 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 is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 smart play. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming Horror lineup: brand plays, standalone ideas, and also A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The brand-new scare year stacks immediately with a January glut, thereafter extends through summer, and running into the festive period, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studios and streamers are embracing right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has proven to be the predictable swing in distribution calendars, a space that can lift when it performs and still mitigate the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that disciplined-budget entries can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 held pace with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The run carried into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and filmmaker-prestige bets signaled there is a lane for many shades, from legacy continuations to original features that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a run that is strikingly coherent across players, with obvious clusters, a spread of household franchises and novel angles, and a revived stance on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and home platforms.

Executives say the horror lane now performs as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, yield a clear pitch for marketing and TikTok spots, and outpace with demo groups that line up on first-look nights and keep coming through the second frame if the picture pays off. Emerging from a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates certainty in that setup. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a fall cadence that pushes into late October and into November. The map also illustrates the ongoing integration of indie distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A reinforcing pattern is IP stewardship across linked properties and long-running brands. The companies are not just producing another installment. They are shaping as lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the top original plays are doubling down on in-camera technique, on-set effects and grounded locations. That interplay hands the 2026 slate a strong blend of comfort and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate pushes that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected driven by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that shifts into a murderous partner. The date sets it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that melds attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are sold as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot gives the studio room to saturate 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has proven that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first treatment can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror blast that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has repositioned 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 re-emerges in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach 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 directive to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster design, elements that can drive premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on minute detail and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with global originals and small theatrical windows when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about in-house releases and festival wins, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Anticipate 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 jointly, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps illuminate the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which match well with convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing my review here beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. 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 bereaved man’s artificial companion mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 tough boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: this website Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that plays with the panic of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: rating pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led supernatural 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 send-up revival that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned 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 breaks out, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further widens again, with a young family bound to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why this year, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes navigate here thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where midrange-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, aural design, and visuals 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 Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the scares sell the seats.