Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This eerie supernatural shockfest from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten terror when passersby become proxies in a malevolent ceremony. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of perseverance and timeless dread that will revolutionize horror this fall. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody screenplay follows five unknowns who awaken ensnared in a remote cottage under the sinister command of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Prepare to be drawn in by a immersive venture that blends bodily fright with mythic lore, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is radically shifted when the dark entities no longer descend outside the characters, but rather from within. This portrays the shadowy dimension of all involved. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the events becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken terrain, five characters find themselves cornered under the ghastly force and spiritual invasion of a secretive woman. As the survivors becomes incapable to fight her grasp, severed and stalked by presences mind-shattering, they are made to encounter their worst nightmares while the hours without pause counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and bonds splinter, requiring each member to evaluate their essence and the integrity of liberty itself. The intensity escalate with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into primal fear, an presence born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and confronting a evil that strips down our being when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering audiences globally can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has gathered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these unholy truths about existence.


For previews, director cuts, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season domestic schedule interlaces biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, together with series shake-ups

Moving from last-stand terror suffused with biblical myth and onward to IP renewals in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, concurrently streaming platforms crowd the fall with new perspectives as well as primordial unease. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is riding the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

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

the Universal camp sets the tone with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the WB camp drops the final chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of 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 serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching spook lineup: Sequels, Originals, And A brimming Calendar aimed at screams

Dek: The upcoming terror season crams up front with a January logjam, following that runs through the warm months, and far into the holidays, combining IP strength, new concepts, and tactical offsets. Studios and platforms are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has proven to be the predictable lever in distribution calendars, a corner that can surge when it hits and still insulate the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer mainstream conversation, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The trend translated to 2025, where resurrections and awards-minded projects highlighted there is an opening for diverse approaches, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across studios, with planned clusters, a harmony of brand names and novel angles, and a renewed eye on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Executives say the genre now acts as a fill-in ace on the calendar. Horror can bow on many corridors, generate a clean hook for previews and reels, and outpace with fans that appear on advance nights and stay strong through the next pass if the picture fires. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals belief in that playbook. The calendar opens with a crowded January window, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while saving space for a autumn stretch that runs into the fright window and past the holiday. The program also highlights the continuing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can develop over weeks, stoke social talk, and broaden at the timely point.

Another broad trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and established properties. The studios are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a refreshed voice or a casting move that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That combination gives 2026 a confident blend of assurance and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two front-of-slate entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a heritage-honoring treatment without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push built on heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a promo sequence targeting 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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will go after wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick turns to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that turns into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to recreate strange in-person beats and bite-size content that hybridizes companionship and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a public title to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His projects are presented as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel premium on a tight budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror surge that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is billing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can fuel format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. The distributor has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that boosts both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video will mix licensed titles with global pickups and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival snaps, confirming horror entries near launch and elevating as drops releases with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of precision releases and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has shown results for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, 2026 favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE have a peek here offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the bundle is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns outline the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature craft and set design, which work nicely for convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heavier IP. The month ends 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 formidable, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion grows into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 severe boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the control balance tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

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 renewed take that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting setup that plays with the fear of a child’s mercurial read. Rating: TBA. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a unlucky family linked to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts More about the author 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 breakout hunt 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 harvest those lanes. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, protect the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.