Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

One haunting ghostly shockfest from author / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primordial malevolence when newcomers become puppets in a devilish trial. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will reimagine the horror genre this ghoul season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and cinematic suspense flick follows five unknowns who snap to sealed in a remote shack under the oppressive command of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a millennia-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a big screen spectacle that harmonizes visceral dread with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a well-established fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is subverted when the dark entities no longer descend externally, but rather inside them. This embodies the most terrifying version of these individuals. The result is a gripping mind game where the suspense becomes a unyielding conflict between moral forces.


In a wilderness-stricken woodland, five individuals find themselves sealed under the possessive influence and control of a obscure being. As the youths becomes unresisting to escape her power, detached and pursued by unknowns unnamable, they are confronted to reckon with their soulful dreads while the time without pity draws closer toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety surges and alliances crack, forcing each participant to doubt their existence and the integrity of independent thought itself. The threat intensify with every beat, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes demonic fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dig into raw dread, an malevolence that predates humanity, manifesting in inner turmoil, and questioning a being that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is insensitive until the possession kicks in, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers in all regions can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Stream *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these chilling revelations about human nature.


For director insights, production insights, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the official website.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 stateside slate melds archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, paired with tentpole growls

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with mythic scripture through to returning series set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most complex together with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, as premium streamers flood the fall with unboxed visions set against primordial unease. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

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

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for 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 conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

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 canny scheduling. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

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

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. 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. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fright lineup: brand plays, non-franchise titles, paired with A brimming Calendar tailored for frights

Dek: The current scare cycle lines up from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently unfolds through summer, and running into the festive period, blending brand heft, fresh ideas, and savvy alternatives. The major players are committing to right-sized spends, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has proven to be the sturdy swing in release plans, a vertical that can expand when it breaks through and still mitigate the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that mid-range genre plays can lead the discourse, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects highlighted there is appetite for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a run that seems notably aligned across the field, with purposeful groupings, a combination of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium rental and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now behaves like a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can open on a wide range of weekends, create a sharp concept for spots and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with patrons that appear on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the entry hits. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout reflects belief in that approach. The slate launches with a front-loaded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a autumn push that runs into Halloween and past Halloween. The program also includes the stronger partnership of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and grow at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is legacy care across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The players are not just pushing another entry. They are shaping as lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a refreshed voice or a lead change that connects a new entry to a classic era. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are championing material texture, makeup and prosthetics and specific settings. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a robust balance of trust and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture announces a throwback-friendly bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that escalates into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to reprise eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, practical-effects forward approach can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on historical precision and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a pacing that amplifies both launch urgency and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, spooky hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival wins, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first 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 regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Look 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 boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, 2026 is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is assuring enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps outline the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without lulls.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces 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 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage Source to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting tale that explores the chill of a child’s mercurial interpretations. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household entangled with returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 antique diction and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other Check This Out window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends imp source with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. 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. 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 rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, optimized 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 visual texture, soundcraft, 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. 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 grasp the timing 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.