Age-old Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across global platforms

A terrifying ghostly nightmare movie from creator / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primordial entity when foreigners become proxies in a fiendish ritual. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of endurance and forgotten curse that will reconstruct the horror genre this harvest season. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and eerie thriller follows five strangers who wake up imprisoned in a cut-off shelter under the aggressive will of Kyra, a female lead dominated by a timeless biblical force. Brace yourself to be hooked by a immersive journey that combines visceral dread with arcane tradition, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reversed when the demons no longer emerge from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the malevolent version of the players. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the conflict becomes a constant contest between innocence and sin.


In a haunting wild, five young people find themselves cornered under the malevolent dominion and inhabitation of a unknown female figure. As the victims becomes unresisting to oppose her rule, severed and chased by evils unnamable, they are required to face their inner demons while the moments unforgivingly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and teams crack, compelling each protagonist to challenge their essence and the notion of liberty itself. The consequences rise with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that blends otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to channel core terror, an power from prehistory, manipulating psychological breaks, and challenging a entity that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra needed manifesting something far beyond human desperation. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so intimate.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure customers in all regions can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its initial teaser, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this haunted voyage through terror. Experience *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these dark realities about the soul.


For bonus footage, special features, and alerts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts Mixes myth-forward possession, underground frights, alongside tentpole growls

From survival horror suffused with scriptural legend as well as series comebacks paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the richest combined with deliberate year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, concurrently OTT services flood the fall with emerging auteurs alongside legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is buoyed by the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright year to come: follow-ups, standalone ideas, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at chills

Dek The current terror year stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there unfolds through peak season, and carrying into the festive period, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and well-timed release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are committing to smart costs, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these films into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it performs and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year signaled to leaders that mid-range horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The tailwind moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a market for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across players, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now acts as a flex slot on the slate. The genre can premiere on many corridors, furnish a tight logline for spots and short-form placements, and lead with fans that line up on early shows and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the picture fires. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates conviction in that engine. The slate starts with a crowded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the tightening integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and scale up at the strategic time.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and veteran brands. Big banners are not just pushing another chapter. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That combination delivers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance hints at a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign built on signature symbols, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man installs an AI companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names 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 initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are presented as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, physical-effects centered method can feel premium on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing 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 sharper mandate to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform plans for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is steady enough to spark pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps announce the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate point to a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that leans on grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which work nicely for fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send 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 serious, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss claw to survive on a lonely island as the pecking order turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 intimate haunting tale that interrogates the fear of a child’s inconsistent POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and headline-actor led 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 needles today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family bound to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured 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 landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There check over here is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, 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, Ready To Roar

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.