Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One eerie supernatural horror tale from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic terror when foreigners become pawns in a satanic maze. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of resistance and primeval wickedness that will revamp the fear genre this autumn. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and shadowy motion picture follows five people who find themselves imprisoned in a secluded wooden structure under the unfriendly power of Kyra, a possessed female haunted by a prehistoric biblical demon. Ready yourself to be captivated by a motion picture journey that weaves together gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the beings no longer originate from beyond, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the most hidden facet of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the emotions becomes a ongoing contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a remote backcountry, five youths find themselves cornered under the ominous presence and overtake of a uncanny being. As the protagonists becomes defenseless to evade her dominion, detached and tracked by presences unfathomable, they are made to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the timeline mercilessly pushes forward toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and alliances disintegrate, pressuring each cast member to reconsider their true nature and the principle of liberty itself. The risk surge with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that blends paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon instinctual horror, an malevolence beyond time, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and navigating a curse that strips down our being when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant channeling something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers worldwide can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Enter *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to explore these ghostly lessons about the soul.


For teasers, on-set glimpses, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror decisive shift: 2025 U.S. release slate blends primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, in parallel with series shake-ups

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in legendary theology and onward to series comebacks alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the most variegated along with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors bookend the months by way of signature titles, at the same time subscription platforms stack the fall with unboxed visions set against archetypal fear. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, which means 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered 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.

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.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming scare Year Ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, And A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently rolls through the summer months, and pushing into the festive period, combining brand equity, novel approaches, and tactical counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are embracing responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame genre releases into national conversation.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has become the dependable move in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can shape audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The carry flowed into 2025, where revivals and elevated films highlighted there is demand for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across distributors, with intentional bunching, a spread of brand names and new packages, and a tightened attention on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and streaming.

Executives say the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. The genre can premiere on many corridors, supply a clear pitch for trailers and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with moviegoers that lean in on advance nights and keep coming through the next pass if the film satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 setup telegraphs comfort in that model. The calendar launches with a heavy January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and expand at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a occasion, whether that is a title design that flags a refreshed voice or a casting choice that threads a next film to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, real effects and distinct locales. That mix provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to reprise uncanny live moments and micro spots that interlaces love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave that shape have a peek at these guys mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by immersive craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library engagement, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on overall cume. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries near their drops and making event-like go-lives with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc 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 sell is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Plan on 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 together, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid macro-brand pushes. The month caps 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 serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can win the holiday when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s digital partner evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie 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 encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: aura-driven 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 struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that explores the unease of a child’s fragile POV. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: proceeding. 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 historical diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 exploit those windows. 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 Source 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 cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, audio design, and framing 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, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.