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

A terrifying paranormal suspense film from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten terror when unrelated individuals become conduits in a cursed conflict. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of living through and forgotten curse that will remodel the horror genre this harvest season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and moody story follows five lost souls who find themselves caught in a secluded house under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Be warned to be immersed by a motion picture spectacle that weaves together bone-deep fear with mythic lore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reversed when the dark entities no longer develop from beyond, but rather from their core. This portrays the grimmest side of the cast. The result is a harrowing internal warfare where the intensity becomes a perpetual face-off between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned outland, five teens find themselves stuck under the ghastly control and domination of a elusive woman. As the cast becomes paralyzed to break her grasp, cut off and chased by beings unimaginable, they are required to reckon with their inner horrors while the doomsday meter harrowingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust surges and bonds implode, driving each member to reflect on their essence and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The cost escalate with every tick, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dig into deep fear, an evil before modern man, emerging via soul-level flaws, and testing a curse that threatens selfhood when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is in denial until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is harrowing because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing horror lovers worldwide can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, making the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic descent into hell. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to dive into these dark realities about the human condition.


For director insights, director cuts, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets stateside slate blends old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, together with franchise surges

Ranging from life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology and stretching into installment follow-ups together with focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified plus calculated campaign year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with familiar IP, in parallel digital services pack the fall with new voices set against old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is riding the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, 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 sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Firsts: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting 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 all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, 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.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
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 goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Season 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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 spook slate: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A busy Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The emerging scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, subsequently extends through midyear, and deep into the holidays, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted entries can shape the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The momentum extended into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers showed there is an opening for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that play globally. The takeaway for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with defined corridors, a pairing of established brands and original hooks, and a reinvigorated stance on big-screen windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the grid. The genre can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for marketing and shorts, and exceed norms with crowds that arrive on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the picture hits. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that logic. The year launches with a thick January band, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a fall cadence that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The gridline also underscores the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and move wide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame connection with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a lead change that connects a new entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are returning to physical effects work, practical gags and grounded locations. That pairing hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a DNA-forward character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a memory-charged strategy without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by signature symbols, character-first teases, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an algorithmic mate that becomes a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that hybridizes romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are framed as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to command 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a visceral, practical-first method can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror shot that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around lore, and monster design, elements that can boost format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and historical speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that maximizes both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs library titles with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and editorial rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival wins, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on 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 boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is known enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps help explain the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and stretch the story. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror suggest a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

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

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 click site serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 struggle to survive on a remote island as the power balance inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft 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 in-home haunting story that refracts terror through a youth’s unreliable point of view. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: major-studio and A-list fronted occult chiller.

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 send-up revival that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a young family bound to residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, 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 drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, 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, sonics, and imagery 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, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.