Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One hair-raising occult horror tale from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an age-old terror when unrelated individuals become tools in a dark ordeal. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of resilience and mythic evil that will alter genre cinema this autumn. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five individuals who find themselves caught in a isolated structure under the menacing power of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Get ready to be gripped by a cinematic display that harmonizes visceral dread with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the demons no longer form from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the deepest shade of every character. The result is a bone-chilling spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a merciless push-pull between right and wrong.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five friends find themselves cornered under the possessive effect and inhabitation of a unknown female presence. As the ensemble becomes incapable to resist her grasp, disconnected and chased by presences mind-shattering, they are required to reckon with their soulful dreads while the timeline unforgivingly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and connections fracture, requiring each protagonist to examine their true nature and the structure of self-determination itself. The hazard mount with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that harmonizes supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke core terror, an force from prehistory, feeding on fragile psyche, and questioning a presence that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that flip is eerie because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users from coast to coast can enjoy this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this life-altering descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these ghostly lessons about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, on-set glimpses, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle American release plan blends old-world possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with tentpole growls

Running from last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned together with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios hold down the year with known properties, simultaneously SVOD players flood the fall with new voices set against scriptural shivers. On another front, the artisan tier is riding the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

the Universal camp starts the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

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

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

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

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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 have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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



The approaching Horror calendar year ahead: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A brimming Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The emerging terror year crowds from day one with a January crush, from there extends through peak season, and well into the festive period, fusing name recognition, untold stories, and smart counterweight. Studios and platforms are betting on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has become the predictable swing in studio lineups, a pillar that can grow when it performs and still limit the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that efficiently budgeted entries can steer mainstream conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and stealth successes. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and festival-grade titles proved there is an opening for many shades, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that export nicely. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across the field, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of familiar brands and new pitches, and a re-energized eye on theater exclusivity that power the aftermarket on premium rental and platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now behaves like a fill-in ace on the calendar. The genre can kick off on numerous frames, yield a clean hook for trailers and social clips, and overperform with viewers that line up on advance nights and stick through the sophomore frame if the feature hits. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows comfort in that logic. The slate starts with a loaded January run, then uses spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The map also spotlights the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across unified worlds and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another follow-up. They are aiming to frame connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that flags a re-angled tone or a lead change that bridges a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, practical effects and vivid settings. That mix produces 2026 a lively combination of comfort and freshness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a roots-evoking bent without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in signature symbols, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also dusts off 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 draw the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever rules the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, heartbroken, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an AI companion that evolves into a murderous partner. The date puts have a peek here it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to recreate odd public stunts and quick hits that interlaces romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as 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 preserves a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are set up as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives Universal room to maximize 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first style can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is billing as a new foundation 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 core fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can stoke PLF interest and convention buzz.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that expands both launch urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries near launch and framing as events debuts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints 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 pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. 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 traditional cinema play for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Do not be surprised by 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 as a pair, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not stop a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through personae and themes and to leave creative my company active without lulls.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate forecast a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which play well in convention floor stunts and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 demanding boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 family-home haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a youngster’s volatile subjective lens. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 in flux, fall expected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The sleeper 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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 rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 surface detail, soundscape, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.