Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a pulse pounding thriller, landing October 2025 across leading streamers

An bone-chilling mystic nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an timeless horror when foreigners become pawns in a fiendish conflict. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing portrayal of survival and primeval wickedness that will redefine horror this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive tale follows five characters who find themselves stuck in a hidden house under the dark dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl dominated by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Arm yourself to be immersed by a cinematic venture that merges bone-deep fear with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a enduring tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is redefined when the forces no longer form from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This depicts the darkest dimension of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the conflict becomes a unforgiving struggle between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wilderness, five friends find themselves marooned under the malevolent dominion and infestation of a haunted figure. As the cast becomes helpless to deny her manipulation, disconnected and chased by beings beyond reason, they are thrust to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the clock mercilessly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and bonds collapse, compelling each survivor to doubt their character and the nature of volition itself. The stakes climb with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into ancestral fear, an entity before modern man, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and testing a power that redefines identity when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was about accessing something deeper than fear. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that change is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring customers internationally can survive this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has garnered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Join this soul-jarring spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup blends archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, plus franchise surges

Across endurance-driven terror drawn from near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted paired with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, even as streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays set against legend-coded dread. At the same time, independent banners is catching the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal lights the fuse with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. From director Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to 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 swings back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. 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. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The approaching chiller slate: continuations, Originals, alongside A packed Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The new genre cycle stacks from day one with a January wave, and then stretches through the warm months, and carrying into the holiday frame, braiding series momentum, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that pivot these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable release in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget entries can drive pop culture, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is room for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to original features that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across companies, with strategic blocks, a mix of household franchises and original hooks, and a refocused commitment on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium video on demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now performs as a versatile piece on the schedule. The genre can roll out on most weekends, offer a quick sell for trailers and social clips, and overperform with moviegoers that respond on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the entry connects. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern exhibits assurance in that dynamic. The slate kicks off with a heavy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a late-year stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The grid also underscores the greater integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and expand at the right moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across shared universes and established properties. Studios are not just making another chapter. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that signals a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will drive general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and bite-size content that hybridizes intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a final title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s releases are positioned as creative events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend lets the studio to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel big on a controlled budget. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror surge that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio mounts two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that expands both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival pickups, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a big-screen first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set contextualize the plan. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not block a day-date move from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind these films suggest a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention floor stunts and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is full. 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 headline IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to Young & Cursed be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that mediates the fear via a youth’s wavering inner lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: filming slated for 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 flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further extends again, with a young family bound to past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, 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 grain, audio design, and visuals 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.