Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A unnerving spectral nightmare movie from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an age-old nightmare when foreigners become instruments in a diabolical struggle. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of resilience and archaic horror that will reimagine scare flicks this Halloween season. Produced by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive suspense flick follows five people who snap to ensnared in a isolated hideaway under the menacing command of Kyra, a female lead occupied by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be gripped by a theatrical event that harmonizes deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the entities no longer develop from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the most hidden shade of the group. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the events becomes a soul-crushing fight between light and darkness.


In a desolate backcountry, five young people find themselves stuck under the malevolent effect and infestation of a enigmatic being. As the youths becomes incapable to fight her rule, stranded and preyed upon by entities ungraspable, they are confronted to stand before their darkest emotions while the timeline without pity ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension builds and teams splinter, coercing each participant to reflect on their self and the idea of decision-making itself. The intensity mount with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that marries otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon raw dread, an curse older than civilization itself, feeding on soul-level flaws, and dealing with a will that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was about accessing something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing horror lovers across the world can engage with this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Watch *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and announcements directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar weaves archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Across survivor-centric dread suffused with ancient scripture all the way to brand-name continuations in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the most stratified plus tactically planned year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, while platform operators stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and mythic dread. On the festival side, indie storytellers is surfing the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. 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 work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new fear lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, alongside A Crowded Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The new genre slate clusters up front with a January wave, subsequently spreads through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, novel approaches, and tactical alternatives. The major players are prioritizing right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has grown into the consistent tool in release plans, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still buffer the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that disciplined-budget pictures can command the discourse, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films signaled there is room for many shades, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across companies, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of brand names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated commitment on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now functions as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can arrive on many corridors, supply a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outpace with patrons that line up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the film fires. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates trust in that model. The calendar rolls out with a front-loaded January stretch, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also features the increasing integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just pushing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting choice that binds a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence yields 2026 a confident blend of familiarity and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a classic-referencing campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in signature symbols, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick updates to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that threads love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a final title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to take 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has proven that a visceral, practical-first approach can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that optimizes both launch urgency and sub growth in the downstream. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with global pickups and select theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival pickups, securing horror entries near their drops and turning into events releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clear: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character have a peek at these guys and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not block a day-date move from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries signal a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, 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 deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which match well with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power balance flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 family-home haunting premise that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering POV. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets modern genre fads and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family caught in past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. 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 era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will coexist across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.