Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled chiller, debuting Oct 2025 on premium platforms

An hair-raising metaphysical fright fest from creator / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an mythic horror when passersby become pawns in a fiendish ceremony. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving tale of resistance and archaic horror that will alter terror storytelling this scare season. Visualized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick motion picture follows five teens who suddenly rise ensnared in a remote shack under the menacing sway of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a ancient ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be shaken by a immersive presentation that fuses intense horror with biblical origins, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a classic foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the beings no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This mirrors the most sinister version of the group. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the plotline becomes a ongoing clash between moral forces.


In a desolate backcountry, five figures find themselves isolated under the ghastly effect and possession of a unknown entity. As the cast becomes unable to combat her curse, severed and followed by beings beyond comprehension, they are cornered to reckon with their darkest emotions while the clock coldly winds toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust builds and partnerships implode, pushing each individual to challenge their personhood and the integrity of independent thought itself. The cost intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that merges spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dive into primitive panic, an malevolence beyond time, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and examining a darkness that peels away humanity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring streamers in all regions can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has earned over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to confront these haunting secrets about existence.


For featurettes, extra content, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit our spooky domain.





Today’s horror decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts integrates ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, set against Franchise Rumbles

From survivor-centric dread grounded in near-Eastern lore as well as installment follow-ups and pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted as well as deliberate year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio powerhouses are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, while SVOD players saturate the fall with discovery plays together with ancestral chills. On the festival side, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole 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 drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a 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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Projection: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: follow-ups, universe starters, paired with A hectic Calendar calibrated for chills

Dek The new horror year crams from day one with a January logjam, following that unfolds through the warm months, and running into the late-year period, mixing brand equity, new voices, and calculated counterplay. The major players are prioritizing mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and viral-minded pushes that frame these pictures into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the dependable tool in studio lineups, a space that can expand when it performs and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for decision-makers that cost-conscious genre plays can galvanize social chatter, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and prestige plays showed there is capacity for diverse approaches, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that export nicely. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and streaming.

Schedulers say the genre now performs as a wildcard on the release plan. The genre can arrive on nearly any frame, generate a grabby hook for previews and short-form placements, and overperform with crowds that appear on early shows and continue through the second frame if the title works. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping reflects assurance in that dynamic. The calendar gets underway with a front-loaded January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that extends to the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The grid also highlights the expanded integration of specialized labels and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, fuel WOM, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and long-running brands. Studios are not just pushing another follow-up. They are working to present story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a new tone or a casting choice that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, on-set effects and distinct locales. That combination offers 2026 a robust balance of home base and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach announces a nostalgia-forward strategy without going over the last two entries’ weblink core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise creepy live activations and bite-size content that threads devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are branded as director events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to command 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a proven supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has shifted dates 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 re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror built on rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to launch and framing as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern sound and image. 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 theatrical plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday slot to go wider. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with broader reach. 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 converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. 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 concert, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, 2026 skews toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date try from working when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror hit big in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they rotate perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to relate entries through character spine and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate signal a continued tilt toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature execution and sets, which align with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, 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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led 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 abrasive boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting scenario that leverages the horror of a child’s wobbly POV. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household caught in older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. 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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.