Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

One haunting unearthly scare-fest from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval horror when drifters become puppets in a demonic struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of living through and age-old darkness that will reconstruct the fear genre this Halloween season. Visualized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie thriller follows five strangers who regain consciousness imprisoned in a hidden cottage under the malevolent command of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Ready yourself to be drawn in by a big screen presentation that unites bodily fright with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the demons no longer manifest externally, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the most hidden aspect of the group. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a constant tug-of-war between righteousness and malevolence.


In a wilderness-stricken backcountry, five adults find themselves confined under the dark influence and spiritual invasion of a enigmatic woman. As the victims becomes unresisting to resist her command, cut off and attacked by powers unimaginable, they are obligated to deal with their soulful dreads while the moments relentlessly edges forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and friendships dissolve, compelling each person to scrutinize their true nature and the structure of autonomy itself. The consequences accelerate with every second, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to uncover pure dread, an evil from ancient eras, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and challenging a being that questions who we are when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving watchers worldwide can face this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has pulled in over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Make sure to see this mind-warping spiral into evil. Explore *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these terrifying truths about free will.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 American release plan weaves myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, and franchise surges

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted and blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses bookend the months with known properties, even as OTT services stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against primordial unease. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal leads off the quarter with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, 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. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. 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.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning 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 now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching chiller season: entries, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The fresh scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, after that spreads through June and July, and carrying into the festive period, blending legacy muscle, new voices, and strategic counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into lean spends, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that pivot these releases into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has turned into the steady lever in studio slates, a genre that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it stumbles. After the 2023 year proved to executives that disciplined-budget chillers can own the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is a lane for many shades, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a schedule that presents tight coordination across companies, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a renewed strategy on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can open on open real estate, create a grabby hook for marketing and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with fans that show up on Thursday nights and return through the next pass if the picture fires. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs conviction in that approach. The year rolls out with a busy January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a September to October window that stretches into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The map also spotlights the increasing integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and broaden at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across shared IP webs and heritage properties. The players are not just rolling another continuation. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that signals a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next entry to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the top original plays are celebrating material texture, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of brand comfort and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two high-profile moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a fan-service aware approach without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push stacked with recognizable motifs, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, loss-driven, and concept-forward: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a stacked January, with the Universal machine likely to recreate creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are set up as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, on-set effects led method can feel premium on a lean spend. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling 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 charge to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that enhances both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival buys, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with award winners or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. 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 favorite, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception encourages. Expect 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a new angle. Paramount is centering character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to bridge entries through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Craft and creative trends

The craft conversations behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s intelligent companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 work to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 domestic haunting narrative that routes the horror through a child’s shifting subjective lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast 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, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

The slot calculus is real. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to have a peek at these guys 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 gain momentum, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, 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 grain, acoustics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, distinct 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.