Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

This chilling spectral fright fest from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten nightmare when newcomers become pawns in a devilish conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking saga of survival and mythic evil that will revamp the horror genre this cool-weather season. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick suspense flick follows five unknowns who suddenly rise imprisoned in a hidden dwelling under the dark command of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a screen-based ride that unites soul-chilling terror with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic motif in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the spirits no longer originate from an outside force, but rather within themselves. This suggests the malevolent layer of the players. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the suspense becomes a relentless face-off between light and darkness.


In a forsaken woodland, five figures find themselves confined under the evil effect and infestation of a elusive being. As the youths becomes defenseless to deny her grasp, left alone and preyed upon by spirits beyond comprehension, they are compelled to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the time mercilessly pushes forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections break, driving each member to question their being and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The stakes amplify with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken raw dread, an threat born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in human fragility, and highlighting a being that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences anywhere can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has pulled in over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Tune in for this cinematic journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to survive these evil-rooted truths about free will.


For featurettes, set experiences, and press updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror sea change: the 2025 season American release plan braids together archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, and returning-series thunder

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by mythic scripture to canon extensions set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the most textured plus carefully orchestrated year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones with established lines, concurrently platform operators pack the fall with fresh voices in concert with archetypal fear. On another front, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp opens the year with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, the WB camp unveils the final movement from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. 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 surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult 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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 scare year to come: follow-ups, Originals, plus A brimming Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The brand-new genre calendar loads in short order with a January wave, subsequently unfolds through the mid-year, and running into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, untold stories, and shrewd calendar placement. The major players are leaning into smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has become the steady lever in release plans, a category that can scale when it resonates and still safeguard the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that mid-range horror vehicles can steer audience talk, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The tailwind extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is room for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of brand names and original hooks, and a refocused eye on release windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, provide a tight logline for marketing and shorts, and punch above weight with crowds that respond on first-look nights and continue through the follow-up frame if the picture satisfies. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 setup reflects conviction in that logic. The calendar commences with a front-loaded January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a September to October window that reaches into Halloween and into the next week. The arrangement also reflects the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across linked properties and classic IP. The companies are not just rolling another installment. They are looking to package connection with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and grounded locations. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two spotlight titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in heritage visuals, early character teases, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that becomes a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay eerie street stunts and short reels that melds longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up 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 public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a public title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s releases are set up as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a gnarly, physical-effects centered execution can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Expect a gore-forward summer horror hit that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and historical speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that expands both FOMO and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is direct: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting have a peek at these guys edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years announce the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not preclude a day-date try from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to link the films through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the More about the author most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band 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 franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed 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 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: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss fight to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that routes the horror through a child’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: fully shot. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and 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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-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 harvest those lanes. 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and framing 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.