Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An frightening ghostly horror tale from narrative craftsman / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric evil when outsiders become victims in a hellish struggle. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of resistance and timeless dread that will alter scare flicks this season. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie cinema piece follows five young adults who emerge sealed in a unreachable wooden structure under the oppressive will of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a legendary religious nightmare. Anticipate to be immersed by a cinematic ride that combines instinctive fear with folklore, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the spirits no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the most hidden corner of every character. The result is a gripping psychological battle where the suspense becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a isolated terrain, five teens find themselves contained under the unholy effect and infestation of a uncanny character. As the companions becomes paralyzed to combat her control, marooned and hunted by presences unnamable, they are driven to stand before their deepest fears while the countdown without pity counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and links implode, requiring each character to scrutinize their essence and the idea of conscious will itself. The intensity intensify with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel primal fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, manipulating our weaknesses, and testing a entity that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that conversion is eerie because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers internationally can dive into this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has received over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this life-altering fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these dark realities about the mind.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. release slate blends old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus franchise surges

From last-stand terror suffused with mythic scripture and extending to returning series plus surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered together with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors hold down the year with familiar IP, at the same time premium streamers flood the fall with discovery plays paired with mythic dread. In parallel, the art-house flank is catching the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are methodical, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller lineup: continuations, non-franchise titles, plus A jammed Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The new horror year stacks from the jump with a January glut, and then unfolds through summer corridors, and far into the festive period, combining name recognition, untold stories, and smart offsets. Major distributors and platforms are leaning into lean spends, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that frame genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has established itself as the predictable swing in studio slates, a category that can scale when it hits and still mitigate the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year signaled to decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can own the discourse, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reboots and festival-grade titles showed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now serves as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on many corridors, deliver a quick sell for creative and short-form placements, and outstrip with crowds that appear on advance nights and hold through the next pass if the movie hits. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects faith in that setup. The slate starts with a heavy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while saving space for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The schedule also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and grow at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. Big banners are not just mounting another follow-up. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a re-angled tone or a casting choice that connects a new installment to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the marquee originals are returning to practical craft, special makeup and grounded locations. That pairing hands the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, framing it as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a roots-evoking bent without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in brand visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever drives pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that shifts into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit uncanny live moments and quick hits that threads affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are set up as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to lead 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning method can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by meticulous craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed films with world buys and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using timely promos, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival grabs, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate skews toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a day-date move from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The filmmaking conversations behind 2026 horror foreshadow a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which play well in booth activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into 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 and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. my company Positioning: mood-led 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 abrasive boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that manipulates the fear of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led spirit-world 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 genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. 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-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sonics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, Get More Info build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.