Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One spine-tingling unearthly horror tale from writer / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic terror when unrelated individuals become tokens in a malevolent ritual. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and prehistoric entity that will reshape the fear genre this fall. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody motion picture follows five people who emerge sealed in a unreachable cabin under the dark dominion of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be captivated by a visual adventure that weaves together soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a enduring fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is subverted when the fiends no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather internally. This echoes the haunting part of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the drama becomes a relentless fight between innocence and sin.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five individuals find themselves contained under the sinister influence and inhabitation of a uncanny person. As the team becomes helpless to combat her control, cut off and attacked by spirits inconceivable, they are cornered to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline brutally counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety deepens and connections crack, driving each individual to rethink their existence and the principle of conscious will itself. The risk intensify with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that merges otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover raw dread, an presence beyond time, working through fragile psyche, and navigating a entity that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that evolution is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving customers across the world can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to scare fans abroad.


Join this visceral descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these terrifying truths about our species.


For teasers, director cuts, and insider scoops via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the official website.





American horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. Slate weaves legend-infused possession, independent shockers, plus series shake-ups

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with ancient scripture through to legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned plus strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, while SVOD players flood the fall with unboxed visions set against archetypal fear. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

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

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

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 is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Dials to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight 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 retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The forthcoming 2026 terror release year: entries, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek The brand-new scare cycle crams right away with a January logjam, following that unfolds through the mid-year, and running into the December corridor, mixing brand heft, untold stories, and savvy calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are committing to cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that turn these releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

This space has shown itself to be the surest tool in programming grids, a lane that can surge when it clicks and still insulate the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 signaled to studio brass that mid-range genre plays can steer the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films confirmed there is a lane for multiple flavors, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with planned clusters, a balance of established brands and first-time concepts, and a recommitted attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now works like a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, generate a clear pitch for trailers and platform-native cuts, and outperform with fans that arrive on opening previews and continue through the second frame if the entry works. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 rhythm shows belief in that logic. The slate begins with a weighty January schedule, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The layout also illustrates the ongoing integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can build gradually, create conversation, and move wide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across linked properties and established properties. The companies are not just making another chapter. They are working to present continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that flags a refreshed voice or a star attachment that reconnects a new installment to a vintage era. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing practical craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy delivers 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a heritage-honoring approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run built on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will go after wide appeal through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and logline-clear: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew odd public stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 at the center. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward treatment can feel big on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles window into copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that fortifies both FOMO and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix catalogue additions with global originals and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using timely promos, holiday hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is curating 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 offer is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels Get More Info their subs.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. 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 into a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set outline the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to thread films through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without dead zones.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries point to a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild 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 built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which fit with con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month wraps 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 variety of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-game 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 tough boss struggle to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that routes the horror through a youngster’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Expect a healthy 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.