Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One terrifying paranormal suspense story from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried evil when unrelated individuals become subjects in a demonic maze. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of living through and old world terror that will remodel genre cinema this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and eerie feature follows five characters who awaken isolated in a wilderness-bound shelter under the ominous power of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Prepare to be hooked by a audio-visual experience that merges gut-punch terror with ancient myths, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is radically shifted when the forces no longer arise beyond the self, but rather deep within. This represents the shadowy dimension of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the events becomes a merciless clash between light and darkness.


In a barren wild, five souls find themselves trapped under the malicious influence and inhabitation of a enigmatic person. As the companions becomes incapable to evade her command, abandoned and stalked by creatures beyond comprehension, they are pushed to wrestle with their greatest panics while the moments unforgivingly edges forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and bonds crack, urging each participant to contemplate their character and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The hazard grow with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore primal fear, an power from ancient eras, emerging via human fragility, and dealing with a will that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that pivot is eerie because it is so intimate.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering horror lovers around the globe can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this haunted voyage through terror. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to explore these unholy truths about free will.


For exclusive trailers, director cuts, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate integrates old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus series shake-ups

Running from life-or-death fear infused with primordial scripture and stretching into installment follow-ups plus incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted along with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners set cornerstones with familiar IP, in parallel OTT services saturate the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. On another front, the art-house flank is carried on the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The 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 does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

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

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

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

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, Originals, alongside A Crowded Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The new horror cycle clusters in short order with a January traffic jam, thereafter flows through summer, and far into the winter holidays, combining franchise firepower, new concepts, and shrewd offsets. Studios with streamers are prioritizing responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in annual schedules, a category that can surge when it lands and still cushion the exposure when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to top brass that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead social chatter, the following year continued the surge with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings signaled there is a market for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of familiar brands and new packages, and a reinvigorated emphasis on big-screen windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, furnish a easy sell for spots and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and stick through the follow-up frame if the offering delivers. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence indicates faith in that setup. The year starts with a stacked January window, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while making space for a fall corridor that reaches into All Hallows period and into early November. The grid also illustrates the increasing integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. Studios are not just releasing another continuation. They are shaping as lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a talent selection that anchors a next entry to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the top original plays are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing provides the 2026 slate a vital pairing of comfort and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a legacy handover and a classic-mode character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a throwback-friendly framework without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected driven by franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will go after broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that blurs attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are set up as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gritty, in-camera leaning aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Look for a splatter summer horror shock that centers international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is framing as a reset 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 well-defined brief to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that fortifies both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the after-window. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using editorial spots, October hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and staging as events go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a staged of tailored theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the December frame to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using precision theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a parallel release from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that emphasizes tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which align with con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

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 gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette 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 set up the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light get redirected here and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

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 re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s synthetic partner turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 cut-off island as the pecking order shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that frames the panic through a little one’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody reboot that teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household anchored to past horrors. Rating: undetermined. 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: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. 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 antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will line up across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 cost-efficient 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 austere, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, and cinematography 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.