Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

An eerie occult suspense story from writer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient fear when unrelated individuals become instruments in a dark ceremony. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of overcoming and archaic horror that will resculpt fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive screenplay follows five individuals who snap to ensnared in a wooded dwelling under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a cursed figure haunted by a millennia-old biblical demon. Anticipate to be absorbed by a screen-based venture that harmonizes intense horror with ancestral stories, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the presences no longer come from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This represents the grimmest facet of all involved. The result is a intense mind game where the events becomes a relentless contest between heaven and hell.


In a barren wild, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious influence and domination of a uncanny character. As the survivors becomes helpless to deny her rule, abandoned and chased by entities inconceivable, they are compelled to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the final hour harrowingly draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and friendships disintegrate, forcing each survivor to examine their essence and the idea of autonomy itself. The pressure intensify with every breath, delivering a horror experience that connects otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to extract elemental fright, an malevolence from prehistory, operating within soul-level flaws, and navigating a spirit that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring users everywhere can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Do not miss this unforgettable path of possession. Explore *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these terrifying truths about the mind.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s sea change: the 2025 cycle American release plan weaves Mythic Possession, indie terrors, and IP aftershocks

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with ancient scripture and extending to IP renewals and keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most complex in tandem with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios hold down the year with familiar IP, in tandem premium streamers front-load the fall with emerging auteurs alongside old-world menace. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is surfing the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. targeting 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.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by 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 lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fright release year: continuations, new stories, paired with A hectic Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek: The fresh scare year builds from the jump with a January logjam, from there extends through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Studios and streamers are embracing responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that position these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has grown into the surest counterweight in studio lineups, a segment that can lift when it hits and still hedge the floor when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that mid-range fright engines can drive mainstream conversation, the following year kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and stealth successes. The carry moved into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects proved there is a market for a spectrum, from returning installments to fresh IP that perform internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across studios, with clear date clusters, a combination of known properties and new pitches, and a re-energized attention on exhibition windows that boost PVOD and platform value on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the horror lane now slots in as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can open on most weekends, create a clean hook for teasers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with crowds that show up on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the movie pays off. After a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern underscores assurance in that equation. The slate launches with a weighty January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a fall cadence that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The layout also highlights the deeper integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just releasing another return. They are setting up connection with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That convergence yields 2026 a confident blend of familiarity and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a heritage-honoring approach without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in brand visuals, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man onboards an digital partner that mutates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and brief clips that interweaves romance and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are sold as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to take 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward strategy can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Look for a splatter summer horror surge that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can boost PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with 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 textual fidelity, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival wins, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for director-led genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception allows. Keep an eye 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 parallel, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays keep the lungs full. 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 signature tonal menace. 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 brand, the assembly is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind this slate forecast a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

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 atmospheric change-up amid bigger brand plays. The month caps 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 stiff, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 More about the author connects 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s AI companion evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 severe boss push to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. 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 disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that twists the panic of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-financed and toplined ghost 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 spoof revival that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. 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 detonates, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against this page a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 period-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio 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.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.